Are You Breaking The Sales Speed Limit?
Clients want you to be their coach. They want you to help move them forward at their own pace towards their desired goals.
The best approach is one that paces at the rate the other person is ready for.
As you guide clients through each step of the sales process, you will be giving them more of what they expect—while at the same time improving their perception of your solution. This is because by pacing at a rate they are ready for the client can see the entire picture, and the important major and minor milestones and outcomes that happen happen before, during, and after the sale.
Feeding From The Fire Hose
When we move faster than our clients are ready for they cannot take in and absorb all the info we present. This leads to gaps in their understanding and by extension gaps in their decision-making process. Clients generally will not make a decision until those gaps are filled in. So ironically, when we move too fast we actually slow down the sale.
All too often the salesperson presents their solution at a speed far in excess to the client’s ability to absorb it—feeding them from the proverbial fire hose.
Feeding From The Fire Hose
This happens often because the salesperson fears they may not get another chance to present all the glorious features and benefits of their solution. So they fervently spew everything they can in whatever time is allotted.
While this rapid rate of transfer may make sense to the salesperson—who goes through this process day in and day out—it unfortunately backfires because clients frequently can’t absorb information at this same rate.
It is important that we throttle each step to a rate they can receive and digest. This increases the value of each step and of the client’s overall perception of our solution.
A valuable side-effect of pacing at the client’s rate is that our client’s responses will tell us exactly where we stand with that client. As a sales manager, this is tremendous for accurate forecasting. It also allows us to quickly identify prospects that will never close and eliminates surprises where clients suddenly go with a competitor.
Why Clients Feel Manipulated
Many customers and sales professionals despise manipulative selling. (I do) Yet in the majority of cases what makes a client feel “manipulated” can simply be traced back to an attempt to move the sales process along faster than clients are ready for.
Don’t do it.
Advancing the sale and closing isn’t something we do TO a client, rather it is something we do WITH the client. We are their coach. Collaborating with them to continually advance them at their own pace towards their desired results.
Closing Tip: The best approach is one that paces at the rate the other person is ready for.
