Pump the brakes salespeople – your haste is killing your career.
I am stunned that the business world still has a very high percentage of salespeople (and sales leaders) who apparently believe that faster is better. More sales, quicker, at the highest price possible…go, go go!
If you still believe that this is how to grow your business (hurry, quicker, faster) then you have overlooked the seismic changes that occurred when cloud computing came along around 15 years ago. The cloud ushered in a range of totally new business models – Subscription, Consumption, Product-Led, Free-to-Paid - and these new business models have totally changed the dynamic between buyers and sellers.
NEW MODELS require a new approach.
Let’s be clear: the Tyranny of Short Termism is now destroying your sales results. End-of-Month/Qtr madness, combined with this insidious belief that if we can just get this one closed faster, we can move onto the next one is will no longer fly with modern buyers.
The opportunity (sale) that you are fortunate to be working on is just the very beginning of a long-term relationship between buyer and seller (you) and the notion that you can rush the consummation of said relationship and then jump into bed with someone else rarely goes over well with the other party.
You appear GREEDY and DESPERATE:
Rushing any relationship makes you look desperate and (of course) turns the other party off. We all know that a successful relationship needs space and time to develop with the central element being 'trustworthiness'. ?
Speaking of TRUST, buyers have always sought out ‘trusted advisors’ and when you rush that process it only serves to demonstrate your self-orientation. Let me put that another way: your haste tells the buyer that you are focussed on YOUR outcome (the sale) instead of the best outcome for the buyer (optimised value creation).
SELF-ORIENTATION
Self-orientation refers to our focus and how much we align to the interests of others. Highly self-oriented salespeople are hard to trust as they are more interested in themselves than those they are working with.
'How' you sell speaks volumes about your intent, and buyers can see anything that looks like self-serving intent:
These are the two things that I was repeatedly instructed to do throughout my 25 years in sales roles, and it was obvious to me (even as a rookie) that the more I tried to hurry my buyer, the more desperate I would appear.
Speaking of which, a buyer once asked me a very pointed question which stopped me in my tracks: “Hey Graham, you seem super eager to close this sale?….things not going so well at your company? Should I be concerned?”
From that point forward I swore that I would never rush-to-close again. In fact, my team and I now do the exact opposite. We take our time to carefully evaluate mutual-fit.
I’m deliberately slow in order to be thorough, knowing that my competition will be rushing, making mistakes and appearing desperate in the process. Accuracy and completeness are important with todays' highly risk averse buyers who are (first & foremost) looking for a safe-pair-of-hands…..not a one night stand.
领英推荐
Check out the great work by Meister and Green on the Trust?Equation:
DELIBERATE DECELERATION
The old mantra of 'time kills all deals' is now being replaced by "SPEED KILLS TRUST".
We have to slow down. Get clear about the highest order priority....to create mutually valuable long term customer relationships, and whilst that's easier said than done, we have to deliberately slow down. Remember that churn happens at the Point of Sale. Meaning the more you try to rush and shoehorn poor-fit customers into a sale, the more it comes back to bite you. We all have to slow down to go faster.
So STOP RUSHING….you just look desperate and self absorbed.
As the great Mahan Khalsa said so beautifully: “the more important it is to meet your numbers, the more important it is to stop concentrating on your numbers and start concentrating on the clients’ numbers”.
I rest my case!?
Written by
By Graham Hawkins
(Author, Speaker, and CEO of SalesTribe)
SalesTribe
SalesTribe is a global provider or "Outsourced" sales & marketing solutions. We help you transform your sales execution to accelerate growth, reduce 'time-to-revenue' and reduce the cost-of-acquisition.
SalesTribe also helps salespeople with upskilling and access to our global TRIBE: Community, Courses, Content & Coaching.
Boosting Business Growth with Expert Consulting & Sales Strategies
10 个月On the money as usual Graham Hawkins - But I would note this is counter to the old-fashioned "Time kills all deals". Which I have always thought was a load of BS. Typically sprouted by middle management who have never actually carried a bag or dealt with customers directly.
On a mission to change the culture of sales; for businesses & customers alike - Discover how to Convert more prospects; quicker | Simplify your sales process & Increase your profits.
2 年If you've done a good enough job with the presentation you shouldn't need to close as you've taken the customer to a place where they know it is the solution to their problem Graham, and instead of you selling, they buy.
Enabling brands and retailers to unlock international online audiences, to amplify their conversions and maximise untapped revenues, through localisation of marketing campaigns (Meta & Google) and websites.
2 年100% agree Graham Hawkins. Organisations push their teams to close deals at breakneck speed, however in doing so lose credibility. I agree 100%, by pushing, one leans towards desperate, losing authenticity around a genuine (and trustworthy) partnership - rushing onto the next big deal... So many of my wins have come from long-term network relationships, recommendations and ongoing customer expansion - all of which cannot be truly gained (talking to trust and authenticity) with rushing in and rushing out to seal a momentary deal vs truly seeing the bigger picture. Great read and share - thank you!
Delivering ‘Off Grid’ Green Energy Projects using Micro-Hydro and Hydrogen
2 年Great insight - especially this comment.. “Your haste only serves to tell the buyer that you are focussed on YOUR outcome (the sale) instead of the best outcome for the buyer (optimised value creation).“
?? Head of Clients & Markets at Luminous // Founder at Business of Trust (EU) ?? Conversational IQ and trust for sales performance?? Soft skills development @scale! ?? Trainer & Speaker ?? +1'200 professionals trained
2 年Wanting to rush things and falling in love with your solution... 2 sure ways of failing your prospects and hurting your business.