Tweet

�How a Dead Sale Can Bring Life to Your Career�

Guest post by: Brian Sullivan

Article Overview: �How a Dead Sale Can Bring Life to Your Career�

�How a Dead Sale Can Bring Life to Your Career�

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 clich�, �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.

Related Articles
  Don't Drag a Dead Horse
  SELL SMARTER; NOT HARDER: Part 2
  “Market Research” Story
  Michael Moore, Capitalism, and Dead Peasants Insurance
  Is Cold Calling Dead?
  Small Business Cashflow Crisis? Have a Sale!
  Warning! Dead Parrots Ahead!
  How To Revive A Dead Lead
  Poor Ethics Reflect Poor Business Professionalism & Potentially Poor Business Results
  The Last Blog Post
  How to Get a Call Back From Your Cold Calls
  DON'T LET OBJECTIONS BE THE "KISS OF DEATH" TO YOUR SALE...
  Guerrilla marketing erects monuments to follow-up, honors it, and practices it.
  Sales Lessons from the Grateful Dead - Insurance Sales Training
  Who Is Responsible?
  Shackled to Our Own Ideas
  Don’t Let Dead Links Kill Your Website
  Row Sow Tow Your Boat
  Home Party Sales Success: How To Overcome Buying Objections, Increase Home Party Sales And Get More Home Party Recruits/Business Builders!
  Sales Training London: Don't Lose the Sale Once Youve Closed The Deal

Article Tags: lost client, sales process, sales training, save an account, save the sale



Related Forum Posts
The Second Life Platform - Greetings! I'm not sure how many of you have heard of or are sensitive to Second Life and its related entities. However, Second Life is a fantastic platform to mimmick real life business operations in a real currency based economy. There are plenty of successful stories for creative individuals, but I'd highly suggest doing your research and appreciating Second Life for what it is, and what it isn't.
Congratulations, Evan! - Hope you have a wonderful honeymoon! Bring back some of that sunshine for us!
Re: What's in a Name? - Sale or promotion relies a lot in name chosen for product/business.
Re: The Second Life Platform - [quote="JBunion":fhe23fsu]Greetings! I'm not sure how many of you have heard of or are sensitive to Second Life and its related entities. However, Second Life is a fantastic platform to mimmick real life business operations in a real currency based economy. There are plenty of successful stories for creative individuals, but I'd highly suggest doing your research and appreciating Second Life for what it is, and what it isn't.[/quote:fhe23fsu] Hi JBunion, I've heard about the site. So are you currently a member? And more importantly, have you tried to open a store front in that virtual world?
Re: Charge what you're worth - [quote="Tami Szabo":292ze3jd]People will pay you what you ask. Very few will ever up the price. You are the one who decided what you are worth. The key is that we believe our services are worth the price we are asking.[/quote:292ze3jd] Hi Tami, You're absolutely right. In "Think and Grow Rich", Jessie B. Rittenhouse says "For Life is a just employer, He gives you what you ask, But once you have set the wages, Why, you must bear the task. I worked for a menial's hire Only to learn, dismayed , That any wage I had asked of Life, Life would have willingly paid" (Napoleon Hill 35). I think the same can be said when setting prices on eBay or Craigslist, especially when people are trying to haggle you.


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.

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

Ten Things You Can Do To Be a Better Leader

SEO and the Entrepreneur

3 Health Insurance Misconceptions

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.