The Era of Slow Selling caught my eye.  Over the years, like many of you, I’ve spent numerous hours trying to accelerate the sales process, yet this article by John Gerzema provides specific examples where slowing it down can work better for you and your customer.

We have wanted to believe that selling earlier than later brings both benefits to the buyer and revenue to the seller faster; I fear that we have often ignored the potential hazards of selling early.  Buying earlier than ready can produce buyer’s remorse.  Posting revenue prior to customer satisfaction can lead to overstated revenue.  Both can result in frustration, customer service issues, churn, brand deterioration and low employee morale.

I had a conversation last week with a marketing executive that validates the potential problem with accelerating the selling process.  He told me the story about the cancelation of a multi-million dollar order due to prematurely delivering product that was untested  in order to post earlier revenue.  Waiting one extra week would have enabled his company to post an additional $1M in 2011.

It’s hard to keep compensation out of the discussion.  One of our partners mentioned that in the effort to prevent overselling, one of his clients charges sales people more for a canceled order than they make for booking the order.  While I applaud the idea, this might result in a disincentive to sell anything.

In his article John says, “The ‘slow sales’ movement is betting there are intelligent, deliberate customers that prefer ‘do-it-your self’ service.”  I concur, and this seems the perfect extension to my last article about enabling buyers to buy.  I just wish I’d thought about how that translates to a slower sales process, and how that’s not only okay, but good.