As a sales guy, I have encountered multiple challenges to closing an account
A lot of factors are external in nature and beyond our control, or are they?
A lot of familiar instances I am sure when you are talking to prospects:
1. I got a better deal from your competitor.
2. I think it’s too expensive for me.
3. Can we defer the payment to a later stage.
4. It may not be the right time for us to go ahead now.
5. I don’t think it adds any value to my business.
Now let’s get to the ‘are they’ part of my earlier statement
Inevitably anyone in sales has come across one or all the above-mentioned rejections and we tend to stop at just that and move on to the next prospect with the same mistake.
It has been a bit of a late realization for me too but a realization nevertheless
When you look back, the external factors weren’t really the issue. It all boils down to how well did you listen to your prospect. Did you even listen, or did you just go about ranting about your proposition without establishing the fitment?
Let’s now address what the problem might really be with each of those responses:
1. You didn’t assess the competition well enough to know what you were going up against which makes you either stupid or too cocky.
2. You never established your prospect’s ability to pay.
3. You also missed your prospect’s willingness to pay.
4. You failed to understand what a must-have for your prospect at the time of your conversation is.
5. You also miserably failed to clearly communicate the value proposition to the prospect.
These are just some of the very few examples and I have picked the ones that have commonly occurred.
Love to hear your thoughts on what you have heard as an objection and when you introspected, did you get the answer to what the problem really was?
If you can’t find the answer, do reach out and I’ll do a onetime only favour of exploring that bit with you and you won’t even get an invoice at the end of it.
Post inspired by the newsletter I am subscribed to from #AnkurWarikoo.
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