Tweet

Great Sales Opportunities That Don't Close

Written by: Dave Kurlan

Article Overview: If getting opportunities into the pipeline is the most universal sales challenge, then getting opportunities closed comes in a close second. I'm talking about prospects who aren't ready to say, "yes" but are still "very interested". These calls pose problems for salespeople for several reasons:

Great Sales Opportunities That Don't Close

If getting opportunities into the pipeline is the most universal sales challenge, then getting opportunities closed comes in a close second. I'm talking about prospects who aren't ready to say, "yes" but are still "very interested". These calls pose problems for salespeople for several reasons:

• Prospects go into hiding and don't take or return calls - from their prospective, the prospects don't need the salesperson right now because they already have the pricing, solution and terms. Therefore, since they haven't made a decision, they have no reason to speak with the salesperson, have nothing to tell the salesperson, and as a result, simply don't take or return the calls.
• Salespeople go into desperation mode - As their inability to reach this "very interested" prospect continues, they don't want to ignore a "good" prospect and don't want someone else to land the business either. So they abandon common sense strategies and tactics, and call repeatedly without compelling reasons to speak.
• Salespeople usually don't know why the prospect is hiding - even though it's usually for the same reasons each time, salespeople don't seem to learn from experience and understand that either they aren't getting the business, the prospect hasn't come up with the money, the prospect hasn't decided who to buy from, it hasn't yet been approved, or there isn't enough urgency to buy it now. While each of these reasons are different, they can all be lumped into the same category - nothing has changed since the last conversation. In other scenarios, the prospects decided not to buy or they bought from someone else. In other words, it's a "no" and the prospect can't justify the time or isn't comfortable letting the salesperson know.

Two questions that must be answered are:

• what can salespeople do to prevent this from happening? This is a very preventable outcome, although you would never think so judging by how prevalent this problem is. There are several reasons why this happens:
  • the salesperson did not identify any or enough compelling reasons for the prospect to buy, and buy from the salesperson. As a result, there wasn't enough urgency for the prospect to take action now - a guaranteed delay.
  • the salesperson was not thorough enough qualifying the opportunity so there were surprises relative to timing, availability of money, decision making, competition and communication left unresolved at closing time.
  • the salesperson presented a solution, provided pricing, and/or developed a proposal prematurely, arriving at the end of the sales cycle alone - without the prospect.
  • the salesperson was uncomfortable asking tough questions about incumbents, competitors and money leaving a gap in his/her understanding of where he/she stands.
  • the salesperson didn't recognize the stalls and put-offs at closing time and gladly accepted the duties of following up because the prospect was "very interested".
  • the salesperson recognized the stalls and put-offs but wasn't comfortable pushing back and challenging the prospect because he/she didn't want to damage the relationship.
  • the salesperson understands the prospect's need to think it over because he/she would do the exact same thing in that scenario.
  • dozens more possibilities but this is an article, not a book!
• What can salespeople do after this has happened to them - again - and what shouldn't they do?
  • they simply must learn from their mistakes. There is no excuse for this to happen more than once.
  • they must identify from the partial list above, why this happens and how to solve that particular issue. HINT - The solutions are in Baseline Selling.
  • Ask for help. The salesperson must know how to effectively reengage this prospect. There must be a compelling reason for the prospect to return to the conversation and it isn't to let the salesperson know if they've made a decision yet! Compelling reasons to reengage take the form of new information, new questions, changes and challenges.
  • don't offer incentives to get them to buy now. If they will purchase because of an incentive, they would have purchased without the incentive and they'll jump to the next competitor that offers a nice incentive to switch.
  • don't get upper management involved. Use them to get a difficult opportunity closed, not just to get someone back to the table.

What would you add to this discussion?

Related Articles
  Profitable Online Business Ideas and the Recession Part 2
  What is the best way to develop my sales skills?
  How can you make more of your customers open your emails?
  Know your magic numbers
  Contribution

Article Tags: common sense, desperation, li li, money, pipeline, prospects, salespeople, salesperson, scenarios, sense strategies, ul, urgency



Related Forum Posts
Re: How to Promote Your Blog – The Definitive Guide to Promoting - Great Post! Dont forget to put your blog in Anchor Text For SEO purposes for the keywords you want when getting backlinks (for example with article marketing)...Very important. You can conquer quite a few small Niches and get your site on the number 1 spot in Google!
Online Sales and Marketing vs Traditional - Hi Evan, I am noticing that many of the posts in the Sales/Marketing section deal with online marketing, SEM and and SEO and Affiliates. I was wondering if it might be a good idea to separate that section into two; 1) Online Sales and Marketing; 2) Traditional Sales and Marketing
Re: How to Promote Your Blog – The Definitive Guide to Promoting - [quote="T.J.":3s4z9eh8]Great Post! Dont forget to put your blog in Anchor Text For SEO purposes for the keywords you want when getting backlinks (for example with article marketing)...Very important. You can conquer quite a few small Niches and get your site on the number 1 spot in Google![/quote:3s4z9eh8] Using the anchor text for your chosen keywords is important for every link you create, internally and externally. Alan
Re: Online Sales and Marketing vs Traditional - [quote="ltrahan":31w9r2iz]Hi Evan, I am noticing that many of the posts in the Sales/Marketing section deal with online marketing, SEM and and SEO and Affiliates. I was wondering if it might be a good idea to separate that section into two; 1) Online Sales and Marketing; 2) Traditional Sales and Marketing[/quote:31w9r2iz] I second the request...
Re: How to Promote a MLM Business? - In MLM a lot of it is hype. I know you like your product but you have to get people in like a circus does. Draw people in with attraction. Depending on your budget you should setup a tent in the parking lot of a mall/grocery store(with their permission or rent the space) and cook-out hotdogs and hamburgers, have a clown doing magic for the kids, make a nice presentation on projection screen. Show your prospects that you are larger than life. Sales is 90% attitude and 10% aptitude. With MLM it is usually simple to understand so make it so simple they cant resist. They should feel dumb if they dont sign-up on the spot. When you have a crowd it is like a feeding frenzy. They will sign-up just because other people are...especially if you have a relatively cheap MLM. You are not going to make any sales if your product in MLM is over $200. I know this part is self promotion but get a wireless credit card machine so you can take payment right on the spot. Dont give them any reason to leave without buying/signing up.


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

Google Panda and Your Search Engine Rankings

How to choose your executive coach -1

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.