Hope is not a strategy
I would be a rich man if I had a dollar for every time someone said, "I hope this deal will close this week." Or, "I hope he will call me back today."
Hope is not a strategy. If you want something to happen, it is your job as a salesperson to make it happen. I don't mean that you are going to hold someone ransom or threaten their puppy to get what you want. As a salesperson, you have tools and levers at your disposal that you need to use daily.
The greatest way for a salesperson to wield power and to get things done is to provide value in such a way that your customer willfully chooses to do what you want because you consistently and effectively ensure they get what they want. Zig Ziglar`s (yes, I am going to quote him - he provides good insight) golden rule is, "Help others to achieve what they want and you will receive what you deserve." If you want a customer to call you back, you have to have started your strategy long before that time and have trained the customer to know that any time he calls you, he receives something of value.
On a shorter term basis, when you called and left the message for the customer, did you make it clear that she would benefit from calling you back? And this only works when you know what the customer wants. Is it information? Is it advice? Is it industry information that you know because you have so many contacts? All too often, we think all that the customer wants is a discount because we have trained them to think that way. We entice them to buy today in order to get the discount of the month/quarter/year. What if we simply stopped offering such things and only offered other types of value?
How about the bigger things? Like actual deals? Is it true that once you have laid it out on the table, the only thing you can do is sit back and hope they sign the contract? Absolutely not. There is value in sitting back and letting silence do the work - if you are face to face and have asked for the order. But in too many cases, we are not sitting there with a pen in our hands and said contract on the table. So, how do we continue to move the propspect along once we have said all we have to say?
What is the most common reason customers don't place the order? If you evaluate the situation, likely it is because they simply don't have enough information to clearly make a proper business decision to buy your solution. So, if your client has gone silent when you expect them to place an order, go find out what they don't understand. Figure out what value they have placed on the solution as compared to the price you are asking, and help them to find more value and payback to make it worthwhile. Or better yet, if you have taken them down a proper trail through the sales process, walk them back along the same trail and remind them of all of the times they saw value, considered a feature/function/benefit that they could not live without, said "Ah HAH!" to themselves, or agreed to a proof that you provided to them. Don't expect that they remembered everything you said. Instead assume they forgot a lot of it and instead help them to relive all of the high points of the sales process.
OK, enough pontificating. Time for some homework. Tomorrow (I am assuming you are NOT reading this at your desk at work!!) delve into your files and the files of the salesperson at the desk next to you and drag out all of the newspaper clippings, testimonials, case studies, industry articles and so on that speak to the necessity and value of your solution. Dust them off, catalogue them, and make sure you have a pristine copy of each one (preferably in an electronic format). Then, contact each customer you have on the go right now and send them one of the items you just collected with a short message about how you came across this important piece of information and you thought of them and the fact that they would likely want to see it. Don't ask them to call back. Just send it. A minimum of 20 of them today. For the next 8 weeks, send out 5 more minimum per day (yes, every prospect you have going should receive more than one during this period). And after that, do this any time for any prospect you have not talked to for too long a time period. You are training them that you are a source of information and information is worth a lot and at the same time you are making points about why they should be buying your solution. Then some time in the future, when you want something from them, call them and leave a message along the lines of, "I am calling because I have something to discuss with you that will make a difference for you." or some such. If you have proven your value in the past, they will call back. You have to produce the value of course, and if you are really good at it you will show them that taking the next step in the buying process is of value to them, in which case you both get what you want.
Bottom line is, you cannot sit back and hope the customers will do the right thing for you. Instead, constantly be doing what is right for them and provide value to them and intentionally drive/guide them to where they ought to be. There are lots of other ways to do this, but I have gone on too long already. Try this one method for now and see where it gets you.
Hope is not a strategy. If you want something to happen, it is your job as a salesperson to make it happen. I don't mean that you are going to hold someone ransom or threaten their puppy to get what you want. As a salesperson, you have tools and levers at your disposal that you need to use daily.
The greatest way for a salesperson to wield power and to get things done is to provide value in such a way that your customer willfully chooses to do what you want because you consistently and effectively ensure they get what they want. Zig Ziglar`s (yes, I am going to quote him - he provides good insight) golden rule is, "Help others to achieve what they want and you will receive what you deserve." If you want a customer to call you back, you have to have started your strategy long before that time and have trained the customer to know that any time he calls you, he receives something of value.
On a shorter term basis, when you called and left the message for the customer, did you make it clear that she would benefit from calling you back? And this only works when you know what the customer wants. Is it information? Is it advice? Is it industry information that you know because you have so many contacts? All too often, we think all that the customer wants is a discount because we have trained them to think that way. We entice them to buy today in order to get the discount of the month/quarter/year. What if we simply stopped offering such things and only offered other types of value?
How about the bigger things? Like actual deals? Is it true that once you have laid it out on the table, the only thing you can do is sit back and hope they sign the contract? Absolutely not. There is value in sitting back and letting silence do the work - if you are face to face and have asked for the order. But in too many cases, we are not sitting there with a pen in our hands and said contract on the table. So, how do we continue to move the propspect along once we have said all we have to say?
What is the most common reason customers don't place the order? If you evaluate the situation, likely it is because they simply don't have enough information to clearly make a proper business decision to buy your solution. So, if your client has gone silent when you expect them to place an order, go find out what they don't understand. Figure out what value they have placed on the solution as compared to the price you are asking, and help them to find more value and payback to make it worthwhile. Or better yet, if you have taken them down a proper trail through the sales process, walk them back along the same trail and remind them of all of the times they saw value, considered a feature/function/benefit that they could not live without, said "Ah HAH!" to themselves, or agreed to a proof that you provided to them. Don't expect that they remembered everything you said. Instead assume they forgot a lot of it and instead help them to relive all of the high points of the sales process.
OK, enough pontificating. Time for some homework. Tomorrow (I am assuming you are NOT reading this at your desk at work!!) delve into your files and the files of the salesperson at the desk next to you and drag out all of the newspaper clippings, testimonials, case studies, industry articles and so on that speak to the necessity and value of your solution. Dust them off, catalogue them, and make sure you have a pristine copy of each one (preferably in an electronic format). Then, contact each customer you have on the go right now and send them one of the items you just collected with a short message about how you came across this important piece of information and you thought of them and the fact that they would likely want to see it. Don't ask them to call back. Just send it. A minimum of 20 of them today. For the next 8 weeks, send out 5 more minimum per day (yes, every prospect you have going should receive more than one during this period). And after that, do this any time for any prospect you have not talked to for too long a time period. You are training them that you are a source of information and information is worth a lot and at the same time you are making points about why they should be buying your solution. Then some time in the future, when you want something from them, call them and leave a message along the lines of, "I am calling because I have something to discuss with you that will make a difference for you." or some such. If you have proven your value in the past, they will call back. You have to produce the value of course, and if you are really good at it you will show them that taking the next step in the buying process is of value to them, in which case you both get what you want.
Bottom line is, you cannot sit back and hope the customers will do the right thing for you. Instead, constantly be doing what is right for them and provide value to them and intentionally drive/guide them to where they ought to be. There are lots of other ways to do this, but I have gone on too long already. Try this one method for now and see where it gets you.
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