A sales rep's natural urgency can make them their own worst enemy. Rushing leads to costly unforced errors like sending incorrect proposals or overpromising on capabilities. Recognizing this internal threat is the first step to building processes that enforce a 'smooth is fast' mentality.
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Salespeople should shift their mindset from manufacturing urgency to discovering what is already urgent for the buyer. This involves understanding their top priorities and distinguishing between tasks that are merely important versus those that are truly time-sensitive for their business to succeed.
Two clear red flags indicate a deal is at risk: relying on a single contact and having a close date not tied to a specific buyer deadline. To de-risk a deal, sales reps must engage multiple stakeholders (multi-threading) and anchor the timeline to the buyer's critical business needs.
Sellers often avoid scheduling a live proposal review because they fear creating friction. However, this avoidance is what causes prospects to ghost. A live walkthrough is essential to eliminate ambiguity, handle objections, and secure commitment, preventing the deal from stalling.
Sales conversations often rush to demo a "better" product, assuming the buyer wants to improve. The crucial first step is to help the prospect recognize and quantify the hidden costs of their current "good enough" process, creating urgency to change before a solution is ever introduced.
When you feel like you're trying to convince or 'push' a prospect during a sales call, treat it as a critical signal. This feeling indicates a flaw in your process—either you're targeting the wrong people or misinterpreting their demand. Use this to diagnose and fix the root cause.
Focusing intensely on the sales number, especially when behind, leads to desperate behavior. Customers sense this "commission breath" and back away. Instead, salespeople should forget the outcome and focus exclusively on executing the correct daily behaviors, which builds trust and leads to more sales.
A leader focused solely on closing a deal quickly will often ignore subtle warnings and their own intuition about a prospect. Slowing down the sales process allows time for these 'spidey senses' to surface, helping to vet clients properly and avoid costly, bad-fit relationships.
A buyer might have an urgent need but lack the time or energy to complete the purchasing process. Salespeople can accelerate these deals by doing all the 'heavy lifting' and making it ridiculously easy to buy. If the process requires significant effort from a busy buyer, the deal will stall despite their interest.
Deals are lost when salespeople fail to spend enough time in discovery to understand the customer's true need. They must identify the 'moment of demand'—when the customer both recognizes their problem and is ready to decide—rather than rushing to the close with the wrong solution.
Salespeople often mistake speed for velocity, leading to burnout. True velocity is speed with a clear direction. By shifting from pitching a product (e.g., a copier) to diagnosing the client's core problem (e.g., a communication bottleneck), the sale becomes the logical conclusion, not a forced pitch.
