Qualifying too many leads or not enough: Most organizations call on every
single prospect and spend an inordinate amount of time and money spinning
their wheels. You need to understand that not everyone who contacts you is
interested in your product and is certainly not ready to buy your product
tomorrow. First, you need to have basic procedures on whom to call, to whom
to send e-mails, and who to ask to go to your web site for more information.
You need to ask clear questions up front and to listen to what your prospect
needs.
Too many "canned" sales presentations: Most salespeople call on
prospects with little or no qualification process via the phone. In other
words, they automatically set up a face-to-face visit. They go to visit the
prospect, open up their literature, and go into an automatic canned
presentation. Afterwards, they ask the prospect what he or she thinks about
the products and then ask if it’s okay to send a quote on the products in
which he or she just expressed interest.
Instead, make contact with a prospect after you have pre-qualified him or
her on the fact that he or she has a need, has provided a time frame, and
how much money he or she has allocated for it. Now go visit the prospect.
Selling is all about relationships -- the key word is trust. When you
visit, introduce yourself and then ask about needs, not dwelling on what you
offer. Now customize your solution to his or her needs. It’s only now that
the prospect is listening. The greatest hunger of human nature is to be
understood, so feed that need and you will build trust. Build trust and you
will get the sale.
When you have too many quotes and 80% or more don't close: After every
presentation, good salespeople follow up with a sales quote and then
continue to make contact until the sale is closed, right? Wrong! When you do
that, you get a lot of voice messages and no call-backs, and when you
finally reach the prospect you find that he or she is not ready, money has
not been allocated, or other people are involved in the sales process. The
dialogue usually goes something like this: "I thought that you were
going to buy. I didn't know someone else makes the purchasing decision.
Should I call him or her?" The prospect replies, "No, I will be
your contact, but it’s going to take us a few more weeks."
So what happened? The answer is that you did not listen to your
prospect's needs and you did not get him or her involved as part of the
process. You should have followed up after the meeting with a quick phone
call telling the prospect that you were putting together a preliminary
proposal and wanted him or her to review it before the final version was
complete.
The preliminary proposal should include key words that were discussed
during the meeting, such as the timeline and specific quantities and dates.
Have the prospect review it and make comments. Integrate those comments into
the final proposal. Overnight the final proposal and set up a meeting to
verbally review the proposal together. Then close the sale at the end of
reviewing the proposal.
