Helping The Buyer To Go Faster

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Understandably accelerating the sale is an obsession for sellers at this time. However, as every professional salesperson knows when buyers are pushed, they push backtwice as hard. One thing is increasingly clear – buyers won’t be rushed into a decision, especially not the wrong decision.

A sales cycle that is progressing slowly needs more interaction not less, it requires more time not less and it may even mean retracing some of the steps that have already been taken. Indeed, if a decision is stalled it may mean that you should go right back to square one. Understanding the buying decision, reappraising needs and exploring solution alternatives is the only option.

When buyers are confused, uncertain or unclear about the buying decision they slow down, or perhaps even stop. When they don’t have enough information, or enough trust in the salesperson, they slow down too. The only way to get them moving again is to tackle these underlying issues. The only way to accelerate the sale is to accelerate the buying decision.

To Speed Up, Slow Down!

The irony is that to speed up the buyer, the seller will often have to slow down. After all, a faster decision is no good if it is going to be the wrong decision.

To accelerate the buying decision the salesperson must help the buyer to arrive at a compelling reason to buy. That is to build a strong business case for the purchase. The salesperson must also to help the buyer to navigate the key steps that he, or she must take in order to arrive at the decision and to ensure that any people, paperwork or procedures required in getting the purchase sanctioned are fully addressed.

The challenge for the seller is that accelerating the buying decision requires getting the buyer:

1 To buy

2 To buy now. as opposed to later

3 To buy from you, as opposed to somebody else

This is important, as sellers tend to focus on the latter, assuming when the buyer favours one supplier over another, all other requirements will automatically be met. The reality for buyers however is that choosing a supplier is often the least of the challenges facing suppliers.