Slow Down, Sell Faster!

Kevin Davis

• Publisher: AMACOM
• Year: 2011
• ISBN:
  9780814416860
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Customer Relations
• Index: Business

Faster sales pitches won't lead to faster sales. The key to speeding up the sales process is to actually slow down and get in sync with your customer's buying process.

The biggest mistake salespeople make in their careers is equating a faster pitch with a faster close. Sales guru Kevin Davis shows you how to slow down and focus on the customer buying process, so they can identify and quantify customers' real needs--and adapt their sales pitches accordingly.

In Slow Down, Sell Faster!, you'll learn how to:

• Match your sales behaviors to your customers' needs throughout the buying process
• Get more appointments by using a problem-focused approach
• Combat your most lethal competitor: customer complacency
• Use probing questions to diagnose small problems that point to bigger needs
• Master the complicated politics of complex sales
• Overcome common selling dilemmas

Davis introduces a simple yet powerful method for buyer-focused selling that is practical, repeatable, and easily customizable. This buyer-focused approach extends to proposals and presentations, loyalty, retention, and, of course, cultivating more business.

Packed with examples from the author's extensive experience and detailed research on customer buying patterns, Slow Down, Sell Faster! offers an alternative to traditional selling that leads to increased sales--and happier customers.

PART I
Understanding Buying Is Where Selling Should Start

CHAPTER 1

Why Slower Is Faster
How Selling Too Fast Results in Lost
Sales and a Longer Buying Process

Recently I was retained by a regional VP of sales for a large financial institution to evaluate the effectiveness of his team’s sale of investment advisory services provided to high-net-worth customers. He asked me to be a “mystery shopper,” and at his request I met with one of his salespeople while posing as a high-net-worth customer considering the possibility of changing from my current financial advisor to another investment management firm.

Coincidentally, at the time I actually had a few concerns about my own personal financial advisor, and because I realized that I might change firms as a result of my analysis, I told my client that in order to perform a realistic decision process, I would also meet with two of his company’s competitors. (It’s also why I asked to meet his best and most experienced advisor, figuring that’s who I’d want working for me should I decide to actually pick this firm.)

Over the next six weeks I met as planned with the representatives of three different investment advisory firms, including one from my client’s firm. Each of the sales consultants was extremely effective at building rapport, making me feel comfortable, and creating a perception of caring.

Yet they all made the single most common mistake that salespeople in all industries make: they moved through the steps of their sales process—building trust, identifying needs, presenting their solutions, going for the close—without thinking about where I was in my decision-making process. They sold too fast. They put me on their sales track, instead of joining me in my buying process.

That’s why this book has the paradoxical title of Slow Down, Sell Faster! When you sell slower on each sales call—ask more questions and do many of the activities suggested in this book—your customers will buy faster. They will more fully recognize their needs and the urgency of those needs. The best solution (hopefully yours) will be more clearly defined and differentiated in ways the customer recognizes as important. It is this connection with the customer’s buying process that will differentiate you.

In this chapter, I want to talk in more detail about what I mean by saying these financial advisors sold too fast, discuss how customers buy, and present a new model of selling that matches the customer buying process.

How Selling Too Fast Causes Lost Sales

My first face-to-face meeting with my client’s investment advisor went as follows (the labels are mine, the actions were the advisor’s):

Build trust: The advisor began by learning a bit about me, before sharing about himself, his money management background, education, etc. It was an effective opening.

Identify needs: The advisor then asked me some questions. He learned about my financial goals, and that I was dissatisfied with the returns and performance achieved by my current financial advisor.

Present solution overview: He explained that his firm’s approach is not to be market timers or “fad chasers,” and he told me about his firm’s investment model that minimizes risk while maximizing returns. I also learned that his approach to determining his clients’ needs was to create a Personal Wealth Plan based on my answers to questions such as: Where is my money now? Where would my financial assets be in retirement?

Close for next step: The advisor then recommended we meet again in a few days, and asked that I bring account statements of my current investments.

Here are the five mistakes he made—all of which revolve around selling too fast:

1. He didn’t delve into why I thought my returns with my current advisor were poor. If he had, I would have explained that over the previous eight years my portfolio hadn’t really changed all that much—that there had been little movement of assets from one investment type to another. My opinion was that my current advisor was lazy and took my account for granted. Had my client’s advisor asked the right questions, he would have gained deeper insight into my needs, and he would have been much more persuasive later during his solution presentation.

2. Since he didn’t know about my current advisor’s laziness and slow response, he forfeited one of the most powerful tools a salesperson has: getting prospects to think about the possible negative consequences of not making a change. In this case, had he asked about what would happen if I did nothing, I would have thought about the effect of trusting my money to someone asleep at the switch, and about all the fear and uncertainty that that would have entailed. That would have helped me put a face on my future.

3. He didn’t try to find out about my second need. Usually, the first topic discussed with a prospective client is his or her greatest concern at that time; it’s the need that’s most developed from the customer’s perspective, and the reason the customer agreed to meet with you. Getting prospects to realize they have more than one need for change creates a greater sense of urgency, which adds greater potential value to the solution you will eventually offer (see sidebar).

4. He didn’t ask me about my buying process—how I would make my decision regarding who would get my business. So he didn’t learn that I was going to be interviewing two of his competitors. He lost out on an opportunity to start answering my question “why should I choose you” before I asked it of him.

5. He didn’t ask me who else would be involved in my decision. While I could have been acting alone, had the advisor asked he would have learned that my wife is a valued partner in our financial decisions. He could have then sped up our buying decision by slowing down his sales pitch and requesting a follow-up meeting with both me and my wife. (In fact, most sales situations today involve more than one decision maker. Gaining access to the second or third or fourth decision maker is therefore key, and is something I’ll cover in Chapters 3 and 5).

Tip: Probing for the Second Need

During a first meeting with a customer, it’s unlikely they will tell you everything going on in their decision process. For all you know, the first need they mention may be something identified by one of your competitors in a meeting the day before! By failing to probe for the second need, you may be allowing your competitor to define your customer’s mental picture of a solution. Not good.

Even if your customer hasn’t talked with your competitors, probing for a second need is a good way to get him or her to increase their desire for change. In my meeting with the financial advisor, he should have asked, “Other than lackluster investment returns, is there anything else about your current advisor that concerns you?” In doing so, he would have learned that I felt my monthly statements were too complex. My entire portfolio was not available for me to see on a single web page. So I was in the dark about important concerns such as the overall asset allocation of my investments. Had his company been able to provide that service, I would have seen more advantages to making a change.

When I met with the advisor the following day, he continued to make even more mistakes, maintaining his focus on his selling process rather than on my buying process. (In case you’re curious, I did eventually hire one of the three advisors I interviewed, and am very happy with my choice.)

In a way, I wasn’t surprised by this advisor’s behavior. His company had put their salespeople through a lot of traditional sales training. Also, I’ve observed that more-experienced salespeople are the most likely to sell too fast. Why? One reason is that the “expert” salesperson has seen the customer’s problem before, and assumes that the customer now sees it, too. As a result, he or she jumps immediately into describing their product’s or service’s benefits before the customer has fully recognized the scope of the problem. (New salespeople lack application expertise, so they’re more likely to ask additional questions that get the customer talking about needs and applications.)

No matter whether you’re just selling as you’ve been taught to sell, or showing off your knowledge of the subject to your prospect, jumping ahead of the customer means you are pitching too much information too soon. This only serves to dampen the customer’s curiosity. (Have you ever noticed that customers are easy to reach when they need your information, but almost impossible to reach when they don’t?) You play the customer. Suppose I present you with ten capabilities of my product or service, but you think you only need five of them. How will it make you feel? The natural reaction is either that “this is more than I need/it’s too expensive,” or “maybe somebody else has a better solution for my company’s needs.”

Every salesperson wants to sell more. We all want to make more money and gain recognition for peak performance. As my experience with the financial advisor illustrates, the way to do this is to slow down. We need to take the time to get into our customer’s head, because that’s how we can learn more about their needs, and how their focus and concerns change as they move through their buying process. With a better understanding of a customer’s needs and concerns, we provide more value throughout their buying process. We can help them become clearer about the opportunity and risks they face; help them better define criteria for an ideal solution. When these issues are clearly spelled out, customers become more comfortable with their decision. They can reach their purchasing decision more quickly. And that’s how you sell faster.

Shifting from Selling- to Buying-Focused

Over the past twenty years as a sales consultant, I’ve delivered hundreds of sales seminars. I start by asking salespeople two questions. The first question is, “What are the steps of your selling process?” Here, I get clear, concise answers. Most salespeople can describe how they sell. One answer I hear often is “Open, Needs, Support, and Close.” Another is “Prepare, Qualify, Present, Objections, and Cl...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication1
• Contents
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• PART I: Understanding Buying Is Where Selling Should Start
• PART II: THE EIGHT ROLES OF BUYING-FOCUSED SELLING
• PART III: COACHING THE EIGHT SALES ROLES
• Endnotes
• Index
• About the Author