Do your sales die an early death? Here’s how to avoid it.
With Memorial Day Weekend upon us, it’s time not only to grill burgers, go to sporting events, and open up the swimming pools, it’s time to honor the veterans who have given the ultimate sacrifice for our country. Those brave men and women have made many things possible – including giving me the ability to sit here blogging on my laptop instead of digging a ditch somewhere. I give a hearty “thank you” to each and every one of them.
I decided, in that spirit (and yes, it’s a huge stretch, but bear with me) to memorialize the places where good sales go to die. In my career, I’ve seen many great salespeople open sales dialogues, have great conversations, and never get the business. That’s when a good sale dies – and here are the three most common places and ways that good sales die.
- Never knowing the result. The most common place a good sale dies is here, with a salesperson who never asks the right questions to understand the result that the buyer has in mind. People don’t buy products. They buy the result of using or owning that product. Unfortunately, too many salespeople never know the buyer’s desired result because they don’t ask what it is. In fact, too many salespeople don’t really ask any substantive questions – they just ‘show up and throw up,’ giving the buyer a laundry list of specifications and features. When you do that, you force the buyer to interpret those features and benefits into his/her own result – and many times, the buyer instead simply finds another salesperson or product. Even a highly motivated buyer can have his purchasing momentum killed by a sales call that isn’t focused on his desired results and needs. Solution: Ask plenty of results focused questions before presenting.
- The Chase Cycle. We all know what this one looks like. You have a buyer who appears to be motivated. You’ve had a great sales call. Maybe you’ve asked the right questions, made the right presentations, and gotten commitment to evaluate a proposal. Then……the buyer goes silent. And never comes back. What in the heck just happened? You call, you leave messages, and those messages are never returned. That’s not good. You just found yourself in the “Chase Cycle.” The “Chase Cycle” happens when a sales communication ends on an open-ended promise to “get back with each other,” and one party doesn’t fulfill. Think of your communications as a chain. One link leads to the next link, and the easiest time to forge the next link is while you’re on the current link. Solution: End each sales conversation with a firm commitment, including time and place, for the next contact – and put it on each other’s calendars.
- No close. I’ve maintained for most of my career that, done correctly, the close is the natural conclusion to the selling process. I’ve maintained that because it’s true. If you go through my “Sell Like You Mean It” sales training program, the unit on closing takes about 20 minutes – of a 16 hour program! That doesn’t mean that the close itself is unimportant; it just means that the closing technique is unimportant. Make no mistake, even in today’s world with today’s educated and informed buyers, the question that confirms the sale still needs to be asked. The reason that salespeople don’t ask it is FEAR. They’re afraid that they’ll offend the customer, that the customer will cut off the relationship, etc. Nothing could be further from the truth. After you offer a proposal, you owe it to yourself and to your customer to ask the closing question. The proposal signifies that you and your customer have exchanged enough information for the customer to make a buying decision – so ask then. Solution: Never offer a proposal without asking for the business.
These, of course, aren’t the only places that good sales go to die – but they’re the most common, and if you can avoid them, you’ll increase your likelihood of winning business. And you won’t have to “memorialize” as many lost sales.
