What are the analogous steps between transfer of value from buyer to seller with traditional P.O.S. solutions vs. with bitcoin
I think the answer is that a credit card company is vouching for you when you make a purchase. The seller does not know you, but they know the credit card company, and they know the credit card will give them their funds. The credit card company in turn knows you, and has deemed you credit-worthy. This is why it's called "credit" ... from the latin credere: "to believe" or "to trust". The credit card company believes that you will pay your bill at the end of the month.

Bitcoin is like cash... except that handing over physical cash takes a fraction of a second, but handing over digital cash takes approximately 10 minutes in the case of bitcoin (less with alt coins that add to their block chains at a faster rate).

The seller could decide that if this is a repeat customer (who has bought successfully with bitcoin once or more times before) to extend credit themselves, and just assume the transaction will be validated. Then, at the time of sale, the transaction will be just as quick as a legacy credit card transaction would.

Some alt coins are building in reputation via marking (such as Bitmark) which will go a long way towards allowing sellers to make immediate credit decisions even from buyers new to them. I think this is somewhat analogous to a built-in FICO score for a particular wallet.