The 2 ways you can fail to make a sale

Hi everyone,

This post will maybe be valuable to you if you sell face-to-face with a potential client, because what I’m going to do, is help you adopt the mindset of the prospect you’re in front of.

You see, once you’re in front of a potential client there is only two things they can do to prevent you making a sale.

They can:

• Object

or they can,

• Reject

Now, let’s look at what both of those terms mean.

Clients sometimes need help to buy and they do this by objecting to your initial proposal

Objection, in itself, isn’t really a problem for you. Lots of my satisfied customers initially objected to my proposals on the grounds of price or suitability or colour or any number of other minor details. An objection like this is seldom, if ever, a barrier to making a sale. Generally, it’s a request for more information or for a reassurance that they are doing the right thing. It’s like serving a meal to someone and them saying, “Oh, I’m not keen on peas.” All you have to say is, “Oh, I don’t like peas either, that’s why I always serve petite pois…”

You see? It’s just reassurance they wanted and you gave them empathy by being Just Like Them (Remember this phrase, it’s super important)

Rejection on the other hand is more serious but “no” almost never means “no, no, no, not ever, not even if you were to give me my own private island and a harem of golden voiced mermaids. NO – NO WAY – GET OUT!”

People don’t say that do they?

“No” generally means one of two things:

• No, not like that

or,

• No, not just now

Now, “Not like that” is easy to deal with on the day. All you need to do is get the prospect to define HOW they would like to own your product. It’s that simple. Ask the prospect to explain to you the situation and circumstances that would need to be in existence to fulfill their ownership of your product or service, Then, CREATE THEM! Easy!

(This is an example of a HOW conversation)

“Not just now” is a bit tougher to deal with on the day so be prepared to make a call-back. What we need to do here is to define the time-scale between today and a point in the future that ownership can occur and what, if anything, will need to happen between those 2 dates to make ownership inevitable. What you need to be asking is questions like, “When will the Director be back in the office?” “When would be convenient to demonstrate this to the boss” “When do you feel you will be able to consider your childs educational needs?” That sort of thing.

(This is an example of a WHEN conversation)

Really, a time rejection is just a lesson in diary management. If they say, “Oh, I can definitely do something about this in the summer” you HAVE to have a mechanism in place to actually BE THERE in the summer! Otherwise another salesperson will get the benefit of your hard work because believe me, the prospect WILL BUY FROM SOMEONE! And that someone should be YOU.

You have to diarise the return visit in the face of a time based objection

The best salespeople I have met and worked with have always had two characteristics above any others.

They are:

• Organisation 

and,

• Resilience

The best salespeople NEVER get ground down by either OBJECTIONS or REJECTIONS because they know that these client states are simply natural moments on the client’s journey through the sales process.

So, stay UPBEAT! Use the information that a client gives you to make it easier and easier to address the needs of other prospects like them, and enjoy the fact that you have call-backs in your diary that are warm “pre-closed” individuals to call on in the future.

In sales, the only thing that stands in your way is yourself – NOT the prospect.

©TVSM2013

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• Enjoyable?
• Enlightening?
• Motivational?

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