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Let’s be honest. You don’t usually end up getting a “NO” from a prospect or client after a demo. Right? Nope, you also don’t usually get a “YES” after a demo.
Then what do you usually get?
Yep- YOU USUALLY GET A “MAYBE.”
Maybes REALLY stink. Some sales people actually set up the demo or presentation to encourage the prospect to “think about it” for a few days. These sales people will go through their demo and end by passing around the business cards and saying something like, “O.K. Thanks for your time. Why don’t we leave all this information and we’ll give you a call back in a few days!”
Now, I don’t know WHY some sales people do this (other then they don’t know the FIRST thing about selling,) but I’ve had a ton of sales people do this very thing to me. In fact, just last year, one sales person pitched us an extremely expensive phone system for our business. I really liked the system and we were ready to buy. I mean WE WOULD HAVE BOUGHT RIGHT THEN. If fact, I even gave a few hints like, “How do we get the ball rolling?” Well, this sales person was hell-bent on ‘giving me some time to think it over.’ And he did. In fact, the VERY NEXT MORNING our accountant was here (and had just had a similar phone system installed.) Well, our accountant recommended we call the company that did his system and guess what? Within several days, this other company was starting the install! Guess the feeling the sales person had (from the first demo) when he finally got around to calling me back? BONGGGGGGG.
Even if you’re not contributing to what we call the “Maybe Train,” chances are you’re still getting put-off most of the time. This means you’re spending precious time each week doing the ritual “follow-up” phone calls to see if your prospect has made a decision yet. And these calls do take a ton of time. And in my opinion, they’re also extremely negative!
Ask anyone in my office. I DO NOT DO FOLLOW-UP CALLS. I really mean it! I don’t do them. Even our most seasoned and successful reps fight with me over this one, but I know that I can “train” my prospects to call ME back if or when they finally get above the Buy-line! And I’d MUCH rather have a voice mail telling me that TT Company finally decided to “move ahead” with the product, so please call us back, or even “This is EE Company, and we just thought we’d give you a call to let you know we decided not to proceed at this point!”
The point is, I DIDN’T WASTE MY TIME and practice what I call “desperate behavior!” I don’t like calling back people to play the cat and mouse game, “did you decide yet….????” And chances are, your prospect probably doesn’t really like it either!
So let’s move on to the “Big Two” objections that give you an instant ticket on the “Maybe Train.”
1) Qualifying your Prospect (D.M.-Decision Maker)
No matter what industry you’re in or what product you sell, chances are the biggest objection you’ll get when you get down to the close is the Qualifying objection, which means your d.m. will say something like, “This sounds REALLY good! Why don’t you leave me the info and I’ll run it past my supervisor, associate, president, friend, wife, boyfriend, janitor, dog, cat, monkey, etc!” This means you just got “put-off.” Yep, another great presentation ends with you driving back to the office to lick your wounds and to start preparing for the 75,000 follow-up calls back to this prospect to see what his supervisor, associate, president, friend, wife, boyfriend, janitor, dog, cat, monkey, etc thought about the product!
We’ll discuss in a minute HOW to get rid of this one FOREVER! (but hint, it’s all about PRE-BEATING IT!)
2) De-Procrastinating your D.M.
The second biggest objection you can count on getting in EVERY industry is the “Procrastination Objection.” This one will undoubtedly sound familiar. You just finished your presentation, are going for the close, and your prospect looks up and says, “Looks GREAT! I really like it. I’m just going to need a few days to think it over. Why don’t you give me a call back in a few days and I’ll let you know what I think!”
OUCH.
This one has to hurt the worst. Let’s all admit it. The Procrastination Objection is NOTHING to be excited about. In fact, it REALLY sucks!
Good News! There’s also a great way to handle this one, and again, the hint is that you HAVE to pre-beat this one also.
One final word about the Procrastination Objection- and I mean this from the bottom of my heart. This one is without a doubt the most challenging one to overcome. I mean it. If you can master this one (which you can- we’ll tell you how!) you will instantly propel your sales game to new heights.
Learning how to handle the Procrastination Objection successfully (meaning you very seldom get put-off, and you do it all in a COMPLETELY NO-PRESSURE MANNER) has a ‘ripple effect’ on all other aspects of your sales career. Just a few benefits include: seldom driving back to the office in disgust because you had a prospect who was showing tons of ‘buy-signs’ but put you off, wasting 10 to 15 hours per week doing gut-wrenching call-backs, being able to spend most of your week demoing new prospects or up-selling current prospects instead of wasting all your time doing call backs, avoiding losing your account to a competitor because you left the deal ‘hanging.’
Before we go to the “how to handle” part, just one last word; if you’re ‘sold’ that your industry is ‘different,’ that you CAN’T make a sale without doing 80 demos, 15 lunch engagements, and 74 call-backs, then you MUST re-work your mindset. If you can’t get passed this, then I can’t help you. You MUST go into EVERY presentation with the mindset that there’s a CHANCE that you’re going to make the sale THAT DAY! I don’t care WHAT it is you’re selling. Given the right circumstance, decision-maker, need, etc, I’m going to tell you that you CAN make the sale!
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