Fire Fence Sitters By Eric Slife

Do you have prospects that you swore were going to purchase your product or service? However, months have passed, and they still haven't made a decision.

These so called "prospects" can be detrimental for several reasons. First and foremost, they are probably wasting your time. Take the time spent on these individuals and focus your energy on finding better prospects. Not only is this more productive, but it is more profitable. Second, these individuals drain you emotionally. Nothing can be more frustrating or stressful than to spend countless hours selling to a prospect only to experience negative results.

To determine if a fence sitter is truly a potential client take the following actions:

1. Identify those individuals who have been in your funnel or outlook for an extended period of time. This may vary depending on the complexity of your sale. If you are a sales manager, sit down with your team and have them identify the fence sitters. Be objective. We all like to believe every prospect will purchase our product or service.

2. After you have identified those fence sitters in your funnel, contact them, and use one of the following approaches.

Contact your prospect and explain to them they have had your proposal now for months, and haven't returned any of your calls, so you are going to discard their file. Is there any reason I shouldn't discard their file?

If you thought you had a good relationship with an individual, you can use the following approach. I've tried contacting you several times, but you haven’t responded. Have I done something to offend you?

If you are unable to speak with your contact, you can use this approach as an email or as a voicemail. If you do speak with your contact, state your point and then let your contact speak.

By following the above steps, one of three things will probably happen. First, some of your prospects will be happy to tell you they won't be doing anything for some time. Why? They don't like to tell salespeople, "No." By telling them you are letting them go, you are doing them a favor because you have kept them from saying "No" to you.

The second response will be something like this: "I know we have been dragging out this decision, but we haven't been able to make a decision because…" Once they explain to you their reason for not making a decision, you have been given some valuable information. At this point, start asking additional questions to expand on their response. By doing this, you will have a much clearer picture of your standing with this account.

Finally, some of your prospects may say, "You're right; we've been putting this decision off for some time. Let's get together, so we can get moving on this." Obviously, this is the ideal response, but the first two are also much better than the status quo.

One action you can take to prevent this situation entirely is to get them to commit to you verbally at the very beginning of the sale.

"I really appreciate the opportunity to acquire your business, but I have a couple of requests. If at any, you decide to either go with a competitor or not do anything, will you extend me the courtesy of letting me know immediately?"

"Also, I want to provide you with outstanding service. Sometimes that requires me to call you for additional information. Will you please respond to my calls in a timely fashion?"

Once you get them to commit to this, you will have a prospect that feels more obligated to return calls and not keep you in the dark. If later in the sale they aren’t returning your call, politely remind them of this previous conversation.

You can continue to hold on to hope for these prospects that are simply window dressing for your sales outlook, or you can focus your efforts on prospects that are ready and have the means to purchase your product or service.

About The Author: Eric Slife is President of Slife Sales Training, Inc. which owns SalesTrainingCamp.com. SalesTrainingCamp.com helps entrepreneurs, small business owners, and sales professionals increase their revenues and profit margins by teaching them more effective consultative, low pressure sales strategies and techniques. They have affordable tools designed for both large and small businesses. Register at www.SalesTrainingCamp.com for their free Sales Tip of The Week and receive over $200 in free products and services.

Fire Fence Sitters By Eric Slife - To learn more about this author, visit Eric Slife's Website.

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