I had a salesperson who worked for me years ago who was outstanding at building relationships with prospects. She had a way of genuinely connecting with people that built instant trust and credibility.
She valued her relationships with her prospects above all else. Even above asking them to buy something from her. She couldn’t bring herself to ask for the order. She honestly felt it could damage the relationship if the prospect saw her as a salesperson.
She didn’t work for me very long. I had a requirement that my salespeople made certain that all prospects knew full well that they were there to sell them something.
I understand it can be uncomfortable to ask people for their money. However, too many salespeople put their proposals and presentations out there and wait. Very often they end up walking away with no sale.
If a prospect doesn’t quickly see the value of the salesperson’s products and jump right in to buy the sales opportunity may be lost.
Asking for the order is a vital part of the sales process. It is the logical conclusion to a professional sales presentation. Prospects expect to be asked.
Researchers asked people who were not persuaded to buy why they didn’t go ahead with whatever it was they were offered. Interestingly enough, the most common answer was that they were never asked. In some cases, they were convinced of the value of the offering and would have gone ahead, but nothing happened. The salespeople didn’t ask them to make a commitment or to part with their money, so they didn’t.
Don’t ever let the fact that you didn’t ask someone to make a buying decision be the reason a buyer doesn’t move forward. It can be as simple as saying, “How would you like to handle the investment for this?” Practice saying it in a business-like manner. It works fine when delivered with confidence.
Knowing when to ask, however, is every bit as important as doing it. Sometimes salespeople wait so long to ask for the sale that the right time to ask passes them by. To get past this timing challenge, use trial closes to take a prospect’s buying temperature.
You do this by simply putting the word “if” in front of your usual order asking questions. For instance, “IF you were to go ahead with this how would you handle the investment for the purchase?”
It’s designed to take the temperature of the sale. If the prospect is warm enough, you would move to asking your final order asking question about delivery date, paperwork, etc.
Asking for the order doesn’t always work, but this much is certain; it works a whole lot better than not asking. So ASK!
I found that after you peal it all away. Self-confidence is at the foundation of closing. And by closing I mean asking for “what you want.” Those who ask the closing questions in any walk of life believe that they deserve to get what they want. An incredibly powerful focus of any sales manager, coach or parent or teacher is to develop the self confidence of their charges.
Very true Joe! I’ve found in my own life that whenever I’ve fallen short of a goal that fear was holding me back. It’s pretty common but hard for many people to admit.
The post is very good. I really like it.
Thank you very much.
You’re very welcome!
Reblogged this on Gr8fullsoul.
I get the spirit of your post and I’ve seen the same. I would argue that a sales professional who has demonstrated their value in helping the client doesn’t always need to come out and ask for the sell. I am a top 30 producer for my company (media) and my mission is to demonstrate the value I bring to the table in helping the client reach their ideal audience. I’m not trying to convince them to do anything. If I have to convince them then I already failed. But that’s just my opinion.
I wouldn’t disagree with you at all, if we truly do the job of a professional salesperson the customer will often simply commit to purchase on their own. If however they don’t, for whatever reason a simple yes or no question pertaining to the order can help them move forward. And if we’ve truly done our job we’ve earned the right to ask that question. At least I think we have…..