Let me start this article off by saying that many of you are likely already selling at a high rate, and I know that. The market is very good right now and many companies are likely backed up for at least a month. When we talk about sales items that might get in your way, what we’re hoping is to help you take away pieces that cannot only help you sell at higher prices right now, it should also help down the road when projects start to slow down. Or, when times in general slow down, like they did in 2008/2009.
Having said that, the following five items end up costing sales companies and sales individuals’ sales, profits and time. Let’s begin.
- Never meet with the prospect without doing some initial qualifying. Many companies do some level of qualifying, but probably not enough. For some, if the prospect can fog up a mirror...qualified! I am not simply suggesting that you should qualify them for the area they live in or the commercial property location they manage, although that is relevant. I’m not simply suggesting that you should qualify them for money, although that is relevant as well. What I’m talking about is qualifying them for commitment, for issues and for importance. These are three items that should always be there, to assure you are qualifying enough. In other words, are they just shopping or looking around? How important and how committed are they to getting the work done? Is there any urgency? Why is there urgency? What makes them committed? What concerns or issues do they have, that is so important to take care of now? Why are they contacting your company? By asking more open-ended questions on the phone or at the beginning, we can learn to qualify stronger while wasting less time with people that never buy.
- Let them take over the meeting. Let me start this point by suggesting that people, well, they talk too much. I don’t mean a little, some of the time. People, in general, talk too much. And it has grown worse over the years. I don’t know if there is more to talk about, social media, Covid, call it what you will. Let’s just say if there was a club called, “TTM”, there would be a huge membership. Unfortunately, sometimes it is the salesperson that talks too much. However, for this point, I’m talking about the prospective customer. Oftentimes, they want to ask a myriad of questions, give their opinion, tell you stories about something they saw, or a neighbor’s ideas. It’s endless.
If you allow this when you are in front of them, you’re in trouble. You could run out of time, take longer than you intended, not find out the true reasons why they want to buy, not be able to qualify and ultimately, lose the sale. Don’t allow it. How? Set up each and every meeting with two things, an agreement on time and an agreement on what will be discussed. Remember, bring it up early, before the meeting starts. That way, you have their permission to interrupt and to get back on track with the meeting. Having these two agreements will also keep you on track, so you don’t TTM!
- Give away too many ideas before the job is sold. Too often I hear untrained sales professionals say that their job is to educate people. Sounds like a good idea, but I worry about salespeople that overeducate and the prospect is paralyzed or bored. I worry about giving away too many ideas and they either hire someone else and use those ideas, or they do it themselves. I worry about lack of qualifying. After all, how can you qualify someone when you are doing the talking? We like to tell people to “sprinkle” a little knowledge on someone or give someone a little “dash” of an idea, rather than giving them so much information that it hurts them. Remember, they want your information and your ideas, but they are unlikely willing to pay for it...yet. Thus, stop them in their tracks by letting them know just a little bit, then ask qualifying questions. Or, tell them you need to make sure they are a fit before they talk too much about recommendations. Give it a try.
- Leave without discussing their budget. Would it be fair to say that sometimes the prospective customer is surprised or even shocked when they see your price? This shouldn’t be. If you lose on price, perhaps it started when you didn't find out how much they were willing to spend, and you never relayed to them a range of what it could end up being. In result, they were surprised, and it went over their budget, was more than they wanted to spend, was higher than who else they were also looking at or “just seemed expensive to them”. If you’re not learning about their budget, start talking early about money and get comfortable with those conversations. Try asking about their budget after they tell you about their issues and how committed they are to getting the project done. Sometimes, you can even start with money, taking a quick glance at the project and suggesting that you will have to sit down to look at it but many of the projects like this can fall into the $10-20,000 range or even the $20-40,000 range, depending on what materials they use and how many features you put in. Then ask them where they feel more comfortable. Learn to have better conversations about budget and money.
- Leave without having clear directions on next steps. Some that sell products or services run into the problem of getting a “non-answer” like, “Let me talk it over with my partner” or “Let me check with the other manager” to see what they say. This could happen because of some of the issues, above, as well as a myriad of other reasons, which we cannot address in this article. The biggest lesson is to never leave a site or hang up the phone with a prospective customer without having clear expectations of next steps. My recommendation is to have the next date you want to talk and a time. Literally, set an appointment for all “follow-ups”. That way, you are much more likely to catch up on that day and time and get some closure, good or bad, to the sale. Also, it helps you further qualify because an answer of, “call me in a couple weeks” doesn't sound so good versus, “call me tomorrow at five”, which does. The first is vague and the second is specific, which tells the story and helps you qualify stronger.
As mentioned, times are pretty good right now for sales organizations. We all know that this won’t continue forever. There are always ups and downs. Taking advantage of these times are important and staying up to speed on techniques that can help you when they are down is just as critical. Don’t move with the economy, carve your own path by growing in your ability to sell and how you go about it.