You’re sitting in front of a hot prospect. Everything appears to have gone swimmingly well. You’re counting your chickens thinking the 
money’s in the bank.
Then all of a sudden the prospect frowns and says, “I’m not sure about this!”
You freeze thinking, “Oh no… now what!”
Ever happened to you?
It’s a pretty common scenario. But for the most part that dreaded moment can be completely avoided if you do your job right.
Over the last couple of weeks we’ve gone over the sales process we recommend.
You can read about the most important aspects of the process – your mindset and delving into the Prospect’s situation, desired outcomes and the impact of achieving them in Can you segue?
In Why pain is your friend in sales we dig further into your Prospect’s pain and unearth the challenges they’re experiencing getting their outcomes.
So let’s move onto the final components – closing, answering objections and getting final commitment.
You’ve presented your solution. Now it’s time to ask for the money.
But before you do that, realise there are essentially two distinct closes.
The first is getting agreement that they want to buy your product. The second is price.
Ask, “Do you feel comfortable that this product/program will help you get [benefits they’ve outlined]?”
If “Yes”, delve deeper. “Can you tell me why you think this will work for you?”
Doing this helps them cement their own reasons for buying. It acts as a convincer strategy and helps eliminate buyer’s remorse.
Only now do you talk about price.
Once given the price one of three things will happen. They’ll say yes and you sign them up.
Or they tell you they can’t afford it.
Or they want to bargain.
Frankly, good marketing which pre-positions you as they expert who charges premium fees and delivers value will go a very long way to only having prospects predisposed to working with you. They will already have some indication of the investment range they’ll need to make. So they won’t get “sticker shock”.
If they genuinely can’t afford it, you should have had an indication in the qualification phase and not spent precious sales time with them. Of course this doesn’t always happen, so do your best.
As to the “bargainers”, do you really want them as clients? Trust me, they’ll give you lots of issues further down the track.
If you do want to get them as clients, by all means reduce the price. But reduce the value they’re getting too. So take something away from the deal.
Now let’s move onto the dreaded objections.
Objections occur because your prospects are concerned about or haven’t understood something.
Be aware of what’s happening with your prospect. Don’t make the fatal mistake of blindly sailing through your pitch without noticing and stopping whenever you see concern or thoughtfulness flicker across your prospect’s face.
Remember, if they’re thinking about something you’ve said, they’re not listening to the next bits.
Your job is to immediately ask, “I notice you’re thinking about something. Is there something I haven’t explained properly?” etc.
Handle the concern right then and there. Even if it means going off on a tangent. Because if you don’t, they won’t come with you the rest of the journey.
Having said all this, the best way to handle an objection is to pre-frame it.
Given your experience, you’d know most of the common questions or objections prospects have.
So bring them up in your conversation and answer them as part of the natural flow.
One of the best ways is through using examples about other clients, their concerns and their eventual success stories.
Okay, you’ve got agreement to proceed. But it’s never over till the fat lady sings and the money’s in the bank!
This last bit of advice will save you a tremendous amount of grief, chasing up prospects who’ve suddenly gone AWOL.
NEVER EVER LEAVE A MEETING WITHOUT SETTING A DATE FOR THE NEXT STEP.
Be this the kick-off meeting, first payment date or in the case of an ongoing sales call, the next step (with a confirmed date).
That act of commitment on their part means they have made a tacit agreement to move forward. And as Robert Cialdini in his classic book, Influence: Science and Practice of Persuasion points out, people tend to be consistent with their commitments.
So please, if there’s only one thing you take away from this series, it’s “never leave a meeting without booking another meeting!”
This wraps up the sales series.
As always, there is far more to successful selling that the short synopsis I’ve outlined here.
So if you’d like to close more business with prospects who you feel could use your services, call us for some specialised sales coaching. Small tweaks in your process could make a major difference in your results.
