Proposing and closing is a high-stress moment in selling. I’ve been there and I understand. If you’re not just a little amped up when you put a proposal forth, you may need to check your commitment to selling. I’ve been in selling for a long time, and I still get excited!
That means that when the customer says “no,” (and you will always have customers that say “no”), we have stress to manage. One of the worst ways you can manage that stress is by insulting the customer’s intelligence. A friend of mine described such a situation to me recently. She turned down a salesperson, and the salesperson’s response was, “Well, obviously, you just don’t understand what I’m offering. What questions can I answer?” After a moment’s shocked silence, she said that the biggest question he could answer was how quickly the meeting could end. NO SALE.
Look, it’s possible that the customer doesn’t understand your proposal. Whose fault is that? YOURS, champ! Not theirs. A sale happens when need, solution, and timing are all present.
The customer has to have a definite need.
Your solution has to solve the problem – by the CUSTOMER’s agreement and standards, not yours.
And the timing has to be right.
Which means that if the customer said “no,” one of three things has happened:
- The need wasn’t present, important, or you didn’t discover the right need. Most of the time, this is the case – too many salespeople do only rudimentary questioning. Ask comprehensive questions to discover needs, and then confirm with the customer that you have assessed their needs correctly.
- What you are selling didn’t solve the needs. Once you have discovered the needs, your presentation must be centered around their needs, not a one-size-fits-all “here’s how we are awesome” slide deck. And once you have shown your solution, you must confirm that the customer agrees that this will solve the need. A great question to ask: “How do you see a win from making this purchase?
- You are hitting them at the wrong time. A friend whom I greatly respect always says, “you have to be there when their window is open.” He’s right. Ask timing-based questions; for instance, “When would you like to implement this?” Know you’re at the right time; that way, it won’t surprise you.
And if you do all of those things, customers will still say “no.” Nothing is perfect in selling. But when they do say so, instead of telling your customer that they just didn’t understand all the ways you will rock their world, instead you should simply ask your customer why they are saying “no.” Don’t whine. Just ask. Then let the conversation go from there.
You might not win the sale.
But you also won’t get booted out of the office because you expected them to say something that no customer has ever said.
Don’t sell stupid.
Want to fix stupid? Contact me and let’s talk.
