TEN COMMON ENEMIES (8)

By Hank Trisler

A major enemy of any salesperson is:

A LACK OF WELL DEFINED GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.

If you don’t know where you’re going, how will you know when you’ve arrived?

So much has already been promulgated about the necessity of writing down your annual goals that it would be a waste of your time and mine to further discuss it here. What has not been overly discussed is a method of assuring you will never again lose on a sales call.

The old folks used to say, "Have a good positive attitude and go out there just knowing they’re going to buy." The problem with this is that most people don’t buy. Sales is a business of hearing lots of "nos," until you hear a "yes." Your unconscious mind is not so easy to con and will know that you’re going to fail more than you succeed. If you try to delude yourself that you will make every sale, you’ll soon become disillusioned and depressed.

To battle this, I bring you a concept known as "The retention of a positive mental attitude through the assumption of a negative result." We realize that we will not make all our sales, so our expectations are congruent with reality. We build in additional opportunities for success in every sale.

Many top sales professionals make a list of objectives for each call, descending in order of importance. They might look like this:

• Sell a particular product/service (or home, or car, or policy, etc.) Yes, write down what you want to sell on the appointment. I've had wonderful sales interviews which ended with no order because I got so busy selling I forgot to ask for the order. Will I always get the deal? Not in the real world, so my fall-back position is:

• Sell another product/service.O.K., you don't want to buy what I want to sell you, how 'bout buying something else? Long as I'm in the neighborhood, you might as well buy something. Oh, can't find a way to buy anything at all? Well, let's
  

• Get another appointment. Let me get some more information, or answers to problems, or whatever and let's get together again at a specific date and time? Oh, you don't think you want to make an appointment today? (Does this sound like any customers you've ever had?)
  

• Get permission to drop by again.I'll just pop in when I'm next in town. Oh, you'd rather I just mail my picture?
  

• Get permission to call on the telephone. Surely they'll let you call them back. But not all of them will. We're not dead yet.
  

• Get more information about the customer’s needs.We're going to switch this over from a sales interview to a fact-finding session. Any time we're getting information about the customer is time well-spent.

• Fish for a referral.Even if she doesn't want to buy today, she may well know of someone else who would be a better prospect. She might just fink them out to get rid of you.
  

• Make a friend. If all else fails, be sure you left with a better relationship than you had going in.
  

Rather than facing a win or a loss on every call, we now can win on nearly every call. Sometimes big and sometimes smaller, but always a win. If you know you will never again lose on a sales call, doesn't that make going out there a bit easier? You're welcome.

Let me know what you do to be sure you stay on track.

TEN COMMON ENEMIES (7)

By Hank Trisler

We've been unable to correctly determine the customer's attitude, so we end up

NOT ASKING FOR THE ORDER

Because we don’t know what’s on the customer’s mind, we don’t really know when it’s time to ask for a commitment. When is the right time to ask for commitment? When she’s ready to buy. When the customer’s attitude is one of acceptance.

FEAR

When we don’t know what’s on the customer’s mind, we have no idea what her attitude is. We don't know how she’ll react when we ask for a commitment or know what to do if she says "no." The result is fear. Fear of uncertainty. Fear of not knowing what to do. Fear of being out of control. Fear is paralyzing and many salespeople fail to ask for commitment simply because of that fear. If we don’t ask, she can’t say "no," but she can hardly say "yes," either.

Conversely, if we have done our job up to this point, we'll know what her attitude is and we'll ask for a commitment when her attitude is one of acceptance. No fear involved there.

But what if we're wrong? What if her attitude is NOT once of acceptance? Then it must be one of Objection, in which case we harmonize with the objection as previously set forth. If it isn't Acceptance or Objection, it must be Indifference, in which case we probe for areas of need, or dissatisfaction with the status quo. Again, no fear. Whichever way she moves, we move right with her. It isn't combat, it's a dance.

Please let me know your thoughts on this and if you think it will work in your world.

TEN COMMON ENEMIES (6)

By Hank Trisler

Because we have been busily chatting along about things in which the customer has no interest, we:

INCORRECTLY EVALUATE THE CUSTOMER'S ATTITUDE

There are only three attitudes a customer can have and he can only have one of these attitudes at any time. They are:

Objection

Indifference

Acceptance

Objection is when there is a clear and specific obstacle to buying. Examples: "You’re price is too high." "Your delivery is too slow." "I don’t like that color."

The first time you hear an objection, ignore it. That's right, just shut up and look at her. She may think she said something stupid and never say it again. In the absence of support (discussion) from you, 80% of the objections you currently face will simply go away and never be heard from again.

If the objection comes up again, we'd better find a way to deal with it, not try to get a commitment. We need to harmonize with the objection by rephrasing it to be sure we clearly understand it and then dispatching it. How? Hell, I don’t know. I don’t even know what the objection is, but you probably know because you’ve heard it before. Just deal with it. Sheesh.

Indifference is often indicated by statements like: "I want to think it over." "I need to shop a little more." "I have to ask my Uncle John." We deal with indifference by probing for additional needs, or discomfort with the status quo. We need to keep asking questions until we find some "hot buttons" to push.
Indifference is certainly no time to ask for a commitment.

Acceptance is the only attitude that lends itself to a commitment on the part of its holder. If you’ve been listening and watching, you’ll know when your customer’s attitude is one of acceptance. If you haven’t been listening and watching, you’re in trouble. Not BIG trouble, however. If you ask for a commitment when the customer holds an attitude other than acceptance, he’ll tell you. If it wasn’t acceptance, it must be objection or indifference, in which case we know what to do.

If you know how to accurately determine the customer's attitude and then know how to appropriately respond to that attitude, you're well on the way to a sale. And without pressure, argument or manipulation.

How do you determine a customer's attitude?