Joe teed up a nice little order at one of his smaller accounts. It wasn't a make or break type of deal, but it created some additional opportunities to expand the product mix and make a lesser account more profitable. In an effort to keep his sale on track, Joe emailed the customer to confirm his appointment for a week later and mentioned that he thought this should be a decision meeting on the product program he was offering. Within hours, Joe's appointment was confirmed, but to his dismay the owner stated that his decision would be made on his timeline and not Joe's. After reading the reply, Joe felt conflicted: should he drive an hour and a half to do nothing more than hear a “think-it-over”, or should he cancel the appointment and tell the prospect to let him know when he was ready to decide?
Maintain A Schedule
Symptoms:
Donna hated feeling like this. As hard as she tried, she couldn’t figure out what she was supposed to do when she got back to the office after being out for a couple of days making calls on new prospects and checking up on some existing clients. Her to do list had a bunch of things scribbled on it, but Donna didn’t know which items were most important or when the people she had been talking to were expecting her to follow up.
Podcast: Talk About Money
Symptoms:
Podcast: Too many options slows decision making
Symptoms:
Linda was frustrated by her prospect's unwillingness to make a decision. Her prospect said he needed some time to digest the three options outlined in her proposal before making a decision. The prospect added that he was pleased with the proposal and that she had done her job well. Now she found herself in the "chase" mode because the prospect wasn't returning her calls.
Podcast: Your price is too high
Symptoms:
One of the most common objections salespeople get is about price: "That's a bit more than we were thinking about paying." "Your prices are kind of high." "That just doesn't fit our budget" are typical comments. Salespeople tend to be very quick to take these comments at face value. They assume these price objections are the real issue standing between them and an order, so the path of least resistance is almost always to begin dropping their price to get the sale. And, more often than not, once the price issue has been "resolved", more resistance comes to the surface.
Podcast: Getting Paid in Strokes
Symptoms
Melody and her boss just couldn't understand why she continued to struggle to close business. She was a very outgoing person who was extremely well liked by her customers. She went out of her way to be friendly to everyone and appeared to possess a good knowledge of her product and the selling process. Her failure to excel was confusing to everyone.
Podcast: Malpractice: Prescription Before Diagnosis
Monday Morning Manager
Symptoms:
Hayden was ready for her first call of the day. She had a referral into this prospect's office and had been told they were in need of getting products fast...very fast. In preparation for her meeting she pulled timelines, shipping schedules and production pieces that could impact their products she thought this prospect was interested in.
