Having been involved in sales for over 35 years now either through our personal sales positions or having taught others how to effectively sell, we have had a chance to talk with thousands of sales professionals.
What one thing would they like to change about sales, given the opportunity? To speed up the sale, of course! Well, here’s how.

Always stay true to and follow the steps of your sales process:

One of the key requests I receive from sales people is “how do I make the sale go faster?” or “how do I get the client to decide faster?” Some sales personnel decide to just “skip to the end” and get the client to sign now. Some of the time this works (rarely) and by doing so can create an illusion that you can do this all of the time. Unfortunately those sales people who continually follow this course will suddenly see their sales closing rates go down and sales that were “confirmed to come in” will fall off the list.
The problem with skipping the steps in the sales process is that you will still have to go back later and handle those missing steps, which takes much more time to do all over again, not to mention the time it takes away from creating new sales opportunities.
Problematically the focus of you and/or your sales team will be stuck on sales that are supposedly already signed, but are in fact not actually real sales. This results in too many sales dollars wasted redoing sales that supposedly were already completed when the client “signed”.
As an exercise, take a look at any past sales that were supposedly completed and find any that are “stuck” in the sales department. Begin by first recognizing the sales process steps missed in each of them, and then get those steps completed immediately before re-focusing yourself and your team on bringing these lost sales back to life. Getting these sales fully completed and out of the sales department will immediately create a positive effect on you and your team.
With you and your sales team no longer stuck on any past sales of old, you can put all of your attention and focus on new sales. However, please remember to follow the steps of your sales process. This is the fastest route to speeding up the sale as, one, you will fully complete each step, and two, having achieved a result at each point your closing percentage will go back up.

Reasons your prospective client should sign NOW, from you or your company’s’ point of view:

There are programs you should have internally that would create an incentive for your prospective clients to sign their contracts now. These incentives can be a variety of discounts, additional products or services that add value or anything else that your company can offer that will create a sense of urgency to sign now. Statistics prove these incentives encourage prospects to move forward much faster with the decision making process.

When do you present the incentives?

Many companies “lead with incentives.” This may get the prospective client to want to make the appointment, but it is not the reason the client decides to buy your product or service.
The incentive is the key reason the client buys your product or service NOW and not at a later date. The key to all of this is in when you present the incentive.
You present the incentive once the prospective client has decided he or she wants your product or service. At that point, you may create the urgency to get them to sign now by offering the discount or additional incentive. Because the prospective client has decided to buy anyway, the incentive becomes effective.
Remember, if you present the incentive prior to the prospective client making their decision, it will not work. If the prospective client thinks they will get this incentive any time they sign it also will not create urgency, so it must be a limited time offer with a deadline.

What are the reasons why your client should sign NOW from their point of view?

If you have created such a desire for your product or service that the client would do whatever it takes to get it, you have done a great job as the sales person.
One of the key questions you have to ask throughout the sales process is “why should the client buy my product or service from their point of view?” If you can thoroughly answer this question, you have now created urgency in the sale.
Another great question is “What would happen to the prospective client if they wait to buy your product or service?”
Categories of answers include: Would they continue to lose money and if so how? Would they continue to lose productivity or efficiency in their company and if so how? Would they continue to feel worse and if so how? What would the client miss without your product or service? And you should also answer opposing questions such as: How much money would they gain by signing now? How much company productivity or efficiency would they gain? Would they feel better if they had the product now and if so, how would it make them feel? If you can answer all of these questions from the client’s point of view, you now have a compelling case which will cause the prospective client to urgently move forward and sign the contract.
THE DISCOUNTS OR INCENTIVES USED AT THE RIGHT TIME WILL NOW BE THE MOST EFFECTIVE. The combination of both categories becomes unbeatable.
I hope you now have a better idea of how to create urgency in the sales process. Used as part of your continuous improvement through the use of SELLability’s Core Ability Sales Training, this will greatly improve your ability to closing more opportunities.
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