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So far, I have posted a lot of content which tells you about general mistakes in a sales call. Today we are going to talk about the situation when you do everything right but still get a “MAYBE” as an answer.
Most people subconsciously avoid decision making after the first conversation. Every sales guru knows and advises that one needs to adjust their conversation to guide the prospect to come to a decision. This can be tricky as salespeople can become very pushy. So the big question is: how do we guide the conversation while still making the prospect feel like they’re in control?
There is a very simple solution for this: set up an agenda before the meeting. It will align you and your prospect on a plan for the meeting and make sure you’re both on the same page and moving forward together toward one of three outcomes:
By following the above process, you are avoiding a limbo stage. The main advantage of this process is that you are saving valuable time on the lead follow-ups. This can feel awkward at first but if you practice it in your next meeting and make it your own, you will start seeing positive results that you’ll want to use again and again. If you have any specific questions or suggestions about the implementation of this process, we are here to help!
When I first started selling, I often experienced the following scenario.
I’d have a meeting thinking I totally nailed it, only for the prospect to go dark after my attempts to follow up.
What the heck was I doing wrong? Well there were a few things, I’d made a classic error: I’d fail to uncover the secret objection my prospect still had at the end of our conversation.
Unless you directly ask, it’s easy for a prospect not to reveal their actual objections to buying. Not only is it too hard for a prospect to pin down the objection on their own, but there’s a stigma associated with rejection, and they don’t want to feel like a bad person by doing it to you.
Also, although the prospect realised both a pain and solution, they were still stuck with an existing process and habit which is hard to break.
On my side, there was still a lot of work to do if I wanted to consistently move these deals forward. The way you can motivate someone to make a change is to continue to play investigator. A few questions I like to use are:
These questions sound basic, but surprisingly very few have a habit of explicitly asking them.
What is your strategy to face this situation? Leave your thoughts and comments below!
(Source: Flickr)
Here I am with another live experience and a valuable lesson and situation that sales people face on daily basis. I experience this scenario every other day.
Sometimes a prospect will try to push you into giving a demo early in a conversation – we’ll talk about how to avoid this later in subsequent posts in details, but if it happens, here’s a quick fix.
Let’s say you’re selling an amazing product to a prospect over the phone:
PROSPECT: “We need a new system and are evaluating options. Can you show me a demo?”
YOU: “Happy to do a demo. I want to make sure I show you the right parts of our system so do you mind if I ask you a few questions first so we can make the best use of our time?”
PROSPECT: “Sure.” (Most of the time)
Instead of getting straight into the demo, frame your first questions in a way that shows you’re trying to help them get the most for their time (which you will be) and they’ll appreciate it. Also make sure to note down every response and write down corresponding product solution points with your prospect’s responses.
I call this process “earning the right to pitch.” Next, I’ll walk you through a verbal tactic you can pair this with to close deals faster and more consistently.
Have you or someone on your team started selling the solution before you’ve ‘earned the right to pitch’?
Ultimately, they are the ones responsible for driving the sales of the company. This is why caution sould be exercised when hiring sales people.
Hiring ineffective sales people is of no use to a company, but evaluating the skill of a salesperson during the time of recruitment can be very difficult. In times of financial difficulty and in poor environments, recruiters have no idea how good a salesperson actually is. This is because most of the recruits will not have prior experience and gainful employment in harsh economic and social conditions. Here are some tips to help you hire sales people easily and efficiently. Selecting the best is tricky and should trail the following rules:
Screening candidates for interview is not enough to identify the strongest ones, it gives you direction of what they achieved, where they worked but never what they can and will achieve within your organization if you hire them. Using a proven sales assessment tool is essential to uncover the candidate’s abilities to sell, grow, and achieve like a rain maker.
The above rules are important because every organization wants to hire the best but they might not be able to afford the best. In this situation, it is better to screen the potentials as shown above.
You don’t need to look at a salesperson’s past experiences if you can simulate a situation that they will be facing in the position they are being interviewed for. You can get recruiters to act as potential clients and customers to whom the interviewee must pitch. This is one of best assessment effectiveness methods as you can gauge the communication skills, people skills and ethics of the candidate. Recruiters involved in sales people hiring also get to see how well the candidate performs under pressure.
Even in a poor environment, you will always have a number of candidates. Make sure you have initial filtering sessions where candidates are eliminated also based on their communication and written skills. After this, you must carefully note their appearance, bearing and responses to see if they have all the qualities to become excellent salespeople. First and foremost, they must be dressed well – not shabbily and not gaudily either and they must exude confidence and calmness. Contrary to popular belief, salespeople must be modest, curious and polite and not brash and aggressive. Taking mental aptitude tests is also a great way to improve sales people assessment effectiveness.
A sign of a good salesperson is how he/she picks up what is not being said but implied, understanding exactly what is needed. When you are interviewing candidates, make sure to keep your questions vague and open to see if the candidates are able to figure out what you are looking for. Candidates need to think harder and need to be smart about their answers when confronted with such open questions, but it is a great way to understand how quick and sharp the candidates are.
Classify the candidates screened, assessed and interviewed from the highest to the lowest score for an easy final decision and always use the Sales Ghost Calculator to find how much a bad hire will cost your organization.
