It can be very frustrating for salespeople when we are unable to close a sale. As salespeople, we have the tendency to overthink what we may or may not have done wrong that caused us to lose the sale. However, sometimes losing the sale is not our fault. Here are the top five reasons salespeople are unable to close a sale.
Any successful salesperson will tell you that the quality of your leads is extremely important in determining if you will be able to make a sale. In some cases, our leads are handed down to us from our sales manager. At other times, it is our job to produce our own leads. At the end of the day, if the quality of our leads is poor, the opportunity to make a sale is greatly reduced. If a sale happens with a low-quality lead it is often an exception to the rule.
In order to find high quality leads, you must first understand what a high-quality lead is. Simply stated, a high-quality lead has a strong need for what you sell. The person has a problem he/she wants to solve now and your product or services solves it. Furthermore, a high quality lead has the financial resources and eagerness to make a purchase now. With a high quality lead, If you lose the sale, then you have most likely done something wrong. If you are losing a lot of sales with high quality leads, then you need more sales training and you need to learn how to close. Studying sales training videos and books by sales training guru Grant Cardone is a great place to start. He has many free sales training videos you can watch on youtube.
Unfortunately, we rarely get leads who are so eager to buy that they pull out their credit card or checkbook and tell us they want to buy now. In most cases, our prospects are unsure of what they want and they are noncommittal. They may have a general idea of what they want, but more times than not, their mind is not made up and they are waffling back and forth on whether they should buy your product or your competitor's product, or simply not buy anything at all. This is where building confidence and trust with your prospect is incredibly important. The more confident you are and the more your prospect believes in you and trusts you, the higher the chance that they will buy from you.
To show confidence and build trust, be friendly and helpful but not pushy. Find out what they need and the problem they want to solve. You need to help them understand that buying your product or service, and buying it from you, is the smartest and safest option to fulfill their need and solve the problem they have... if this is true. On the other hand, you never want to force a person into buying a product that will not benefit them just so you can earn a commission.
Take time to understand your prospect's problems, frustrations, and what they want in life to fulfill their dreams. Take time to listen to them. You were given two ears and one mouth. Use them in that proportion and listen twice as much as you talk. As salespeople, we can fall into the bad habit of not listening to our prospects as we try to hurry up the sale so we can move on to selling the next person. Don't be in a rush. Take your time and listen. In doing so, you will better understand the exact needs of your prospect and they will feel that you care about them and that you truly want to help them, which is exactly how you should feel about them. Being successful in sales is about listening to people to learn the problems they have and then helping them solve those problems and have a better life.
One of the worst things we can do as salespeople is to oversell our product by exaggerating the results or benefits it will produce, or we try to sell a product that our prospect does not need, cannot afford, and will not benefit from. When we do this we are being irresponsible and we are nothing more than a snake-oil salesman taking advantage of people. Doing this will destroy your reputation. When you cheat people, word will quickly spread that you are a person who should not be trusted and your ability to sell to your target market will dry up.
Too much pressure (hard closing) will often turn away a potential prospect. Think about how you feel when a person tries to high pressure hard close you instead of listening to you and trying to understand your needs and situation and help you make the right decision instead of the decision that will put the most money in their pocket. That thought alone will cause most of us to have a tightening in the shoulders and chest and a feeling of anxiety. This is a normal reaction to the fight-or-flight response to being hard pressure closed into make a purchasing decision.
You do not want your prospects to flee. You do want them to stay and remain interested and trust you. If your prospects feel too much pressure, they will leave without buying. In cases where your potential clients might be skittish, try offering them a solution without sounding desperate, forceful, demanding, threatening, or pushy.
As a salesperson, yes, you absolutely have to ask for the sale every single time if what you are selling will benefit your prospect and help them solve their problem. The truth is, a large percentage of the people you present your product to will not buy it if you do not ask them to buy it. However, there is a big difference between asking for the sale in a kind, calm, and confident manner and being a high pressure jerk.
Building trust by listening to your prospects and being sincere in wanting to help them solve the problem they want to solve is the central key to success in sales. Sales is about helping people--not tricking them or forcing them into buying something that will not benefit them. Sell to your prospects the same way you would sell to your family and close friends. Be respectful.
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