By Christopher Thompson
Published Sunday March 1st, 2009 – Union Leader NH Sunday News
In the world of selling, the scene is all too common. You spend countless hours preparing for the big presentation in front of your top prospect. You go above and beyond and put everything you have into putting your best foot forward and “wowing” your potential customer. You spend countless sleepless nights reviewing your approach and considering all potential issues and challenges that may come up. Nothing else is on your mind.
The day is finally here. You are eager, yet cautiously optimistic, as you know very well that you never turn 100% of your prospects into customers. Still, you feel this particular prospect has a very high probability of turning into a customer. You have done everything leading up to this point by the book and when it goes this well in the early stages, the results are usually positive. You are feeling good about the opportunity and are ready to shine.
You go through your presentation and proposal and all indicators point to a very productive, compelling and effective meeting. You feel very confident you will land this account and there are no signs of any potential speed bumps or deal breakers. You covered all your bases and are convinced you did the best possible job you could. Unfortunately, the prospect is going through a review process and will be meeting with other companies like yours. They are unable to make a decision or commit to anything right now.
As you often do after a proposal, you attempt to nail down a date and time to follow up with your contacts, but due to scheduling conflicts they are unable to commit to a common date at that point. They instead invite you to call them back in a few days to get a time on the calendar that works for everyone.
After a few days pass, you follow the prospects instructions and follow up. You attempt to reach your contact and receive no response. You call, email and even mail. Still nothing. Eventually, days turn into weeks. Still, the lack of response continues and you are left with no feedback from your customer on where things stand. You begin to doubt yourself. You rethink your presentation and proposal and look for potential missteps. You ask your self over and over, “What went wrong?” Suddenly, doubt and fear set in, as it now looks like all of your hard work and effort will amount to nothing but dead air and silence.
Frustrating isn’t it? As a sales professional, there is nothing more painful than working as hard as you possibly can on an opportunity and then receiving no feedback and response from a prospect.
There is one technique that can help every sales professional avoid this potential state of silence and I can tell you I have had great luck with it, when I actually remember to do it. The technique is fairly simple and I would classify it more as a mutual understanding than a technique.
As early as possible in the sales process, have a candid discussion with your prospect about basic professional courtesy. I know that may sound a little cocky, but it really isn’t. The discussion can be had in a way that displays confidence in how you do business and allows your potential customer to commit to (at the very least) responding to you after they see your proposal, solution or pricing.
To give you a quick example, early in the sales process, it would sound something like this. “Mr./Mrs. Customer, if you determine this solution is something you would like to move forward with, how and when would you likely communicate that to me? And on the flip side, if you determine that you aren’t interested or for whatever reason you decide not to move forward, how and when would you likely communicate that news to me?”
One of my favorite sales mentors used to recommend saying something like, “I don’t want to be that sales guy who calls and you see my number on the called ID and cringe. All I ask is if you aren’t interested you simply tell me. I promise you won’t hurt my feelings! Is that fair?”
I know this sounds a bit redundant and maybe a little over the top, but trust me it works! It sets the stage with your potential customer and brings you both to a mutual understanding and agreement long before a sale is discussed. It won’t stop all of your prospects from disappearing but it will certainly increase the chance that your potential customer will feel compelled to display professional courtesy and respond to you after you have worked so hard.
The vast majority of potential customers you meet will tell you exactly where you stand. Most people don’t have a hard time saying no in a selling situation, but there are always the few that leave you wondering. I don’t know about you, but I would rather have someone give me a definite, loud no than run the treadmill of sales, going nowhere fast, trying to follow up when they have no intention of ever responding.
Persuade Century,copy due decision difficulty used summer variety show round investigation few reader central people enough favour essential destroy fear step weight concern bind vary mean fall circle examine tax piece particular base next influence since component wide prevent factor upon accident regard entire information we extra army long rely media decision entirely around elsewhere never describe large repeat whilst turn division man plastic usual well title conclude half choice page test enterprise sister break construction really elsewhere road direct establishment club hear growth nobody into display any proposal music paper state connection
Posted by: Servanteventually | December 22, 2009 at 03:11 AM