You feel as though you have done everything right. You have connected well with your prospect, they have explained their business and relevant personal issues and you are working directly with the person who has the authority and ability to make the decision. They have given you all the right buying signals but the only problem is you can’t get them to sign on the dotted line and now they aren’t returning your calls.
In order to jumpstart a stalled sale, you must first diagnose the reasons behind it. The problem may not be that the sale stalls, the problem is that we just don't recognize it soon enough and waste valuable time and resources on dead-end opportunities.
Little connection to a critical business issue
How is your solution addressing a business issue for your customer or prospect? For each opportunity in your sales pipeline answer this question:
Why does your prospect want to buy this product or service?
If you cannot communicate how your solution can
• Improve revenue, productivity, qualify or efficiency
• Save time or money
• Solve a critical problem, challenge or frustration that the business is facing
You can expect your sale to stall. Business owners and Senior Executives only spend time on matters that directly impact their business. If cannot identify a business reason and you want to jumpstart the sale, try to meet with your prospect again to discuss their critical business issues rather than your solutions.
Customers Are Busy
The end of a sale often becomes difficult when your customer or prospect stops returning your calls and emails, overnight. It appears as though they have lost interest and the sale has gone cold….. Or has it?
Many of us find it difficult to get everything done during work day or experience unexpected problems which take our focus elsewhere and your customers are no different. In fact, the better the prospect the busier they are likely to be.
It is important not to panic at this stage and let the customer or prospect fall away or to annoy them with endless phone calls and messages.
Keep momentum by maintaining regular contact, acknowledge your client is busy and perhaps ask them when would be an appropriate day or time for you to call and follow-up.
"I Want to Think it Over"
When a customer says, "I want to think it over," this may not always be the case. Some are actually saying "thanks but not thanks" to avoid a potentially negative and uncomfortable situation and some genuinely do want to think it over or talk to their business partner. The important thing is to know the difference between the two.
Some people just need a little push and a little help to make the decision. They may find making decisions difficult and are afraid of making the wrong decision. To many, no decision is the best decision.
When the prospect says, "I want to think it over," it is important to acknowledge and respect what the client says. Smile and say "that's a good idea, this is an important decision and I completely understand your need to think about it" which will help the prospect to relax.
It important now to leave now or you will lose this person as a prospect and being the never-ending game of phone tag and follow-up.
Ask the prospect "Obviously you have a good reason for wanting to think it over. May I ask what the reason is?”
This gives you the opportunity to see how genuine the prospect is and to uncover their real concerns and objections and say “If we could do this, would that solve the problem?
Fear of Rejection
A major obstacle to selling is the fear of rejection or criticism. This fear can jeopardize all your hard work asyour sales simply slip through your fingers and go cold.
Fear of rejection is a geniune emotion that many people in sales experience at one point or another and can be overcome through practice and by changing your mindset about sales and follow-up. Sales is not about being pushy and arrogant, it is about you communicate your ability to help and solve problems.
Did you know that one of the biggest complaints consumers have about salespeople is that they don’t follow up?
Your customers are busy too, so making a quick courtesy call to see how the decision is progressing may actually be doing them a favour. Who knows, they may have been meaning to call you all along but have simply been too busy.
What to do when the sale stalls - To learn more about this author, visit Karen Andrews's Website.
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David Barr
David Barr is the President of Venture Opportunities, Inc. David has been a professional business broker/intermediary since 1980 focusing on General Business Brokerage and Mergers and Acquisitions representing client transaction value from $400,000 to $20,000,000. Mr. Barr has handled the sale of over four hundred and fifty companies. David earned a university degree from the State University of New York majoring in economics and business.
David holds the Mergers and Acquisition Master Intermediary and the Certified Business Intermediary designations from the International Business Brokers Association. He is also a Senior Business Analyst and a Texas licensed Real Estate Agent. For more information about David and Venture Opportunities, visit www.bizdealmaker.com. - Visit David Barr's Website |
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Karen Andrews
(Visit Karen's Website)
As Director of Shine Sales Solutions,
Karen provides sales solutions for small
and medium sized businesses that make a
real difference to their bottom line. She
does this by offering advice, guidance and
tools that assist business owners to
understand the sales process and develop
the sales skills required to grow their
business.
Whether it be managing sales staff to
ensure consistent sales results or working
1 on 1 to develop your sales skills, she
believes in giving people the tools that
they need to build their business. This
includes the important face to face skills
that business owners need to talk about
their business.
Karen has over 10 years experience in
managing new business development
campaigns for major companies in
industries such as Office Equipment,
Telecommunications and Information
Technology. During her career, Karen
recognised an opportunity to assist those
who don’t have any background in sales and
don’t necessarily like doing it, but have
no choice but to develop the skills to
ensure their business succeeds.
If you would like to improve the sales
performance of your business, contact
Shine Sales Solutions on +612 94376500 or
sale
s@shinesales.com.au
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