Over the past few weeks, I have had more and more conversations about the difficulty in closing business. Sales people and business owners alike have expressed concern in the lack of interest their prospect has to do business with them. They tell me the buyer just isn’t buying, the competition is too strong or indecision is running rampant.
After carefully listening to their dilemma, I ask questions like these:
1. What were their buying signals – the triggers that drove you to know how they would be making a decision?
2. What “call to action” do you ask of them before they leave or hang up the phone?
3. What is your follow up process?
Their answers clearly defined why they weren’t closing more deals. If you are struggling with your response to those three questions and also experiencing the challenge of building your business, let me give you some suggestions.
1. What were their buying signals – the triggers that drove you to know how they would be making a decision?
My husband was recently looking for a car for my daughter. In talking with dealers, he stated early in the conversation that price was a main factor. After speaking with a handful of sales people (and I use that term very loosely), not one asked him how much was he planning on spending. Not one!
In turning an inquiry into dollars you must pay attention to hot buttons and sell to them. This does not require negotiation skills, or the art of persuasiveness…it requires just the opposite…the ability to listen and sell to what the prospect wants to hear – not what you want to say.
Too often the person selling spends more time talking than listening. Think about the last couple of deals you lost. If we were looking at a video of the conversation, what would we see? Would you be explaining the features, benefits and the reason to buy? Or, would we observe you leading the conversation through a series of questions that uncover what is important to the buyer; and, then watch you sell to those buying signals?
I will cover Question 2 in my next blog – stay tuned.
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Great blog topic, Trudy... I have had several experiences recently, where I was ready to buy or desired more information about products for sale, called the seller several times and received not a single call back. I'm mystified in today's recessional economy how sales people fail to return calls. I think part of the problem is the culture of sales has become so money focussed that companies fail to train or instruct their sales staff on relationship building and exceeding the clients expectations... very thought provoking... thanks...:)
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