Slow Down, Sell Faster!

Understand Your Customer's Buying Process and Maximize Your Sales

AMACOM, 2011

15 min read

10 take-aways

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If you want to increase your sales, focus on how people buy.

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Most sales books focus on sales techniques. Not this step-by-step text by sales trainer Kevin Davis, who explains why you need to know your customer’s buying process so you can plan your sales activities – and your sales personalities – accordingly. This makes sense. The more you know about how prospects make their purchases, the easier it will be to sell to them. getAbstract recommends Davis’s savvy sales advice – particularly his specific (if sometimes insufficiently linear) instructions on how to match the buyer’s needs right down the line – to business-to-business sales professionals who work with decision-making client teams, and to those who sell high-end products or services to consumers.

Summary

Don’t Hurry

Never rush a sale. To sell more, “slow down” so you can ask your prospects more questions and determine their needs. Customers buy from salespeople who take the time to meet all their requirements, on a systematic basis, by presenting information they want when they want it. This requires learning to think like the buyer and to understand the client’s “buying process.” Forget your usual sales approach and techniques. Focus on the buyers’ behavior. As you go through this process with your buyer, your primary job is to obtain “go-forward commitments” by checking off four milestones: securing “more first appointments,” obtaining letters of understanding to build “momentum,” making a “winning proposal or presentation,” and closing the sale to “make the transition from pre- to post-sale” activities.

Understanding the Buyer’s Process

The buying process has eight steps – “change, discontent, research, comparison, fear, commitment, expectations” and “satisfaction” – that unfold in four basic stages, which include specific sales milestones. The four stages are:

“Need” – Something changes in the buyer’s firm, unveiling a new need...

About the Author

Kevin Davis, president of TopLine Leadership, Inc., a sales management firm, is the author of Getting into Your Customer’s Head: 8 Secret Roles of Selling Your Competitors Don’t Know.

Kevin Davis

Slow Down, Sell Faster!

Understand Your Customer's Buying Process and Maximize Your Sales

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Don’t Hurry

Understanding the Buyer’s Process

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