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The marketplace has changed! Large corporations are putting
everything "on hold," including the purchase commitments they
made to you. Commitments you were counting on. Big companies are
buying little companies and laying people off. Companies big and
small, fighting for growth and profits, are tightening their
belts. Budgets are smaller or non-existent.
Sales people are fighting for sales
in a marketplace with few prospects to approach. They are
finding it harder to get prospects to make decisions and spend
money. So what does that mean for you? It means opportunity ...
if you are willing to change.
When business is slow, the tendency
is to hang on to every selling opportunity as if it were life
and death. You must do the opposite! You can't afford the luxury
of pursuing unqualified prospects...waiting for
decisions...cutting price to close a sale.
Salespeople must be more proactive,
more efficient, more effective, and more focused. You must be
able to quickly identify qualified prospects and obtain
appointments. You must have criteria by which to qualify or
disqualify an opportunity. You must be able to get prospects to
make and keep commitments. You must be able to make
presentations, obtain buying decisions, and obtain referrals and
start the process over again. Your mantra must be "Close the
sale or close the file...and move on."
David Sandler once said, "Don't go
out looking for challenges." How many of your sales calls turn
into challenges - arm-wrestling matches and negotiations? How
many started out as a challenge where you spent most of your
time trying to convince a prospect that he/she needed what you
had to sell?
It happens most likely because you
try to sell the prospect what you want to sell, not what they
want to buy. Why? Perhaps you are focusing on dollar signs, not
the prospect's problems. You are trying to get your needs met -
hit quota and generate commission - rather than address the
needs of the prospect.
How do you prevent it from happening
again? Don't approach each selling opportunity with a
preconceived idea of what you are going to sell. Don't assume
you know what's best for the prospect. Don't assume that you
know anything! Listen to what the prospect tells you he/she
wants to buy. Additionally, you must have specific criteria by
which to measure the viability of an opportunity before you
begin to put together proposals, presentations, and
demonstrations. Is there an established reason for them to do
business with you versus the competition? Have you thoroughly
defined the prospect's problem/needs? Have you determined that
your product or service provides the best-fit solution? Do you
know the criteria by which you'll be judged, and what their
decision-making process is?
If you can't answer "yes" to each of
these questions, you are not ready to make a presentation. And
it is unlikely the prospect will ever give you anything but a
"think-it-over." So, if the opportunity doesn't measure up, move
on to a more viable one. Let your competitors chase the
unqualified prospects. Will they close some of those difficult
opportunities? Perhaps eventually they will. However, while they
are arm-wrestling over price, performance, delivery, payment
terms, etc., you will be closing sales with more qualified
prospects.
Yes, the marketplace has changed. If
you want to keep up with the pace, you must change, too. Change
the way you view opportunities. Change the way you qualify
opportunities. Be selective with whom you invest your time,
effort, and energy and get a bigger piece of the pie.
© Sandler Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.
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