Tweet

Selling Tips Dealing With Difficult Prospects

Written by: Glenn Ebersole

Article Overview: A couple years ago during Small Business Week I met Bill Brooks and learned about The Brooks Group. Bill is another one of those people who I "listen to" - and more importantly "HEAR" when he speaks. In the October IMPACT Sales Bulletin from The Brooks Group, Bill authored an article which discusses "difficult prospects" and the reasons they give you such a hard time. I found the article to be "right on target" and wanted you to have the benefit of this insightful article that follows below:

Selling Tips Dealing With Difficult Prospects

Selling Tips - Dealing With Difficult Prospects
By: J. Glenn Ebersole, Jr., Chief Executive of J. G. Ebersole Associates and The Renaissance Group™

A couple years ago during Small Business Week I met Bill Brooks and learned about The Brooks Group. Bill is another one of those people who I "listen to" - and more importantly "HEAR" when he speaks. In the October IMPACT Sales Bulletin from The Brooks Group, Bill authored an article which discusses "difficult prospects" and the reasons they give you such a hard time. I found the article to be "right on target" and wanted you to have the benefit of this insightful article that follows below:

Why Is Your Prospect So Difficult? -by Bill Brooks

Have you ever encountered a prospect who seemed to question everything you say, do or suggest? If you have, you're not alone.

In my 25-year sales career, I have encountered the same types of problematic prospects that you have. I have concluded that there are eight basic reasons that prospects build these walls of resistance against sales professionals' products and services.

Here they are:

1. Lack of knowledge regarding your product or service. This may very well be the single reason that your prospect is so resistant to you. When a prospect does not understand the nature of your product or service, he or she is also unaware that a need for that product or service may exist. Lack of knowledge must be met with education. It is your duty to educate your prospect about your product or service.

2. A skeptical prospect is a difficult prospect. This prospect might be disbelieving about the value of your product or service or the things that you say about it. Perhaps the best way to convince such a skeptic is to prove your claims in order to overcome his or her disbelief.

3. The need to compare is another reason that your prospect is hesitant to make a positive decision with regard to your offer. The prospect who always feels the need to compare your product or service with that of your competitor should, of course, always be accommodated. An important thing for you to remember is never, under any circumstances, insult your competitor to a prospect. This practice is unprofessional and will cause your prospect to question your honesty.

4. Ease of acquisition or difficulty of acquisition is another reason for success or failure. How easy is it to do business with you? Is it a chore or a pleasure? Is it something that makes the trip worth the destination or is it so burdensome that prospects would rather not deal with you?

5. Not having a complete story or not understanding what you, your product, or its related benefits and what it can do for the prospect is another issue. Remember, people will not act on incomplete information.

6. Poor presentation on your part can be another barrier between you and the prospect. If you fail to effectively present the value of your product or service, then your chances of completing the sale are significantly diminished. The only advice that is of any value here is to improve your presentation skills.

7. Inadequate product performance is a big reason why many prospects resist salespeople. A product or service that does not measure up to a prospect's expectations is worthless to any prospect. Prospects who have had bad experiences in the past with a product or service that is comparable to yours will also be difficult to sell to.

8. A similar barrier between you and your prospect is prejudice against you and/or your product or service. Any negative experience that a prospect has had in the past with a comparable product or service is sure to be remembered. Anything negative that your prospect has heard about you and/or your product is sure to negatively affect your chances of making the sale. In terms of the way that your prospect views you, if he or she has any prejudices about you as a salesperson, then you are sure to encounter resistance because of this prejudice.

Identifying the root cause of prospect resistance is the first step to overcoming this unfortunate barrier to the sale. When you are able to understand why a prospect is consistently resistant to you, your product or service, or both, then you are better able to work around these barriers.

While some prospects will never buy from you regardless of how hard you try to overcome these barriers, your ability to identify the reasons behind prospect resistance will surely give you a key advantage in your sales career.

Source: www.thebrooksgroup.com

If you want more information on how to deal with those difficult prospets, please contact Glenn Ebersole at jgeprman@aol.com

Related Articles
  Dealing with Sales Objections: Competitors
  Ten Key Facts About Dealing With Difficult People You Must Know
  10 More Tips On Preparing For The Call
  Why is Selling So Difficult?
  Difficult People - General Principles

Article Tags:



Related Forum Posts
Business Tips - How about: Tips for managers to handle employees more effectively? Tips on how to deal with difficult customers? Tips on how to deal more effectively with suppliers? The only three I have in mind right now, but will try to come up with something else. Chris
Simple way to avoid Cold Calling - Gary, A chiropractor I work with hates cold calling (me too!) and he uses a technique to warm people up to using his services - it's so simple! In Sales your dealing with 3 pools of people: 1. Strangers 2. Prospects 3. Returning Customers You need to move people from one pool to the next. We'll concentrate on #1 and #2 as it's most relevant to your question. My Clients does the following (you just have to tailor it to your situation - be creative). My Client (we'll call him Bob) Bob leverages his time and resources to only get people that need his offer (pain relief) to put their hand up. Dealing with Strangers can get expensive and they don't like to be told what to do as they have no trust or relationship built with him. So to get Strangers to put their hands up he writes up an offer with a free report on a particular pain relief - let's say lower back pain (note: he can simply just change lower back pain to neck pain and have a new report). and uses multiple marketing vehicles to promote the Free report - magazines, newspaper, forums, postcards, private clinics etc. The only people picking up this information are the very people Bob would like as customers as they have Lower back pain. Bob's Free report ends with him stating his services and includes a Free in-house Consultation with no obligation. You'd be surprised at how easily Bob converts Strangers into Prospects. Note: They become prospects when they ask for the Free Guide and in exchange provide their contact details. This gives Bob unlimited opportunity to contact them for the Free in-house consultation with no obligation to continue using him. At this stage Bob's ability to close the sale lies in his office providing good customer service, Bob's ability to help the prospect and provide value at the free in-house consultation. Notice, he hasn't had to pick up the phone to COLD-CALL his Stranger pool or his Prospect pool. Hope that example helps to increase your prospecting!
Re: how many hours do you spend in here per day? - Difficult to say.... I'd say I'm here an average of 30 minutes a day.... there's only five folders that I read every day... others I only read if there's some interesting post title...
Re: Email Etiquette - [quote="jvprosperity":24jznj58] The P.S. suggestion is good but it depends on the type of communication (e.g. Autoresponder series verses one off emails to Clients or Prospects)[/quote:24jznj58] Andy, You are right. I was mainly referring to Auto Responder emails. To end a normal email, I attach signatures. Takuya
Young Entrepreneur in International trading - I just turned 21 last week, and I currently own a international trading company doing trades between China, Taiwan, Thailand, and west coast of US and starting out in Canada soon. Dealing with gift items and general merchandise. We are also trying to sell some of the stuff we import as retail and wholesale products on the internet and to retail venders as we do have a lot of extra pallets that gets left over from our buyers.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Sales Training – Top Salespeople Are Not Dunces

Mistakes Made by New or Inexperienced Sales Staff

Business Coach Explains To You How To Add Value

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.