Don’t Expect Your Prospect To Believe You
They probably don’t. We’ve known for decades that “sales people lie.” I know you don’t (no one every admits to it), but prospects THINK you do. And of course, we know prospects lie.
Seth Godin’s blog this weekend about Vague Claims was about the realtor who advertises “Top 10 Realtors In Nation.” He maintains, if you can’t be specific about something don’t claim it.
We say, “If you have to lie to get noticed, then don’t expect the rest of the sales relationship to be based on honesty.”
This is especially true of you sales people who come in to the prospect’s office making un-demonstratable claims. “We can save you money!” “We’ll enhance your business.” “We’ll get you on the first page of Google.”
Lies, all.
Then, we sales people flip out when we make yet another unsubstantiated claim–and the prospect doesn’t believe us.
Don’t you understand that you started all this lying by putting forth something without proof?
Solution: Make No Claims
Then, its easy. Besides, why are you so intent on making claims the prospect may care nothing about?
- The Realtor above says he’s Top 10 In Nation, but maybe I don’t want that. Maybe I want someone down the list that I feel can take care of me. Someone who has more time (and isn’t as arrogant).
- You say you want to cut costs for me. Maybe that’s not my #1 concern. (Be careful about that assumption.) Maybe it’s more important for me to know what those costs even are–before I can cut.
- You say you can “grow my business.” Maybe I don’t want that. Besides what “grow the business” means to you is totally different than what it means to me. (And you haven’t even taken the time to ask me about it)
Find out what the prospect wants–where their mind is–what’s on it–and why they invited you in. (Oh, you begged to get in? Trouble. We’ll have to deal with that one in the next post.)
Sunk Sales Costs Killing You?
Are sunk costs sinking you? Seth Godin blogged today about that very topic. I’ll address it to sales people and sales organizations.
Biggest problem is when you have invested hours/weeks/ years in a laboriously long selling cycle and nothing is happening. But rather than pull out, you persevere—thinking that maybe, just maybe, you’ll get lucky.
Pull Out and Move On
I tell clients all the time–you know by the middle of the cycle whether a prospect will turn into a client. Your gut screams this at you. But why don’t you listen? Well, Seth hit it. We get emotional.
We get so ‘bound up’ in what we’ve put into the sales process, we neglect to consider that every extra hour we put in on a losing deal, is an hour we DON’T put into a new one.
Look At Your Funnel
So, as you spend this Friday night reviewing your sales funnel, ask yourself the question, “How many losers am I working on?” You won’t like the answer—but it WILL make you money.
