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By Percy Chong, 6th June 2015
There are only 2 conclusions that can happen with a new approach to a prospect. Either the salesperson is able to give a good spiel and rebuttals to advance to the next sales stage, or the prospect is able to out-reason and out-convince the salesperson and the sale opportunity is lost.
So the key message to all salesperson is, when there is no follow-up appointment or next step secured, there is something wrong with either the approach, objection handling, values proposition, or themselves.
ASG has observed salesperson just brush off any failed attempt and go at it again without identifying what was wrong and could have been better done.
And the easiest way to adopt this mindset and continuous reflective self-improvement is to begin with recognising that there is a problem and the solution is within one’s grasp (ie. awareness before changes can take place).
It may seem juvenile that ASG has to remind of such trivial practice. The sad truth is this common knowledge is hardly common practice on the field. Many salespersons have gone through their entire sales career without realising that they are the cause for poor performance. There is always an untimely situation or bogeyman that thwarts their sales, never themselves.
And unless the salesperson feels that he has failed or is wrong in the first place, he is not inclined to change or improve.
ASG continually sees salespersons oblivious to their own misgiving, they seem to understand the requirements of the task (or perhaps its unevaluated confidence), but they are trapped in the continuous cycle of repeating the sales approaches without any breakthrough. They are heard constantly lamenting that they are not lucky in meeting the right prospect; or they have not learn enough and have not found the special technique to securing results yet.
But sales as a skill and profession is as old as the hills and the trees. It has existed long before our time and everything about the skills or the profession has been written. There are no special techniques or approaches that are not already developed and available for all practitioners.
Therefore the tipping point for the salespersons applying these widely available sales methodology or techniques lies not in the methodology itself, but the realisation of the correct application by the salespersons.
So in future when you are not securing results from your new approaches…remember, the prospect may have just out-reasoned and out-convinced you that he doesn’t need you. And you will need to be a better salesperson than the prospects, if you are to win any sales opportunities from them.
Re-examine your ways for you are definitely the problem for poor results!
Article contributed by Percy Chong (through Asian Sales Guru) |