Do your emails end up your prospects’ junk mail? Do receptionists put you on “terminal” hold (you know, the hold music that is never going to stop)? Do clients run for the conference room when you walk in? You might be selling without listening. As salespeople, we’re asking prospects to give away their most precious commodity — time. Wasting it is unforgivable.
Four easily avoided mistakes that make prospects hate you
- Don’t do your homework about their business.
Imagine interviewing for a sweet new job. How much time will you spend researching the company before the interview? As with a job interview, research matters.In fact, your demo IS a job interview. Treat it like one. Industry profiles, LinkedIn, company web pages, and even consumer review sites can help you understand what you can do for your prospective client… before you even show up at the door.
- Assume they don’t know their own business’s needs.Every company has a history. If anyone knows what’s been tried and how it performed, your future client knows the best. Listen to him or her. Most business owners know what’s hot and what’s not in their particular industry. Ignore their insight at your peril. If this sounds a lot like that old saying “The customer is always right,” then that’s no coincidence.
Closing the sale means finding the one need you can fill right now. (Urgency, baby, URGENCY!) Once you have a better understanding of their needs, then you can work on expanding it to include your core competency.
- Throw up product features, especially features they don’t need.You know the drill: The prospect wants a swing hung from the tree out back for their kid. The salesperson wants to sell a chrome-plated play yard with built-in water features and a freakin’ ball-pit (now THAT’S a playground).
The prospect says, “I love that chrome-plated look but I have only one child and she’s allergic to chlorine.” Do you spend another fifteen minutes up-selling a $4000 oxidation system for the built-in pool feature? Or do you sell the swing the prospect wants?
A feature the prospect can’t use may as well be a bug. Your job as a salesperson is to guide your prospect to the features that will make a difference to the bottom line — theirs, not yours.
- Interrupt them while they’re working.
It bears repeating: the prospect’s time is money. Interrupting a work period, a conference or (God forbid) a drink with a client is a guaranteed deal-breaker.
Now we know what NOT to do, here is was you SHOULD do.
- Do your homework. Know out of the gate which products and services are likely to be a fit.
- Do listen — really listen — to your prospect’s insights. Be ready to craft a proposal that won’t end up in the “been-there-done-that” file.
- Do focus on just the bells your future client needs and skip the whistles he doesn’t. Show how the feature will serve your prospect — specifically.
- Do engage your prospect on the prospect’s watch. Let him review your proposal without interruption. If there are questions, you should have set a follow-up call on your first appointment.
Have a bad habit that ticks you off about sales people? Let em’ have it in the comments below
Image Credit Philippe Put
