By Tibor Shanto – tibor.shanto@sellbetter.ca
As sales people we are very much conditioned to look for yes, after all when a deal is “closed” it is as a result of the customer saying yes, likely a number of times along the way; and while it is the final yes that seals the deal, it is not the most crucial answer in the process.
But I think in some ways we should be searching ‘no’. There are a couple of reasons for that, one is that if ultimately they are going to say no, especially after a series of soft ‘yeses’, it is better know that early, and be able to focus time and resources on other more viable opportunities. Now I am not saying that we overtly push the buyer to say no; what I am promoting is the use of a qualification method that allows you to disqualify the weaker opportunities, the soft ‘yeses’, which leaves you working with your truly viable prospects.
Having a combination of process, metrics, and continuous skills development, and most importantly a management that allows their sales people to be selective and focus on the best opportunities. This permission is crucial, but rare, and sales people will chase anything that breaths. Again, there needs to be definition, standards and other elements that ensure the process is serving your collective needs, but just as you would fire bad clients, you should even more so fire bad prospects.
Another upside to using an objective approach to looking for no is the number of “prospects”, who just can’t say no till the very end, when it stings most. Rejection is best suffered early. How many times have you had people who were with you through the sale; looked at subjectively, a sales person can conclude that there is a willing committed participant, a viable opportunity. The same sale, when looked at objectively, after you work to confirm specific elements, utilizing your discovery process and standard to evaluate, could look entirely different, and demand a different course.
Don’t be a like the unfortunate moth, drawn in by the heat and light of the yes, only to be burnt by that last no from a prospect who couldn’t or chose not to say no before.