Tweet

Slow Down to Speed Up Your Sales

Written by: Jill Konrath

Article Overview: After months of trying, you land an appointment with a major account who uses your competitor's products. Then everything starts to go wrong. They tell you everything is fine, even if they're dissatisfied with their current vendor. They rule out doing business with you if your product lacks a minor capability. Your pricing is never good enough. Or they simply thank you for the update and promise to contact you when the need arises. Sound familiar? It's the result of trying to convert long-standing vendor relationships in one sales call.

Slow Down to Speed Up Your Sales

After months of trying, you land an appointment with a major account who uses your competitor's products. Like many reps, you probably feel an overpowering urge to cram as much as possible into this one meeting. You need to tell them about your company's new directions, latest technologies, state-of-the-art products, competitive advantages, top notch service, and more - so much to cover and so little time.

The Speed Backlash
Whoa! Slow down. Prospects who receive massive information dumps unconsciously erect barriers to slow or even derail your sales efforts. How? They tell you everything is fine, even if they're dissatisfied with their current vendor. They rule out doing business with you if your product lacks a minor capability. Your pricing is never good enough. Or they simply thank you for the update and promise to contact you when the need arises.

Sound familiar? It's the result of trying to convert long-standing vendor relationships in one sales call. Prospects distrust motives when they perceive a lack of concern for their needs. And that's exactly what happens when you spend most of your time doing all the talking.

Slower Strategies for Faster Results
Top sellers realize that replacing an incumbent is a slow, deliberate process. They understand it takes time to demonstrate value and develop strong relationships. Knowing this, they put together a one-step-at-a-time account entry strategy that actually advances the sales process much faster than if they tried to do everything in a single call. The steps:

Do your homework
Learn as much as you can before your meeting. Review your prospect's annual report and website. Look for gaps between where he is and where he wants to be. Identify his primary initiatives. Figure out how your product helps him achieve his objectives or ties in with his critical business drivers. For example, if “Earning Customer Loyalty” is mentioned repeatedly, determine how you can contribute.

Think and talk results
Your product is a tool - nothing more. People buy it because of what it does for them; make sure you know what that is. Talk about the business results customers achieve when using your product. Explain how he can reduce time to market, increase operational efficiency or improve sales.

Establish a logical next step
Before your meeting, determine how you want it to end. A successful advance might be an information-gathering meeting, an analysis of current work flow or a presentation. Most sales to large accounts require multiple calls, so build this into your planning right from the beginning.

Plan your questions
Questions are key to your success. They demonstrate interest and concern. Prospects feel you are more knowledgeable when you ask good questions. Questions provide valuable insights into customer needs and the decision-making process. They are the basis for developing a strong relationship. Plan at least ten questions ahead of time.

The sales process can't be short-circuited. If you go too fast, problems are guaranteed to arise. Your opportunity will evaporate into thin air.

The Big Meeting
At last it's time for the big meeting. Get down to business fairly quickly, minimizing chit chat. Start by stating your purpose. It's enough to simply say, "I'm here today to understand your organization better and see where we can improve your business results." Next share a short story about how your company helped another client and the specific results they attained. Talk results, not products!

Explain your process in working with accounts. Tell your prospect it's essential to fully understand his objectives, needs, issues, and challenges in order to determine the value you can provide.

Transition to questions and spend the bulk of your time investigating. Ask about the current situation: "Tell me about your workflow." Find out about any problems, challenges, or difficulties he has. Explore his answers by asking about the ramifications of these problems and the value of eliminating them.

Even though he asks, don't be tempted to talk about products. If you get caught in this trap, your chances of sales success decrease significantly. Graciously explain that product discussion is premature until you understand their needs better and get back to asking questions. Before you leave, share a few key benefits and suggest the logical next step.

This is what the top sellers do. They don't rush the sale and, as a result, they get the order. And quicker. Follow their example and you'll soon be enjoying the same success!

___

Related Articles
  Keep Your Tempo
  6th of the 10 Kurlan Sales Competencies that are Key to Building a Sales Culture
  10 Kurlan Sales Competencies That are Key to Building a Sales Culture
  Is Your Timing Keeping You From Being Successful In Your Business? Part 1
  How the One to Three Speaking Ratio Can Dramatically Increase Sales

Article Tags:



Related Forum Posts
Re: In Praise of Slow by Carl Honore - Thanks for sharing GT - very interesting! According to Amazon Kindle, the two most highlighted passages from the book are: [quote:1tn0ii6a]Slow philosophy can be summed up in a single word: balance. Be fast when it makes sense to be fast, and be slow when slowness is called for. Seek to live at what musicians call the tempo giusto—the right speed.[/quote:1tn0ii6a] [quote:1tn0ii6a]Slow is the opposite: calm, careful, receptive, still, intuitive, unhurried, patient, reflective, quality-over-quantity.[/quote:1tn0ii6a]
Online Sales and Marketing vs Traditional - Hi Evan, I am noticing that many of the posts in the Sales/Marketing section deal with online marketing, SEM and and SEO and Affiliates. I was wondering if it might be a good idea to separate that section into two; 1) Online Sales and Marketing; 2) Traditional Sales and Marketing
Re: Online Sales and Marketing vs Traditional - [quote="ltrahan":31w9r2iz]Hi Evan, I am noticing that many of the posts in the Sales/Marketing section deal with online marketing, SEM and and SEO and Affiliates. I was wondering if it might be a good idea to separate that section into two; 1) Online Sales and Marketing; 2) Traditional Sales and Marketing[/quote:31w9r2iz] I second the request...
Re: SES Toronto Next Week - In that case, how about the following? Track: Get Me Up to Speed * State of Search Marketing in Canada Track: Practical & Actionable * Beyond Linkbait: Getting Authoritative Online Mentions Track: Advanced * User Search Behavior * Social Media Success * Web 2.0 & Search Engines * Giving Credit Where It’s Due: Which Campaign Sold What?
Re: Meet the NEW Twitter.com - Hey GT, I wasn't aware of this at all. Looks like a good change is coming. The new interface looks much better than the current one, and I like the new features that will be included. Speed is definitely an issue for many sites, and Twitter especially. The current site is somewhat slow at times or doesn't load for me at all which requires having to hit the "refresh" button (sometimes multiple times). Sometimes ReTweeting doesn't work, etc. There's issues that will have to be addressed, and hopefully with the new site rolling out they can find a way to speed things up and make it efficient.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Track Your Time for Increased Productivity

The Value of Small Businesses

Sales Training – Top Salespeople Are Not Dunces

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.