Symptoms:
Tanya was thrilled to open her calendar for the week and see SO MANY follow-up calls she had to make. She built out her pipeline, made initial contact, held conversations, and was asked to follow-up in a few weeks by most of her prospects. Well, that time was here, and she was ready to go to work on collecting next steps and decisions. Yet, as she made her follow-up calls, she could not get past the gate keepers or talk to anyone live. Her frustration was growing with each and every call. She was banking on at least a few of these follow-up calls to turn into closeable deals. She needed closes to hit her yearly goals. What could have gone wrong when the conversations were so promising?
Diagnosis:
Tanya has made a few critical, but easy to make, oversights. First, she left those calls feeling good. When you finish a call feeling good there is most likely something that was not asked or brought up that could prove to be a challenge later. That good feeling she was feeling could have probably been worked out had Tanya spent a little more time with her DISCOVERY process. Once Tanya hear "sounds good, follow-up in a few weeks," she accepted the conversation was over and added each prospect to her follow-up list.
Prescription:
Discovery can be challenging for some salespeople as they chase the yes instead of getting to the no and moving onto the next prospect. Getting the “sounds great, follow-up in a few weeks,” can give false hope to the salesperson and kicks the can down the road for the prospect to say no later or turn into a ghost. Chasing a yes that will never be there is a waste of energy.
Using discovery questions- are you sure, what are you hoping someone can do for you, tell me more, anything else, what happens if things do not change- can help Tanya weed out the tire kickers, stroke dispensers or those out for a free education quicker.
Emotionally, we never want to hear no. Yet, your job as a salesperson is to collect decisions, no matter what they are. The quicker you discover if a prospect is a true prospect and not a suspect, the better. Finding the way to ask questions you would like answers to without sounding like a jerk is the key to good discovery. As always, nurture, nurture, nurture.
Critical Thinking
Are you working through DISCOVERY enough? What is your favorite go-to discovery question?
The Drill
Final Thought for the Morning:
It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question. Eugene Ionesco
Your Top 3 Goals & Tactics for the Week
LAST WEEK: Update us on how things went last week with your stated Goals and GD Tactics.
THIS WEEK: Please share your Top 3 Goals for this week and the GD tactics you plan to deploy.
