5 Key Principles of Zero-Time Selling

By Andy PaulCustomers today have a simple request of all salespeople: “Just give me the information I need. Now. Don’t dress it up, don’t overdo it, don’t take me to lunch. The time I have to invest in you is limited, and all your extraneous sales activities are just wasting my time.” Zero-Time Selling provides the tools you need to be completely and absolutely responsive to that customer request.Here are five key principles underlying Zero-Time Selling.

1. How you sell is as important as what you sell. Zero-Time Selling is a common-sense method for building trust and differentiating your company while creating value for your customer by how you sell your product or service..
2. The race doesn't go to the swift; it goes to the responsive. If you are talking to a customer, the customer’s need for information is urgent. The Internet has made it possible for customers to gather 70–80% of the information they need to make an informed purchase decision about your product or service before they contact you for the first time. So any customer who has taken the time to contact you wants answers now. You had better be absolutely responsive—in Zero Time.
3. Everything happens now. The timeframe for every sales action is now. Get a lead, follow up now. Get a question from a customer, answer it now. Get a request for support, provide it now. Of course, not everything can happen immediately, but the most important things can.
4. Measure. Fine-tune. Measure. Zero-Time Selling is a system of responsiveness, for delivering content in Zero Time. Every step of your sales process must continually be measured and improved with the goal of reducing to zero the amount of time required to deliver that content.
5. Every customer is the center of your universe. The least expensive, least time-consuming, and least competitive sales are those you make to your existing customers. Ensure a steady flow of orders from your customers by Practicing Unconditional Support.

Zero-Time Selling is easy to implement, but it’s not as simple as just doing everything you do now, only faster. When you are Zero-Time Selling you’ll combine the elements of information (content) and speed to demonstrate complete, or absolute, responsiveness to your prospects’ and customers’ needs, creating value for them during your selling process and building a sustainable competitive sales advantage for your business.

Andy Paul is author of the award-winning book, Zero-Time Selling: 10 Essential Steps to Accelerate Every Company's Sales. A sought-after speaker and business coach, Andy conducts workshops and consults with sales teams of all sizes to teach them how to use responsiveness, speed and intelligent processes to increase sales. Enjoy what you just read? Sign up for our regular digest of valuable Zero-Time Selling sales tips and strategies, “Selling with Maximum Impact.”

© Andy Paul 2013