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The
selling profession is not generally considered a high-risk
profession, yet salespeople face big risks every time they speak
to customers and prospects. What do they risk? They risk
uncovering the truth. They risk finding out their best customer
has just changed the rules of doing business. They risk
discovering the prospect with whom they have invested so much
time doesn’t really qualify as a prospect at all. They risk
wasting time with prospects who purposely mislead them about
their intentions or ability to do business. They risk finding
out that even their best presentation won’t make a difference to
the prospect who has already decided to give the business to
someone else.
Every time a salesperson asks a prospect or
customer to make a decision or commitment, they risk hearing the
most dreaded word in sales – NO! This appears to be such a
risky situation that salespeople will often go to great lengths,
wasting both time and energy, to avoid hearing the word.
Why do salespeople run from the truth or try to
avoid the word “no”? The truth is the truth. Avoiding it isn’t
going to change it. Also, a “no” today is still a “no”
tomorrow. It, too, is not going to change by avoiding it
another day. Logic would dictate that salespeople uncover the
truth as soon as possible, especially if the truth reveals the
opportunity they are pursuing is not really an opportunity at
all. Likewise, if the prospect is going to say “no,” wouldn’t
salespeople want to know as soon as possible so they could
invest their time identifying and developing an opportunity with
someone who could say “yes”?
Salespeople don’t function on a purely logical or
intellectual level, however. They often let their emotions
cloud their judgment and influence their actions. Discovering
that an opportunity they are pursuing is not an opportunity for
them, they internalize the experience as personal failure. They
believe that they failed to get their point across in a
persuasive or convincing manner. They failed to convert the
prospect to a customer.
When a prospect says "no," many salespeople
process it as personal rejection. They fail to make the
distinction between the prospect rejecting the product or
service and being rejected personally by the prospect.
While salespeople might fail to skillfully
execute some aspects of the development process and close the
sale, the real failure is not recognizing the failures for what
they are – role deficiencies. In their role as salespeople,
they likely missed some critical element and/or failed to
uncover some information that would have changed the
presentation – content, timing, pricing, etc. – and the
outcome. When viewed from that perspective, they have the
opportunity to learn from their experiences. They can identify
what could have, or should have, been asked, said, or done, and
adapt their strategy so as not to make the mistake again with
subsequent opportunities.
If you learn from your mistakes, then each
failure gets you one step closer to success. Is it worth the
risk? You be the judge.
© Sandler Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.
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