How to speed up sales by slowing down.
“A cat who sits on a hot stove will never sit on a hot stove again.
But he won’t sit on a cold stove, either.”
- Mark Twain
When the know-it-all pontificator looks down her nose and says “Never make the same mistakes twice!” I grunt and run.
Like any of us haven’t made the same mistake again, and again, and again before FINALLY figuring it out.
Like Mark Twain’s cat, if I sit on a hot stove, I won’t sit there again. But that’s because it suddenly became crystal clear that I did something stupid – and I know exactly what it was.
But when you’re growing your business and dealing with all that’s involved in creating a great product and then actually selling it – you’re not talking about sitting on a stove. You’re talking about walking confidently forward because the path looks clear – only to crash through a glass door you couldn’t see.
And so it’s only those of us who persevere long enough to make the same mistakes many, many, many times who wake up one day and suddenly “get it.”
That’s how I learned to speed up the sales process…
For years I thought that if I show people how smart I am they’ll want to buy from me. So I gave great advice. And people saw how smart I was. But they didn’t buy.
I made this mistake many, many times before I finally realized what I was doing: I was asking my prospects to skip a step.
There are four psychological “Levels” your prospects must pass through before deciding to buy:
1. Your prospect ‘raises his hand’ because something you said or did piqued his curiosity. You connected with him in a way that leads him to want to hear more.
2. Your prospect learns more about you, your company and products. He comes to feel that yes, you folks know your stuff.
3. Your prospect shares his personal situation. He needs to get to a place where he feels you really understand him.
4. You make a recommendation and close the deal.
These four levels are just reality. It doesn’t matter what you sell, your prospect must pass through each of these Levels - in order. If you sell coffee it may take a minute. If you sell military helicopters, it may take a year or more. But they MUST ALWAYS pass through these Levels.
I was losing deals because I couldn’t see this simple breakdown of reality. Since I couldn’t see the ‘hot stove’ I didn’t know what I was doing wrong. And when you can’t see reality, you break yourself against it again and again and again – until you do.
Today, my mistake is clear: I was recommending – a Level 4 activity – before my prospect had passed through Levels 2 and 3.
Now, the glass door you keep walking through may be different from mine. But what’s happening is that in your own way, you’re breaking yourself against reality and it’s hurting your sales.
To speed up the pace of your sales, slow down and walk your prospect through one Level at a time. Refuse to talk about your product before they’ve passed through Levels 2 and 3. And when you do this, your sales will happen faster.
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I’m going to create some more free training that will teach you how to systematically and consistently attract more first-rate customers, but I need to know what you want me to include. So please answer the 3 questions here.
Hi Dov
Thanks for the update – the manual is a reference on my desk these days… and I think I might need to read through the whole thing again soon!
Thanks
Chris
Thanks, Chris.
Dov,
I cant agree with you more. I can recognize myself within this process of underlying structure. I am very, very thankful that you shared this with us. There is just one thing – where do you put cold calling and cold acquisition of prospects? Because in some respect it actually jumps level 1, does it not? Or is it that within the opening dialogue? – that is of course if you are good enough – you create such interest with your prospects that from then on they raise their hands and will ask you for your help.
All the best,
Axel
Hello there,
For the past year or so, I have been having great success in door-to-door marketing for my window cleaning business. But, while it brings in a lot of business, it’s also very time consuming. I’ve been having some trouble thinking of new ways to market effectively, but after reading this article, I’ll be approaching the situation differently.
I can see how these four steps fit in with my current system, and what has really been making my customers want to buy my service this whole time. Now, hopefully I can come up with a way to market without spending hours upon hours ringing doorbells.
-Russell
Hi Axel,
Yes, cold calling is one tactic of dozens you can use to achieve the Level 1 objective spelled out above.
You may continue to Level 2 in the same call, depending on what you sell.
Always good to hear from you,
Dov
Hi Russell,
Nice to hear from you!
The Levels spelled out above are broken down in great detail in the sales system manual Chris referred to above (“How to Systematically and Consistently Attract First-Rate Customers“). There you get an almost fill-in-the-blanks process for building your sales system.
If you’re pretty clear on your business model, then this will really help you.
If you have bigger plans for the future, you may first want to get your business model clear. Email me if you want to chat about it for a few minutes.
Dov
Dov,
Great article! It forced me to re-look at my sales process…and I’m right in line. You know what gets most of us out of alignment is the adrenaline of making a sale. We get so excited by the prize that we lose focus on the person we’re trying to serve.
Thanks for putting our attention back where it belongs in sales…on the client.
Best,
Steve