“How a Dead Sale Can Bring Life to Your Career”
“How a Dead Sale Can Bring Life to Your Career”
Three days later when you follow up, the decision-maker who you met with tells you they decided to stick with their current supplier but thanks you for coming by. In the next three minutes your body and mind goes through four of the five stages of the Dying Sale…Denial, Anger, Bargaining, and Depression.
Denial-It couldn’t have happened! Anger-What a jerk! Bargaining-Maybe I should cut my price even more? Depression-Oh my goodness, how could this have happened! So what do you do from here? Should you tell the prospect they are making a huge mistake and that in the long run, it will cost them? Or perhaps you should throw out the great rejection cliché, “Are you sure you were comparing apples to apples?” Or why not hit them right between the eyes and ask them what I KNOW you are thinking, “Okay Phyllis! Did you just play me so you can get a better cost out of your current supplier?”
Well as much as your heart and mouth are dying to tell the prospect they made a tragic mistake that they will regret for the rest of their lives, you must get to the ACCEPTANCE stage as quickly as possible. And from there your next steps should be the following:
• Sincerely (yes SINCERELY) thank them for the opportunity
• Ask them a question that helps you learn from the experience. “Phyllis, I was wondering if you could help me. Was there something better I could have done to earn your business?” Remember, more lessons are learned from failure than success, so don’t miss the opportunity.
• Drop a thank you note in the mail.
• Tell them that you will always be here and will continue to work hard to earn the opportunity to serve them
Then create a plan to keep your name in front of them over the next 12 months. One good way to do this is by creating a monthly newsletter sharing with them anecdotes of how your service helped your clients become happier and more productive. You could also provide valuable information about new products that your competition is neglecting to tell them about. Add industry trends and news that they would find value in. And personalize it with a picture of you being YOU. Maybe it’s a picture of you showing a prospect a new technology. Or maybe it’s just you hanging out with your kids at a on a recent vacation! Just make sure that the newsletter hits their logic and emotion. In other words, it should make them smarter while at the same time create a personal connection with you. Does creating a newsletter like this take time? Sure, but sales you get as result will far outweigh the time invested.
And here’s the good news. The day will come when your competition slips up. And when they do, that prospect will think of you first because of how you handled the first rejection and how you continued to find ways to serve them. And once you get the account, you will then be able ACCEPT the fact that the first rejection was nothing more than the first essential step in the creation of one of your best long term customers.
How a Dead Sale Can Bring Life to Your Career - To learn more about this author, visit Brian Sullivan's Website.
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You get a call from a dream prospect who says they want to meet with you to discuss their budget and purchase plans for 2009. Yippee! If you could only land this account, 2009 will be looking like your best year ever. And you are determined to do everything in your power to make it happen. To prepare for the meeting, you spend several hours researching the clients web site, putting marketing materials together, collecting customer testimonials and organizing your pricing information. You drive two hours to the meeting, build great rapport with decision-makers, ask relevant questions, energetically convey your solution, skillfully overcome their objections and deliver what you consider to be a competitive pricing structure. In short, YOU NAILED IT! They tell you they will review your materials and seem very appreciative of efforts. You walk out of the office, confidant that you gave it your best and that the effort WILL be rewarded.
Three days later when you follow up, the decision-maker who you met with tells you they decided to stick with their current supplier but thanks you for coming by. In the next three minutes your body and mind goes through four of the five stages of the Dying Sale…Denial, Anger, Bargaining, and Depression.
Denial-It couldn’t have happened! Anger-What a jerk! Bargaining-Maybe I should cut my price even more? Depression-Oh my goodness, how could this have happened! So what do you do from here? Should you tell the prospect they are making a huge mistake and that in the long run, it will cost them? Or perhaps you should throw out the great rejection cliché, “Are you sure you were comparing apples to apples?” Or why not hit them right between the eyes and ask them what I KNOW you are thinking, “Okay Phyllis! Did you just play me so you can get a better cost out of your current supplier?”
Well as much as your heart and mouth are dying to tell the prospect they made a tragic mistake that they will regret for the rest of their lives, you must get to the ACCEPTANCE stage as quickly as possible. And from there your next steps should be the following:
• Sincerely (yes SINCERELY) thank them for the opportunity
• Ask them a question that helps you learn from the experience. “Phyllis, I was wondering if you could help me. Was there something better I could have done to earn your business?” Remember, more lessons are learned from failure than success, so don’t miss the opportunity.
• Drop a thank you note in the mail.
• Tell them that you will always be here and will continue to work hard to earn the opportunity to serve them
Then create a plan to keep your name in front of them over the next 12 months. One good way to do this is by creating a monthly newsletter sharing with them anecdotes of how your service helped your clients become happier and more productive. You could also provide valuable information about new products that your competition is neglecting to tell them about. Add industry trends and news that they would find value in. And personalize it with a picture of you being YOU. Maybe it’s a picture of you showing a prospect a new technology. Or maybe it’s just you hanging out with your kids at a on a recent vacation! Just make sure that the newsletter hits their logic and emotion. In other words, it should make them smarter while at the same time create a personal connection with you. Does creating a newsletter like this take time? Sure, but sales you get as result will far outweigh the time invested.
And here’s the good news. The day will come when your competition slips up. And when they do, that prospect will think of you first because of how you handled the first rejection and how you continued to find ways to serve them. And once you get the account, you will then be able ACCEPT the fact that the first rejection was nothing more than the first essential step in the creation of one of your best long term customers.
How a Dead Sale Can Bring Life to Your Career - To learn more about this author, visit Brian Sullivan's Website.
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David BarrDavid 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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Cheryl MatthynssensCheryl is a life skills coach, licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor and a 20 year entrepreneur. Cheryl's dedication to achieving a life of balance led to her expanding her teaching from the simple managing of life's daily challenges to adding financial well being as well. A direct marketer with DrinkACT, she is gaining ground in the online community with her concepts of making sure business owners, entreprenuers and employees have well rounded life styles. She opened up a small affiliate site - The Balance Guide- to help others find resources for mental and emotional well being. Visit Cheryl's blog to see more of the diversity beyond business she has began offering online at www.thebalanceguide.blogspot.com - Visit Cheryl Matthynssens's Website |
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Anne BarrAnne Barr has over 26 years experience in sales and marketing, six years as a franchisee. She has assisted over 367 business owners and purchasers to achieve their goals in career change, transition and exit strategy. She holds the designation of Certified Franchise Executive from the International Franchise Association, Certified Business Intermediary from the International Business Brokers Association and Board Certified Broker from the Texas Association of Business Brokers. Anne is active in professional organizations, networking groups and volunteers for non-profit entities. As owner/operator of four successful businesses, Anne has proven people skills and enjoys helping clients find the right "fit" in business ownership. Visit www.FranchiseOpportunitySpecialist.com for more information about me and my company. - Visit Anne Barr's Website |
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John BrennanJohn Brennan Ed.D. Dr. Brennan is President of Interpersonal Development, LLC, a training and development firm. Interpersonal Development has provided sales training and coaching to more than 3,000 sales reps from over 100 companies. A native of Australia, Dr. Brennan received his doctorate from the University of Rochester. His dissertation researched the effectiveness of Behavioral Modeling Technology in training people in interpersonal skills. While he has spent most of his career designing or delivering training, he was also a Vice-President of Sales of a training and development franchise with operations in 25 markets. Dr. Brennan has designed and delivered sales training in North America, Asia, Europe, Australia and the Middle East. He has been a guest speaker at numerous national and regional professional conferences. When Microsoft wanted Best Practices articles on sales for their web site, they called Dr. Brennan. The results are at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/FX011387391033.aspx His firm’s clients have included Volvo, The Prudential, Merrill Lynch, Eastman Kodak, Gannett, Equifax Europe, the Economist Group and countless small businesses. - Visit John Brennan's Website |
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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Staging DivaDebra Gould, aka The Staging Diva®, is President of Six Elements Inc., an internationally recognized home staging company. Inspired by many requests from aspiring home stagers wanting to start similar businesses, Gould created the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. Gould has trained over 1000 Staging Diva Graduates worldwide to start staging businesses. Buying decorating and selling six of her own homes in four years lead to an interest in real estate staging which she turned into a career with the launch of sixelements.com in 2002. Since then she has staged hundreds of homes in addition to teaching home staging training. Gould is the author of several home staging resources including a series of popular ebooks made up of a Design Guide, Color Guide and Portfolio Guide. For more information about Debra Gould visit stagingdiva.com. - Visit Staging Diva's Website |
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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