A friend of mine was telling me this morning: “You know Ramez it’s taking more time to close deals these days.”

I asked her: “Why do you say that?”

She goes: “Well, it feels like customers no more have access to more suppliers, which is making it harder for us to work”.

Does that sound familiar to you? 

In this video I’ll share with you two simple ideas you can do to reverse this trend. 

So, the first thing you got to do to accelerate the buying process is you gotta be talking with the right people, who have the authority and ability to influence the buying decision. So, when you get contacted by a potential customer, he ends up actually dealing with lower level staff that act like a gatekeeper. 

Now, they can take you on a ride that leads nowhere. What you got to do is find a way to engage at the higher level. 

So, when they ask you: “Can you give us a price, can you give an idea about the price?

You can answer by saying: “Well, we have different types of prices available. Before I can give you a quotation or proposal, I need to better understand your business scenario and need. So, that I can give you the best price. Who besides yourself I would need to be speaking with to better understand things so that I can prepare you the right quotation?”

Two things might happen either they agree to meet with you or they don’t. 

If not, then spend less time on that opportunity because chances are, you’d be working for someone who’s going to eventually block you, and it’s gonna end up going nowhere. If they do get to that right person, great. 

Off to step number two. 

Now that you have the right visibility, the right people that you’re talking with. 

The next thing you can do to avoid delays has to do with the level of urgency customers perceive for your proposal. 

Normally every opportunity has three types of competition. 

First, the customer can decide to do nothing. 

In fact, I read a recent study that shows that more than 60% of proposals buyers receive, they do nothing with. Do you hear that they do nothing with, so they decide that they’re actually okay and that there is no urgency for them to do anything or to buy. 

Now, the second thing customers can do, is they decide that, hey, we can do it ourselves. 

They say something like: “You know, we can hire someone ourselves and why pay an external supplier”. Or they decided to go with your competitor. The underlining reason for these three options is fear, fear, holds most customers back.

Customers are afraid to make the wrong decision. See, if you eliminate fear, you’d be helping your customer make a quicker decision. To do so, you can do multiple things. 

Number one is; share case studies or video testimonials of previous customers. 

Use white papers that help educate your customers and builds up your credibility. 

Or invite them to test your product or service, which gives them confidence that it does work. 

These are just some ideas to help you eliminate fear and sell faster. This is Ramez Helou, founder, and keynote speaker at The Academy for Sales Excellence. Helping you sell more, sell faster and profitably. 

If you’ve enjoyed this tip, go ahead and share it with others, until next time.