The Sales Handicapper

Five Most Important Sales Questions

1. Are you budgeted to purchase this year?
2. What are your decision criteria?
3. Who else are you involving in this decision?
4. Where are you in the decision process?
5. Where are we in your process?

These questions may appear basic at first glance and they do not take the place of all the other questions you'll ask to identify, qualify and close a sale.  These are just five questions that you must ask in every sales situation. 

If you can gain the answers to these five questions in the beginning of your sales process, you stand a much better chance of making the sale or moving on quickly!  One key point: You have to revisit the questions often and if the answer to any one of them changes, you have to ask all of them again!

For instance, if a new person becomes involved in the evaluation of your services, then you have to ask all five questions again.  Why?  Because a new person may mean new criteria.  Or, they may bring in their own relationships.  Or, they may be new Power in which case the budget may be at risk.  In other words,  be safe and assume the answers to the other four questions may have changed as well and ASK!

As always, if you have a specific sales situation you'd like to discuss, you can email me at [email protected]

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• You Lose Because Of What You Don't Do (customerthink.com)

"No" doesn't mean never..."

...and "yes" doesn't mean forever.   Truer words were never spoken when it comes to sales. In this fast changing world of corporate priorities and "free agent" workforce, the company or person who said "no" to you last year should be the first prospect on your list this year!

This can also work in your favor when you think you're about to lose a sale.  Let's say you get the sinking feeling you are losing the sale and the prospect is about to tell you "no". Rather than pushing harder or using tired old sales tactics such as lowering your price, do something politicians have practiced for decades; slow down the process.  Don't go for the win, go for the stall.  Introduce a new condition or even a new competitor.  Whatever you need to do to slow down the process, do it!

Why?  Because by slowing down the process you are allowing time to become your friend instead of your enemy.  In fact, you are making time the enemy of your opponent.  By introducing something new, you have given the leading candidate something else to deal with.  If they are like most salespeople, they will try harder to close the deal.  However, the harder they close, the more attention it draws to the reason(s) you provided for the prospect to take more deliberate approach.

While all this is going on, the sales process also may cross into a new quarter and we all know what can happen when the decision moves into a new quarter; anything can happen.  New people may come into the equation; priorities may change, budgets may be altered, your primary contract may get promoted or even leave.  In other words, when a sale moves into a new quarter, everything can be placed back on the table and you may be able to start over and gain the upper hand.   At worst, your competitor has to go back to their boss and explain why a deal they most likely committed is now pushed to the next quarter.  For all you know, it could have been a career defining quarter for your competing salesperson and they may not be in the picture in the new quarter.  Oh my, now you're competing against a brand new players and your odds of winning just went way up.