Get the Stuck Sale Moving - Part 2

Yesterday Paul Cherry gave us some practical tips for dealing with a stalled sale. His advice will help you weed out potential buyers from the time-wasters and advance the sale. Here's his step-by-step advice for handling these common stalls.

2. "I need to talk it over with..."

You can take a similar approach with stalling questions such as "We need to discuss this," or "I need to think it over."

Agree: "Of course. I'm happy to hear you're taking that step. When would be a good time for me to follow up with you?"

Clarify: For "talk it over" prospects, the most important clarifying question is, "Is this something you're willing to recommend to ____?" If the answer is anything less than an enthusiastic yes, you need to be careful. Is this the person you want to act as your representative within the company? Try to understand any objections or suggest a joint meeting.

Legitimize: "Assuming for a minute that you're meeting with your boss (board, team leader, etc.), what will you be sharing with him?" Be careful how you ask these questions. The idea isn't to push prospects into advocating for you, but to find out how they feel. You might, for example, preface your questions by saying, "Just so I can be sure I've given you everything you need, let me ask you..."

3. "Call me back in three months"

Agree: Make sure that you agree to set a specific time for your return call. This increases the odds that you'll actually reach the person when you call.

Clarify and legitimize: You can often combine these two steps. "So that I can be prepared for my next call to you, can you tell me what will be occurring between now and then?" In other words, find out why the prospect thinks the discussion will be more relevant in three months as opposed to today. If he can't give you a good answer - or won't commit to a specific time for the call - chances are he's simply putting you off.

Paul Cherry, President and CEO, Performance Based Results has 20 years experience as a sales training consultant with an emphasis placed on sales training, leadership development, sales coaching and leadership coaching. Visit his website at: www.PBResults.com.

Get the Stuck Sale Moving

Welcome back! We hope you enjoyed the long weekend! Over the next two days sales trainer and author Paul Cherry will share some advice and concrete examples on how to move a stuck sale forward. If you encounter these put-offs while selling (and really, who doesn't?) then you'll be grateful for these tips on how to move past them towards the sale.

"Fence-sitters can take up inordinate amounts of your time and energy, often with little to show at the end," says Cherry. "The problem is some of the best customers are also slow to decide - especially in the relationship's initial stages. So how can you sort out the real opportunities from the dead-enders? Try the following three-step approach to get the sales process moving - or figure out whether it's time for you to move on."

Agree Clarify and Legitimize

First you agree with the prospect, then you ask for clarification, and finally, you ask a question designed to uncover whether there's a legitimate sales opportunity for you. The questions are respectful. The entire process takes only a few minutes, and it can save considerable wheel-spinning - for you and the prospect.

Here's one scenario showing how it works - we'll focus on two more tomorrow:

1. "Send me more information"

It's hard to know what prospects mean when they tell you this. Some salespeople regard it as a guaranteed blow-off, but real prospects will often start here as well. The only way to find out is to ask!

Agree: "I'd be glad to send you information."

Clarify: "So that I get you the right information, what specifically are you looking for?" If the prospect answers using action-oriented words, there's a good chance this is a genuine opportunity: "We're looking to achieve ... fix ... solve ... avoid ... improve...." These words suggest that the prospect has already identified his or her problems and accepted that change is necessary. If the prospect says, "Send me whatever you have," it's not a real opportunity. Time to move on.

Legitimize: Project your prospect into the future so that she can walk you through the decision-making process; for example: "You'll receive the information by Monday. Assuming you'll need some time to look it over, when should I call back to follow up?" Once you have a time frame established, continue: "And assuming you've reviewed the information and like what you see, what do you feel would happen next?" The prospect's answer will give you a clear sense of whether the opportunity is worth investing in.

Paul Cherry, President and CEO, Performance Based Results has 20 years experience as a sales training consultant with an emphasis placed on sales training, leadership development, sales coaching and leadership coaching. Visit his website at: www.PBResults.com.

Sales Training Tip: Have a Clear Future

How many times have you left a meeting feeling good about your presentation, only to realize you don't really have a plan with your prospect of what's coming next? Having a clearly defined idea of the next step is a very important part of the sales process. In a recent blog post, Brooke Green of Caskey Training discussed this situation, and what you can do to get on the same page as your prospect.

I was recently working with a client on knowing "What's next?" with their prospects and clients. It's a huge part of controlling the sales process. What we discovered is that my client is clear about what they think is going to happen, but they haven't shared it with their customer!

How do you know if you're all on the same page? Your customer may have an entirely different plan.

Here are six things to do every time you leave a meeting so that you are in control of the process, and your client is never surprised:

1. If your gut is nagging you, something has been left unsaid; never leave with a nagging feeling.

2. Always recap what you've heard in the meeting and make a suggestion for what you think the next step should be; remember your prospect is looking for you to lead them.

3. If there is no next step, don't try to make something up! Be okay with saying, "Goodbye, we're not a good fit."

4. If you know there is something there, but you're not sure "What's next?" it's okay to say so. Say something like, "I would like to digest what we discussed today. I think there is a reason for us to meet again, but I'm not sure what should happen next. I'll be in touch in the next day or so with some ideas on how to move forward." It's still a "clear future". No one is left wondering "What's going to happen after you leave?"

5. Your "clear future" should be how you open the next meeting. "Mr. Smith, we agreed in our last meeting that today we would talk about signing a contract..."

6. Your meetings should be followed up with a recap, either by letter or e-mail. The recap should state what you heard, what you decided to do and when you will do it.

"In our training, we work with our clients on always having a 'clear future,'" says Green. "How many of you have left a meeting thinking it was a good meeting but also saying to yourself, 'I wonder if I should call them? Should I send an email? Maybe I should wait for them to call me?' A "clear future" is a great tool for keeping the right deals in your funnel and to keep those deals moving forward."

Brooke Green is a speaker and consultant with Caskey, a firm specializing in training and developing B2B sales teams through face to face training, teleconferencing, written material, custom podcasts and one on one coaching. Learn more at www.caskeyone.com