I’ve been playing golf for a few years, but no matter how long I play, the hardest concept I have to buy into and the hardest habit I have to break to hit the ball farther – is to swing easier, not harder.

For me, swinging the club is usually an aerobic workout. But when I do slow down, I have more control, my ball goes farther and my scores drop. The same is true in sales because...Speed Kills!

When we survey individual salespeople, dealers or managers at dealerships who’ve seen their sales improve, one of the main reasons is…

They slowed down the sales process!

Selling more has never been about needing more prospects, it’s always been about the quality of the time you spend with prospects you have now.

One salesperson in our industry who earns over $100,000 a year selling cars told us recently, “Joe, I just slow down, listen to my customers and they tell me everything I need to do to sell the car.”

That’s a very modest statement coming from such a high achiever. Of course, we all know he has to have the selling skills to back it up. Just listening or spending time with prospects won’t equal more sales.

We hear the same thing: “I just follow The New Basics” from almost everyone in our business who is making dramatic improvements they truly understand that “Closing is a process, not a question” and they start to focus on each step to the sale.

I constantly talk about The New Basics, because they’re the secret to more sales.

There are a few catches to being able to follow the ‘Basics.’ The Warm-Up stage is critical, so you have to have a good appearance and a great attitude to make a great first impression (Step 1). You have to develop your questioning and listening skills or you can’t greet the customer properly, build rapport or investigate to find their wants and needs (Steps 2, 3 and 4), and you need to learn how to stay off price.

If you don’t complete steps 1-4 correctly, by default, you can’t possibly do a good job in the next four presentation steps of the Value Building stage and that means you surely can’t pull it all together for the third and final stage ... Closing the Sale.

Having a prospect is an opportunity to make a sale. Following the Basics a step at a time increases your chances of making that sale and dramatically improves your gross on every delivery. But the faster you go, the less likely you are to properly complete each step.

Buying is a process, and it’s about value, not price. Closing is a process, too – not just a question.

That’s why every on the lot program the manufacturers come up with to speed up the selling process fails. That’s also why the rebate and incentive wars just aren’t working that well anymore. And that’s why in my lifetime, people will never buy the majority of their vehicles off the Internet without driving them first.

Everybody in sales wants a shortcut, though – so here are your shortcuts to more sales, higher gross profits and long-term success!

1. Follow The New Basics correctly with every prospect you talk to.

2. Learn how to ask the right questions at the right time, to keep the sale moving forward and focused on value, not price.

3. Learn how to close the sale and overcome your prospect’s buying objections without focusing on price.

4. Get a dozen solid commitments to purchase (that are not based on price) so that you have “total mental ownership” before you start the paperwork and any negotiation.

5. Remember that you sell (and the prospect buys) with emotion and you negotiate (and the customer agrees) based on logic.

Learn to sell and slow down, so you can sell more cars!