One of the most entrenched myths of selling is that a faster pitch leads to a faster close. What I’ve observed in a 30+ year career is that speeding through the sales process too often leaves customers in the dust.

Here’s a quick example from a few years ago. I was hired by a large financial institution to evaluate the effectiveness of its investment advisors. As it happened, I was thinking about changing investment advisors at the time, so decided to do some comparison shopping: going in as a “mystery shopper” (with my client’s approval) to meet with their top salesperson, plus interviewing two competitive advisors.

Each of the three sales consultants was extremely effective at building rapport, making me feel comfortable, and creating a perception of caring. Yet they all made the most common sales mistake: they tried to move me through their sales process—building trust, identifying needs, presenting their solutions, going for the close—instead of joining me in my buying process. They reached their close at a point when I was still trying to figure out whether I really needed to make a change. In short, they sold too fast. 

What does that mean? We’ve heard before that an understanding of buying is where selling should start.  But, how does moving too quickly impede that buying-focused, relationship-oriented selling? 

To answer that question, here’s a recap of my first face-to-face meeting with my client’s investment advisor (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 Financial 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.

Mistakes of a Fast Pitched Sales Process
This advisor made five mistakes as he sped through his sales process:

1)  He didn’t take the time to find out why I was unhappy with my current investment advisor. Had he asked, I would have told him that over the previous eight years my portfolio hadn’t really changed all that much. This was before the financial collapse, but even so, the markets had changed over those eight years and holding onto the status quo told me my current advisor was lazy and took my account for granted. This new adviser missed the opportunity to gain deeper insights into my needs.  Being armed with this valuable information would have helped him begin to cultivate a true relationship with me and to have the insight he needed to be much more persuasive later during his solution presentation.

2)  Since he didn’t ask why I was unhappy with my current advisor, 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. With a simple question like “what could possibly happen if you leave your investments with your current advisor?” he could have gotten me to think about continuing to trust my money to someone asleep at the switch, and about all the fear and uncertainty which that would have entailed. It’s not a future I would have been happy to contemplate.

3)  He didn’t ask enough questions about potential additional needs I may have had. 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. By getting customers to think about other needs, you not only create a greater sense of urgency, but add to the potential value of the solution you will eventually offer: you won’t just be solving the one problem they came in with, but all these other problems, too.

4)  He didn’t ask me how I would make the buying decision. Not getting into my head meant he didn’t learn that I was going to be interviewing two of his competitors… which meant he didn’t know he should have been planting seeds to answer the question “why should I choose you” long before I asked it of him.
 
5)  Failing to ask about my decision making process also meant he lost the opportunity to learn that my wife would be a co-partner in the decision. Had he known, he could have sped up my buying decision by slowing down his sales pitch to request a meeting with both my wife and me. 

Too often, we salespeople are focused on the steps of our sales process. We often strive to get to the next step faster. Not good. What really matters is not what sales step the salesperson is in, but what step the customer is in the buying process. What specific actions is the decision maker taking? The answer tells you what step of the buying process they (and your salesperson) are in.

Sure, a lot of people think I’m crazy when I say they can sell faster by slowing down their sales process. But once they stop to think about sales opportunities they lost in the past, or current opportunities they are trying to close, most realize that they have been moving too fast. They need to take the time to ask more questions, probe for more needs, get the customer to think more deeply about the benefits of making a change and the costs of inaction. A slower sales process pays off in a faster buying process because the customer sees more clearly the urgency for action, and gives you the chance to more fully demonstrate why your solution is the best match to their needs.

And ultimately, it gives you the powerful information you need to adopt the type of relationship-oriented selling approach that drives success.  We all know that knowledge is power.  You will have more power to successfully navigate and guide the sales process if you slow down and thoroughly understand your customer’s buying process. Now more than ever, sales leaders will be those who differentiate themselves not by what they sell, but by how they sell… and how they treat customers after the sale.

If developing a relationship with a prospect is important to your sales success, then it stands to reason that the salesperson who spends the most quality time with the prospect is likely going to get the deal. Slow down each sales conversation, and you will sell more, faster.