I’ve said before that I used to drive race cars, as did my Dad and my Granddad. They were better than I was, but I enjoyed it. I’ll always remember one of the best pieces of advice that Dad gave me about racing, and as it turns out, my career. My first couple of races, I was all over the place. I was either all the way on the throttle, or all the way off – and when I was all the way off, I was usually trying to gather the car back up from being all the way on the throttle. I was the opposite of smooth – I was overdriving the race car, and I was SLOW.
Dad told me, “Troy, sometimes you have to slow down to go fast.” He explained that, if I took a more precise line into the turns, got out of the throttle earlier, I’d be more under control, have more corner speed, and be able to get on the throttle earlier and come out of the turns faster, thus having a quicker lap. That advice stood me in good stead. But, what if I told you that “Slow down to go fast” is great sales advice, too? I’ll tell you what I mean.
Too often, salespeople get in a big hurry when they’re selling to a buyer. They shortcut the sales call by not asking enough questions, not truly getting to know the buyer and his or her motivation, and not understanding the buyer’s business needs, so that they can get to their kick-ass presentation. That presentation, after all, is going to win the business, right?
Salespeople do this for a few reasons.
First, they might be scared that their customer isn’t going to give them much time, so they figure that they need to get to the “good stuff” (which, of course, is their presentation), so that they can get it in before the bell tolls. The problem with this approach is that, in rushing to get to their presentation, they are making themselves (the salesperson) the star of the show. Helpful hint: The salesperson is NEVER the star of the show. The customer is. Questions recognize that, and put the customer stage forward and in the spotlight. Skipping over questions makes YOU the star of the show. It also tends to make you the loser of the sale.
Second, they’re scared that the customer will think they’re asking “too many” questions, and that it might be perceived as intrusive. This can happen, occasionally (it’s happened to me before, but not very often), but if the customer starts signaling that they’re done answering questions, you can always shift gears and go to the presentation, if it’s appropriate to do so. With that said, I’ve always said that 80% of your chance to win or lose the sale is determined by the questions you ask, and I’ve always erred on the side of more good, open ended, discovery questions than fewer.
Third, they’re desperate or lazy and they just want to get a sale. This type of salesperson views sales as completely transactional, and looks at questions as a bit of a nuisance. The sooner you present, the sooner the customer can say yes, right? Uh, wrong. If you don’t ask questions, you don’t even know what needs you’re presenting to, which means that your presentation will fall flat. Salespeople who are in a slump are particularly prone to this, because they just want to get an order to get the monkey off their backs – and fewer things will deepen a slump than skipping steps and questions.
Those are the reasons why salespeople would speed through the questioning – but have you ever seen a salesperson speed through a presentation? I have. Notice that above, salespeople shortcut questioning because they’re anxious to get to the presentation. By the same token, some salespeople will rip through a presentation to get to a proposal, because until you’ve quoted price, the customer can’t say “yes.” As dumb as it is to skip questions, it might even be worse to shortcut your presentation! And yet, I see salespeople do it.
Keep in mind that the Buyer’s Journey has five steps – Motivation, Investigation, Solution, Evaluation, and Decision. And the ultimate arbiter of when it’s time to move from step to step isn’t you – it’s your buyer. And they’ll let you know.
In racing, slowing down can ultimately win the race, and that’s something that great race drivers know. In sales, slowing down can win the sale and the relationship, and great salespeople do that every day.
