No one likes to wait!
We don't like to wait in lines, on hold, or for Christmas morning. We want things now! As a society, we've become accustomed to instant downloads, on-demand programs, and same-day Amazon Prime deliveries.
Which is why sales organizations want to accelerate the sales process. For years, B2B sales were often seen as a long, complicated process where the salesperson could do very little to speed up the sale, but today you can speed up the process by simply slowing down!
Yes! I said that you will accelerate sales by slowing down. Once you've nailed down your first appointment, this is where, by slowing down, you'll actually make the sale go quicker.
Way too often, I've seen salespeople get so excited about finally getting the first appointment with a target account, and they want to rush the meeting so they can get to the "presentation." But, that is absolutely the worst way to close a new account. Rather, the needs analysis step is the perfect place to slow down, dig deep, and discover the desired business results of your target. By discovering a real need that the prospect wants to solve, you have the opportunity to present a solution that they not only want to purchase, but do it quickly!
Here are three ways to slow down the sales process, discover a need, and then ultimately accelerate the sale:
Start Broad and Narrow It Down
Begin your needs analysis with broad, general questions about the prospect's business. Focus on goals and objectives, then transition to questions involving problems, challenges, and opportunities. You want to discover the target's desired business results.
Prioritize
After you have spent time discovering the various needs of your prospect, you will need to summarize all of the mentioned desired business results, to ensure that you are on the same page. Then, have them prioritize the order so that you have their top desired result.
Get an Assignment
That's right. If you walk out without a specific, measurable assignment for the target's desired business result, you have FAILED. Sorry. It's that important. For you to deliver a solution to their most important need, you must get an assignment. The assignment is the key to providing a solution that the target wants to accomplish and are willing to do it quickly.
By taking your time in the discover phase of the sales process, you will actually accelerate the sales cycle and increase your odds of closing the deal.
