Former US president George W. Bush is infamous for saying, “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me”.
A quote which is very applicable in sales.
Having coached and trained hundreds of professional consultants and salespeople who sell complex, high value products and services, it’s surprising how often they’ve allowed themselves to be fooled by prospects. Here’s how to avoid falling into these traps.
Transcript
Former US president George W. Bush is infamous for saying, “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me”.
A quote which is very applicable in sales.
My name is Rashid Kotwal.
Having coached and trained hundreds of professional consultants and salespeople who sell complex, high value products and services, it’s surprising how often they’ve allowed themselves to be fooled by prospects.
In sales, it pays to be optimistic, but that often leads to dangerous mistakes when dealing with prospects.
The first delusion is being overly optimistic about the chances of success. You’ve had great meetings. Put in a proposal. Then nothing. They ghost you and every follow up goes nowhere.
Research shows that less than 50% of forecasted deals actually close.
Rather than deluding yourself that the “deal will close…. And I’ll keep chasing”, move on. Your best antidote is to have a full pipeline of qualified prospects so no one deal matters.
The second delusion is believing your prospect when they say it’s urgent.
So you pull out all the stops. Rush to put in a proposal, thinking that the sale is in the bag. And you wait for a purchase order rather than once again working on filling your pipeline. An order that even if it comes could take significantly longer than you bargained for.
I can tell you from long experience that people take action when they’re ready, not when you need to make the sale. Priorities change, stuff comes in the way. So the more irons you have in the fire, the better.
Moving forward, here’s my challenge to you.
Go over your current prospect list and see where you’re at with each. And then go back and look at all the deals you’ve lost and figure out what went wrong. Where you might have fooled yourself.
It’s only by doing this that you’ll see patterns in your own behaviour that you need to correct.
Finally, if you feel you or your team needs to improve your sales performance so you close more business in less time, give me a hoy. We’ll work on two levels. The first is improving your marketing which helps clients find you when they’re ready to buy. The second is comprehensive sales training and coaching programs with will help you close more profitable business.
Contact me at revealedresources.com for more information.
Till next time, this is Rashid Kotwal.
