Archives for June 2015

Most salespeople know a lot and totally misuse the knowledge. They feel compelled to dispense what they know to the prospect in great detail and at the slightest provocation, thinking all the while that they are building credibility and demonstrating why the prospect should buy from them. Think about that for a while and then think how you react to salespeople who do that to you when you are the buyer. In reality, the best use of your knowledge is as a basis from which to ask questions. If you know the product and know the industry then you can ask more intelligent questions and glean more information than the novice who can only ask superficial questions. You will be able to recognize pain indicators when you hear them and follow up to get to the compelling reason to buy. Meanwhile, the novice misses the opportunity to follow up because they do not understand or appreciate the significance of what the prospect says. You know a lot and when you use that knowledge correctly then you have a much better chance of demonstrating your knowledge y the intelligent questions you ask.

If you are not selling enough check your commitment. It is not the commitment to work hard that is most important. It is not even the commitment to working smart (whatever that means) that matters. What matters is your commitment to follow your sales process. You don’t just quote because the prospect asked you to if they are not yet qualified. You don’t make premature presentations. You ask the tough questions. You talk about money naturally. You do all of the things you know you have to do but sometimes avoid. If you are not committed to doing all of these things then you not expect the prospect to make commitments to buy from you. If you do your par the rest will take care of itself. By the way, if you don’t have a sales process that you follow religiously, then be committed to get one and follow it.

To determine the prospect’s compelling reason to buy we need to understand more than what the problem is. We need to understand and get the prospect to verbalize what consequences the prospect will have (or is having) if the problem is not addressed. If the consequences are not severe, then you may be dealing with a situation where it would be nice to have the problem addressed but there is no compelling reason to fix it now. If there is no compelling reason to address the problem the sale will be derailed by even the slightest obstacle. Understanding what will happen if the problem is not addressed gets you one step closer to understanding the pain the prospect is in and whether there is urgency to eliminate it. Remember that it is extremely important to have the prospect verbalize the pain. It is not enough that you know that it must exist based on your experience.