Acclaimed sales training coach and President of TopLine Leadership, Inc., Kevin Davis, was kind enough to answer a few questions about his groundbreaking and sales transformational book Slow Down, Sell Faster! Understand Your Customer's Buying Process and Maximize Your Sales.
Kevin Davis describes how sales people fail to close sales because they try to sell too fast, fail to understand the buyer, and attempt to put the customer on their own schedule.
Thanks to Kevin Davis for his time, and for his interesting and comprehensive responses to the questions. They are greatly appreciated.
What was the background to writing this book Slow Down, Sell Faster! Understand Your Customer's Buying Process and Maximize Your Sales?
Kevin Davis: My first book, Getting into Your Customer’s Head was named one of the top 30 business books of the year in 1996. That was back in the days when being customer focused was still a novel idea. Two factors made me decide it was time to update my original book. First, times are much different now than back in 1996. More than ever, salespeople have to differentiate themselves based on how they sell, not just what they sell. Second, I’ve also had the privilege of working closely with clients in the design and delivery of our training program, and have been able to refine my original sales model even further. Slow Down, Sell Faster! is not just a revised edition of my first book, it is completely rewritten and updated, including new stories and examples.
Why do so many otherwise astute sales people so often rush through their sales presentations?
Kevin Davis: Good salespeople are enthusiastic and knowledgeable. It’s very hard to fight the urge to rush in and fix everything with good advice! Another problem is that salespeople been taught how to get through the steps of their sale quickly. What they haven’t been taught is how to slow down and get the customer to do more of the talking. They haven’t been taught that they need to pay attention to signals that tell them where the customer is in their buying process—which may lag far behind the salesperson’s selling process.
Does the prospect have a different internal timetable for buying that is often not matched with the seller's pace?
Kevin Davis: Often prospects have a timetable determined by their own business pressures, but the biggest factor is how long it takes them to get through each step of their buying process. They need time to evaluate just how big their need is—and whether the cost of making a chance is lower than the cost of doing nothing. They need time to determine what factors are most important, and evaluate different competitors.
Why should sales people match their speed to the buyer's pace?
Kevin Davis: A salesperson who is out-of-sync with a customer is a salesperson who will likely lose the sale. If a salesperson rushes through their own steps of selling, they create problems for themselves. For example, the customer may hear about features and benefits that don’t interest them (which will lead them to question the price). Worse, the customer will think they’ve heard everything valuable that the salesperson has to tell them—so the salesperson gets shut out of the picture just when the customer is starting to look around at competitors.
Kevin Davis (photo left)
Will slowing down the sales process work with single buyers and multiple buyers and purchasing teams as well?
Kevin Davis: Slowing down is important when dealing with every prospect. But it can be especially valuable when dealing with multiple buyers or purchasing teams because it means you’re going to take the time to define the needs of everyone involved in the purchasing decision. That will help you define a stronger position when it comes time to describe your solution and differentiators.
You recommend buyer-focused selling. What is that concept and why is it important?
Kevin Davis: Buying-focused selling means looking at the sales process through the eyes of the buyer. A salesperson may have been taught one way to present the functions, features, and “benefits” of the product or service they are selling. When they look at that solution through a customer’s eyes, they realize that benefits are meaningless unless they are tied to specific customer needs.
You describe eight different roles in buyer-focused selling. What are these eight, and is it important for sales people to understand and recognize them all?
Kevin Davis: The eight roles are basically a memory device I came up with to help salespeople match their sales behaviors to where the customer is in the buying process. Six sales roles match the buying process up to the point of sale, and two roles describe the post-sale responsibilities necessary to create customer loyalty.
Each role is named after a profession that captures the types of behaviors that will help a salesperson best serve a customer who is in a particular step of the buying process. The eight roles—listed in the order that matches the steps of customer buying—are Student, Doctor, Architect, Coach, Therapist, Negotiator, Teacher, and Farmer.
For example, the Doctor role is a match to customers who have just recognized they are unhappy with their current situation and begun to think that it may be desirable to make a change. The Doctor steps in and helps the “patient” fully diagnose their needs and the potential impact of action or non-action.
The important part of this model isn’t so much that people memorize these eight roles, but that they understand how to best help customers buy.
How can a sales person move toward being a coach and guide for the eight types?
Kevin Davis: The most effective salespeople are those who coach and guide themselves. There are built-in milestones and other questions I provide in the book and my training courses that not only help salespeople prepare better for calls but also debrief themselves afterwards—essentially becoming their own coach.
The milestones are also great checkpoints for sales managers to review what their sales reps are doing, giving the manager opportunities to coach and guide staff early in the sales process—where I can have the biggest effect.
What is the first step a sales person should take toward slowing down their sales process?
Kevin Davis: Before the next conversation with any customer, the salesperson should take 5 minutes to think about where that customer is in their buying process and what he or she, the salesperson, needs to do to help the customer through that buying step. (It’s unlikely the answer will be “rush through my presentation.”) They also need to think about the go-forward commitments they want from the customer—specific actions they want the customer to take.
What is next for Kevin Davis?
Kevin Davis: My next focus is on improving sales management. I’ve met a lot of sales managers who were once stellar salespeople. But the skills needed to manage a sales team are a lot different from the skills that make someone a great salesperson. Yet few companies I’ve seen invest in training their sales managers—even though that would give them more leverage. Develop an effective sales manager and you can improve the whole team. Someone who is great at coaching, leading, and motivating the sales team is one of the best assets a company can has. I want to encourage companies to invest more in their sales managers.
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Author Bio
Kevin Davis, author of Slow Down, Sell Faster! Understand Your Customer's Buying Process and Maximize Your Sales, is President of TopLine Leadership, Inc., a leading sales and sales management training company serving clients from diverse sectors. He has 30+ years of experience as a salesperson, sales manager, sales trainer, and consultant. His 1996 book Getting Into Your Customer's Head helped redefine how salespeople approach selling.
For more information about the book please visit http://www.slowdownsellfaster.com/ and connect with the author on Facebook and Twitter.
My book review of Slow Down, Sell Faster! Understand Your Customer's Buying Process and Maximize Your Sales by Kevin Davis.
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