Here’s the hypothetical selling scenario. Let’s suppose that I am a qualified prospect. I have a need, not a want. I am the economic buyer and I am willing AND able to invest in your services. And I am also the power buyer. Now let’s add one more data point. I like salespeople because I work with sales teams every week. I am an easy sale!
So why didn’t I buy your product or services?
#1: No pre-call planning or preparation. When I meet with a salesperson, I ask a pretty simple question. “What do you know about SalesLeadership?” Too often I hear answers such as:
“Well, it looks like you do sales and sales management training and speaking.” What they fail to mention is that we also teach emotional intelligence skills in all of our programs, which is our key differentiator in the market.
This vague answer always makes me wonder if the salesperson even invested five minutes on our website or my LinkedIn profile. It would only take a small amount of pre-call planning to prepare better answers and questions such as, “What made you bring EQ training into your current programs? What’s been the biggest area of improvement you’ve seen in sales or sales leadership because of this type of training?”
Plan and prepare for meetings. Focus on quality conversations rather than quantity conversations.
#2: Not fully present. This ties in with point number one. If the salesperson had done any pre-call planning, read any of my blogs or excerpts from my books, they know I rant and rave about paying attention.
More than one salesperson has brought a cellphone to a first sales meeting with me, setting the phone directly in front of them for fear they will miss incoming messages. This also happens in virtual sales meetings. The cell phone is carefully placed below the computer monitor. How do I know? Because the salesperson keeps glancing down to check messages. I see the top of their eyelids more than I see their eyes. Not a great way to build rapport and trust.
Since I didn’t “feel the love” I also didn’t feel the need to partner with you.
#3: Generic Recommendations. A few years ago I met with a salesperson who did a really great job of building rapport and equally great job executing the discovery stage of the sales call.
However, that is where the great selling stopped.
When it came time to review recommendations, he delivered a canned presentation. There was no connection between the recommended solution and “my pain.”
There weren’t success stories or statistics to provide social proof to increase my confidence in purchasing his services.
Canned presentations need to stay in a can.
Take the time to customize and personalize your recommendations. Make sure you “link the dots” for your prospects. It’s not their job to figure out how your solution solves their pain or helps them achieve their goals.
Be prepared, be present and customize your solutions. Then I will be happy to buy your products and services.
Good Selling!
