Over the years I’ve learned one thing about prospects. They lie! Generally not intentionally, but they lie all the same.

Now before you take umbrage and reply telling me you’ve never done this, let me clarify…

 

 

Transcript

Over the years I’ve learned one thing about prospects. They lie! Generally not intentionally, but they lie all the same.

My name’s Rashid Kotwal.

Now before you take umbrage and reply telling me you’ve never done this, let me clarify…

How many times have you told a salesperson you’re “just looking” to avoid being harassed in a shop?

How many times have you heard a prospect tell you they need more time to consider.  You call back, have nice conversations which go nowhere.

Which brings me back to my original assertion. Prospects lie all the time. As a salesperson it’s very easy to fall into the trap of believing them. And it’s a very good way to go broke fast!

So what’s really going on and what can you do about it?

The first thing to realise it’s your agenda as the salesperson is not necessarily theirs.

Just because you want to make a sale doesn’t mean they want to buy. People buy when they’re ready and perceive value. You might get lucky and hit them at exactly that moment.

But most of the time you’ll have lots of conversations, build up a relationship, maybe even become friends, all the time thinking, “They’re going to sign… really they are!”

As such you keep calling the same small group of people in the hope they’ll take action. But they don’t.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen this with professional salespeople. Every sales meeting they tell their Sales Manager, “They’re about to sign – just have to speak to so and so” or some such. Frankly they’re living in fantasy land and if you (as their sales manager believe them) so are you!

So what’s the solution?

The first part is to recognise when (and I say when, not if) this happens.

Believe me, we all fall into this trap. I know I’ve done so over the years.

I’ve had people promise me they want to work with us  but something or other has to happen first. Anything from finding the right employees, to getting their spouse to agree, getting a particular deal over the line, the list is endless.

In some cases years have gone by and nothing’s changed. For some, the time has become right and they’ve become clients. But these are generally few and far between.

So if I’d waited, hoping, we’d have gone out of business years ago.

I had to learn the lesson the hard way, but I learned it. Talk is cheap and it’s never over till the fat lady sings and the money’s in the bank!

So if you’re responsible for growing your business you must continually bring in new prospects into your funnel. You don’t know when people will be ready to take action, and the biggest mistake you can make is keep circling around the same old people hoping for a sale.

So if you’re in this position, give me a call regarding our new Sales Accelerator program.  We’ll work with you to find, attract and convert more high value business so that you achieve the levels of business growth you desire.

Contact me at RevealedResources.com

Till next time, this is Rashid Kotwal.

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