Seven Excuses Salespeople Must Overcome
There’s an entire range of excuses salespeople will come up with to avoid asking for the sale:
- Fear of rejection or, I don’t want to look foolish.
At some time in your career, you may have been unpleasantly rebuffed by a prospect when you popped the sales question, and ever since you have decided that exposing yourself to that sort of humiliation isn't worth it. Waiting for prospects to tell you when they are ready to buy seems the wiser option.
This is a significant hurdle, especially for those salespeople who don’t make decisions quickly and dislike dealing with “pushy” salespeople themselves. If this sounds like you, then you are probably one of those salespeople who are willing to sacrifice commissions rather than tarnish your image as a "nice" person.
- My judgment or, I don’t think the prospect is ready.
Even after years of experience, your intuition about a prospect may be wrong. Rather than relying on a hunch that a prospect is not yet ready to buy, why not just ask them? You might be pleasantly surprised.
There are times when you don’t think you have given the prospect enough details to make a decision to buy. Maybe your sales presentation was interrupted and you want to cover more ground. Ask anyway and don't lose the chance to make a sale. When a prospect enters your model home or sales office, make it your right to ask for the sale.
How many of your sales prospects actually do come back? You'll find that it's a miniscule percentage if you actually do the arithmetic. In most cases, your first opportunity to make the sale is going to be your last opportunity, so act accordingly.
- I didn’t feel well or wasn’t in the mood.
You may be having a bad day, but losing a sale isn't going to make it seem any better. On days like this, you need to be all the more resolute to rally your energies to close the sale.
Don't let distractions get in your way. Make sure you have a fool-proof system in place that ensures that you proceed through each step of the selling process until you reach the inevitable question — “What do you think about going ahead with this today?”
Focus your sales effort on the prospect and not on yourself, and you won't have to worry about lame excuses.
Ask the Question During Their First Visit and You’ll Get Results
Beat into your mind that there is no good excuse for poor closing skills or motivation, and you are halfway there to reversing the cycle of ineffectiveness and failure.
And you will be all the way home once you adopt one cardinal principle: Ask your prospects, “What do you think about going ahead with this today?” every time, all the time, 100% of the time — no exceptions.
When you ask that question, three things can happen and there's considerably more to be gained than to be lost:
- Your prospect might say, “Yes.”
Believe it or not, roughly half of your prospects regularly make significant purchases — like automobiles or homes — on their first visit to the sales office. So don't be surprised if your prospect answers in the affirmative. And if you don't ask the question, don't be surprised if you never see that person again.
Even when prospects turn you down because they are not ready or just aren't interested, all is not lost. You won't have an immediate sale, but you may be able to derive some valuable information about what's on their mind. Then you’ll be able to address their concerns.
- You'll shorten the selling process.
No matter how the prospect responds to your question, whether positively or negatively, you can accomplish something by breaking through the circle of indecision that can swirl indefinitely, waste your time and divert your energies away from customers who are willing to make a prompt decision. So, ask every prospect, “What do you think about going ahead with this today?” For hundreds and thousands of salespeople who have committed to ask every prospect for the sale, this simple question has changed their careers dramatically. Make, “What do you think about going ahead with this today?” an unchangeable, core part of your selling.
Charles J. Clarke, III, MIRM, is president of Charles Clarke Consulting, Inc., a full-service sales and marketing consulting firm providing consulting services and sales training to home builders nationwide. For more information, contact Clarke at 770-287-7808 or through his Web site.
Originally published in NAHB’s Sales & Marketing Ideas magazine ©2004.
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