Uncovering A Prospect’s Budget

File this under … Qualifying 101. The simple fact is, unless your prospect has the money needed to invest in your product or service … they ain’t much of a prospect. On top of this, you may have several product/service options available and, while everybody wants champagne, some can only afford beer.

I have consistently found two challenges associated with the budget discussion …

  • Salespeople are loath to even ask the question
  • Prospects are even less excited about sharing the answer

In many cases, salesperson fear is due to the fact that talking about money might be uncomfortable for both them and the prospect. Maybe it seems too forward. Perhaps the question is too early in the sales process. The prospect might say “No”. And, your point is … what? Without that budget you will often find yourself spinning those proverbial wheels. Continue reading “Uncovering A Prospect’s Budget”

Sales Tip – Clarify and Confirm

This will be the first of, hopefully, a weekly post devoted to short and simple sales tips. Where appropriate, we will also sneak in references to how this will apply in social selling situations. Thanks for visiting!

We’ve all been here. You ask a salesperson a question and before you have even gotten that question completely out, they are already off to the races answering … something that was not even related to your question. Then they merrily move along to the next part of their pitch. Now, be honest about this. How many of us will stop that person and raise the issue that this was not even remotely related to the question that you posed? The answer is … damn few. More likely, we just walk away and try to find someone who does listen. For our salesperson, this results in an immediate, and unnecessary sales loss. Continue reading “Sales Tip – Clarify and Confirm”

On Being The Bearer Of Bad News

For the majority of my professional career, I was plagued by two overwhelming deficiencies – I was a terrible procrastinator and whenever something went wrong with a project, anything went wrong, I was struck by a paralyzing fear and panic that precluded me from taking any meaningful action to correct it let alone bring it to my customer’s attention. Of course, my procrastination was often the cause of these issues and they also carried over to my personal life. Approximately six years ago I experienced a life-changing event and, for whatever reason, my procrastination and fear disappeared practically overnight. I really can’t explain it other than to say that it did involve a “spiritual awakening”. The benefits soon became apparent in many ways.

Prior to this, if something went haywire with a project, I was consumed with: “How and what do I tell my customer?” “Will I lose the deal?” “Will they yell at me!?” My fears were generally far in excess of reality, however, there were a number of major opportunities that I had to literally scramble in order to salvage. The worst part of all remained my fear, the panic, and my paralyzation. Continue reading “On Being The Bearer Of Bad News”

What Would Your Customer Say About Buying From You?

Or, are you too afraid to ask? That’s a bit of a loaded question. A lot of salespeople I know are either too afraid to ask their customers how they are doing, are too afraid of the answer, or see little to no benefit in doing so. Sad on all three counts. So, how would your customers rate you in the following categories (in no particular order)? Continue reading “What Would Your Customer Say About Buying From You?”