Top 3 Ways to lose really easy sales
Posted by Geoff Alexander on Mon, May 11, 2009 @ 01:30 AM
Acquiring a superior skillset for closing sales is a lifelong proposition, and one of the things I tell people that attend my telesales training classes is that you always want to be in learning mode whenever you're buying something yourself. You can pick up great techniques when buying from good sales reps, and you can also learn what not to do when buying from sales reps with poor sales skills.
There are three ways I've seen sales reps repeatedly lose easy sales, and this week's post describes what they are, along with examples of how they occurred. Although my examples are all from face-to-face selling, they occur in telesales as well. And they all have one thing in common, which I'll discuss at the end of the post. Here they are:
1) Thinking the prospect is too ignorant to understand your solution. Sometimes arrogance can prevent a salesperson from making a sale. When I founded my company, I needed to buy a really great car to replace my hot red Camaro, which was not an appropriate business car. I went to a Mercedes dealership dressed in blue jeans, because if I was going to be involved in price negotiations, I didn't want to look like an easy target. The sales rep came out to meet me, and my first question was "Tell me why I should buy a Mercedes." He told me to go to the library. I'm not kidding! I told him if I wanted to go to the library, I'd already be there. Instead of asking me why I was even considering a Mercedes, he just walked away. And so did I. The rep mistook my good question for an ignorant one, and didn't get the sale.
2) Not being persistent enough to stay in touch with prospects that contacted you first. Still thinking a Mercedes might be a good choice, I found another small dealer that had a bunch of classic Mercedes vehicles in a very large garage. He was informed, treated me well, and I told him I'd return the next day to test drive one. The next day, he referred me to his nice-looking daughter, who was a salesperson for his company. I picked one I liked, and asked her for a test drive. She told me it was too much of a bother to move a few cars to get that one out, and that typically Mercedes buyers knew what they were looking for. So I said thanks and walked away. Neither the nice Mercedes guy or his daughter ever called me back. I guess I wasn't a very good buyer. A couple of days later, I bought a nifty Porsche 930 Turbo from someone that let me take a test drive and didn't treat me like I was an idiot. A little bit of persistence from the Mercedes people, and they might have been able to get me back and sell me a car.
3) Forgetting that Sales is primarily about taking care of the needs of the prospect, not yours. One day my laptop computer died, and I desperately needed another one, as I was designing a sales course that had an immediate deadline. I walked into a well-known national computer company store where they had several on display. There were two salespeople sitting at a desk in front of a computer, and since neither had greeted me, I went over to them instead. "I've got a question about that laptop over there," I said. "Sorry," replied one of them, who appeared to be a manager, "we're doing sales training right now. Can you come back tomorrow?" I looked at the fellow that was being trained, and said to him "You have nothing to learn from the sales training you're getting right now." I walked out, and they let me go. I drove further down the street and bought a laptop that I took home on the spot. The manager at the first store could have paused the sales training to do some real-time mentoring and assist his salesperson in getting the sale, but was so focused on what he was doing at the moment that he caused his store to lose a sale.
So what do these three "lost sales" situations have in common? They were all "bluebirds." Companies spend thousands of dollars every year on marketing list mailings, trade shows, seminars, and websites, attempting to encourage bring serious buyers to contact the company. Inbound calls we call "bluebirds" fly in through the sales window, but it's not by accident. Someone worked real hard in the background, trying to get the prospect motivated enough to make the first contact. Each of the examples above represents a bluebird, a situation in which the buyer needed the product, had money, was ready to buy, and just needed the salesperson to make it easy. Because the salesperson was focused on his or her agenda rather than the prospect's, the sale was lost, and a competitor got the business. In a complex sales environment, sometimes it becomes all too easy to ignore the simple stuff and take the business when it's virtually handed to you. Those bluebirds represent the results of a tremendous amount of effort on the part of your marketing department. Please don't make the mistake of thinking the inbound prospect is ignorant or wasting your time, even if his or her questions aren't predictable. If the prospect calls, it means something. These people probably have a list of three of four companies they're going to call. If you do a great job of understanding their needs and offering an appropriate solution, you may be able to handle sales objections, prove the effectiveness of your solution, do some price negotiation, and get the order on the spot without having to do an evaluation or demonstration. After you've done your qualifying, never forget to ask for the order, even if it's on that first inbound call. Bluebirds don't happen by accident. Add this approach to your Best Practices Playbook.