Slow Down, Sell Faster! Understand Your Customer's Buying Process and Maximize Your Sales
Produktdetaljer
Biografisk notat
KEVIN DAVIS is president of TopLine Leadership, a sales and sales management training company. His revolutionary eight-step process is used at Citigroup, ADP, Bayer, Sprint-Nextel, IKON Office Solutions, Global Imaging Systems (a XEROX company), and dozens of other Fortune 500 companies.Faster sales pitches won’t lead to faster sales. The key to speeding up the sales process is to actually slow down and get in sync with your customer’s buying process.
The biggest mistake salespeople make in their careers is equating a faster pitch with a faster close. Sales guru Kevin Davis shows you how to slow down and focus on the customer buying process, so they can identify and quantify customers’ real needs--and adapt their sales pitches accordingly.
In Slow Down, Sell Faster!, you’ll learn how to:
- Match your sales behaviors to your customers’ needs throughout the buying process
- Get more appointments by using a problem-focused approach
- Combat your most lethal competitor: customer complacency
- Use probing questions to diagnose small problems that point to bigger needs
- Master the complicated politics of complex sales
- Overcome common selling dilemmas
Davis introduces a simple yet powerful method for buyer-focused selling that is practical, repeatable, and easily customizable. This buyer-focused approach extends to proposals and presentations, loyalty, retention, and, of course, cultivating more business.
Packed with examples from the author's extensive experience and detailed research on customer buying patterns, Slow Down, Sell Faster! offers an alternative to traditional selling that leads to increased sales--and happier customers.
Foreword
Acknowledgments
Introduction
PART I UNDERSTANDING BUYING IS WHERE SELLING
SHOULD START
Chapter 1 Why Slower Is Faster: How Selling Too Fast Results in
Lost Sales and a Longer Buying Process
How Selling Too Fast Causes Lost Sales
Shifting from Selling- to Buying-Focused
The Eight Steps in the Customer’s Buying Process
Six Mysteries of Selling Solved
The Eight Sales Roles That Match the Buying Process
Slow Down and Get in Sync!
Chapter 2 Mastering the Politics of Selling to Multiple
Decision Makers
The Players on a Complex Buying Team
Configurations of a Complex Buying Team
A Case Study in Complex Buyinnamics
How to Avoid the Biggest Mistakes
Looking Ahead
Chapter 3 Winning the Complex Sale
The Questions You Can’t Afford Not to Ask
Fundamental Skills to Master
When in the Buying Process to Reach Each Decision Maker
Sharpening Your Political Skills
Winning Over 0a Complex Buying Team Takes Skill
PART II THE EIGHT ROLES OF BUYING-FOCUSED SELLING
Prologue to Part II
How to Get Started with the Eight Sales Roles
Focus on Obtaining Go-Forward Commitments
Getting Started
Chapter 4 The Student: Use Knowledge to Gain an Edge
Study Your Customer
Customer Step 1: Change
How a Student Gains a Deeper Understanding of Your
Customer’s Business
Know Three Things about Each Customer That Other
Salespeople Won’t Know
Understanding the Company’s Decision-Making Hierarchy 66
Put Your Knowledge to Work
Milestone #1: Getting More First Appointments
The Goal: A Twenty-Minute Appointment
A Telephone Approach That Gets Results
Preparing for the First Appointment
Chapter 5 The Doctor: Diagnose Small Problems, Define Big Needs
Uncovering Needs to Establish the Value of Your Solution
Customer Step 2: Discontent
Types of “Patients” You Will Meet
How the Doctor Intensifies the Prospect’s Need for Change
The Five Steps of Diagnosis
Handling the “Ballpark Price” Questions
Identify then Intensify Discontent
Milestone #2: Accelerating Momentum with a
Memo of Understanding (MOU)
Why MOUs Areitical
Sample MOU
Chapter 6 The Architect: Design Customer-Focused Solutions
Orienting on the Buying Process
Customer Step 3: Research
The Customer’s Process for Developing a Solution
Understanding Customer Buying Criteria
The Dynamics of Customer Buying Criteria
How an Architect Designs Unique Solutions
Identify Your Differentiators (Do a Market Assessment)
The Architect’s Toolkit: How to Understand and Influence
Buying Criteria
Creating a Better Match Between Criteria and Capabilities
Create a Unique Solution to Match Customer Needs
Chapter 7 The Coach: Make a Plan to Defeat the Competition
Evaluating Your Starting Position
Customer Step 4: Comparison
How a Coach Develops a Winning Game Plan
Scouting the Competition
Five Winning Strategies
Become a Stronger Competitor
Milestone #3: Winning Proposals and Presentations
Developing a Convincing Proposal
Presentations: Preparation Will Meet Opportunity
Be Sure to Maintain Communication
Chapter 8 The Therapist: Understand and Resolve a Buyer’s Fears
Customer Step 5: Fear
Why Fear Happens
How a Therapist Resolves Buying Fears
Important Skills of a Therapist
Fear May Not be the Only Hurdle
Resolving Your Own Fears
Help Customers Move Past Fear
Chapter 9 The Negotiator: Reaching a Mutual Commitment
Customer Step 6: Commitment
How a Negotiator Creates Win-Win
Preparing to Negotiate
Handling the Most Common Customer Negotiating Tactics
When the Negotiation Really Begins
Negotiate to a Win-Win Agreement
Milestone #4: Transitioning from Pre- to Post-Sale
Do You Keep or Hand Off Implementation?
Drafting an Implementation Plan
Minimizing Customer Risk
Chapter 10 The Teacher: Teach Customers to Achieve
Maximum Value
Customer Step 7: Expectations of Value
Lessons from the Learning Curve
How an Effective Teacher Instructs Customers:
The Four Steps of Customer Education
Teaching Benefits You, the Teacher
Exceed Your Customers’ Expectations
Chapter 11 The Farmer: Cultivate Customer Satisfaction
and Loyalty
The Key to Customer Satisfaction
Customer Step 8: Satisfaction
How a Farmer Cultivates Customer Loyalty
Four Keys to Sales Farming
The Three Levels of Customer Relationships
When and How to Develop a Strategic Partnership
Getting More Referrals and Testimonials
Your Final Role: Chief Satisfaction Officer
Epilogue to Part II
PART III COACHING THE EIGHT SALES ROLES
Chapter 12 Coaching for Success: Advice foro Work for Them)
What Is Coaching?
How to Improve Your Sales Coaching
Getting the Most Value Out of Each Milestone
Coaching the Sales Roles
Your Mission: Create a Great Sales Team
Endnotes
Index
About the Author
“The perfect blend of street-smart advice and MBA intellect for talking it up with anyone in the C-Suite.”— Anthony Parinello, bestselling author of Selling to VITO (The Very Important Top Officer)
“In The Key to the C-Suite, Michael Nick has captured the reality of being a solutions provider. The challenging new environment businesses will be facing in the post-recession economy forces all operating and marketing processes to be financial contributors to the enterprise. Michael’s book is a timely recognition of this fact and valuable roadmap to selling success.” — Morris R. Segall, President, SPG Trend Advisors
“Getting to the C-Suite may sound expensive, but Michael Nick makes a compelling case that not doing so is even more so. And his advice on how to effectively do it is priceless.”— Jim Dickie, Managing Partner, CSO Insights
“Imagine moving to a foreign country to earn a living without knowing the language. Now imagine a book so powerful that in a few short hours it could teach you that language and allow you to live in prosperity. For many in sales, the C-Suite is a foreign country and the language of business is hard to understand. The Key to the C-Suite is a powerful sales translator, teaching you to present your product or service in such a way that C-Suite executives know they have to take action NOW.”— Tom Ziglar, CEO of Ziglar Inc.
“Michael Nick really hits the nail on the head with how to build a successful business case to sell to C-suite executives and how to start speaking their language. The Key to the C-Suite is an absolute must-read for all sales reps looking to change their selling approach and start speaking the language of the C-Suite!”— Lisa Cramer, Co-founder and President, LeadLife Solutions