The Science and Art of Selling by Alen Majer

More salespeople make the mistake of overselling their prospects than underselling. In plain English, they talk their prospect to the point where there is a readiness to buy and then talk them out of that mood, losing the interest and the order after it was there for the taking.

You might account for that by saying that this type of salesperson does not “feel” when the prospect is ready. But that is not a fact. They do feel it, but they figure something like this,

“I’ve got them coming now, but if I try to get an order they may say no. I’ll just keep on selling and make the thing a little surer.”

And in making it a little surer they lose out altogether.

Most of us hesitate to face a crisis. We are afraid of an adverse decision. That is largely why some people oversell their prospects. But no matter how diffident you feel about it, and no matter how great your hesitation, the secret of success lies in driving in and bearing down for the order just the second you feel the time is ripe.

And if you follow the rules, you’ll get the order.

Here they are:

1. Bring your prospect to the buying point.
2. The minute you feel the prospect is ready try to take the order.
3. Don’t directly ask the prospect to buy. Without giving offense, take it for granted the prospect is purchasing and start settling up the details just as if they had verbally said “Yes.”
4. If they are not ready to buy, drop your purchase order form and start selling them again.

And remember, no matter how you interest your prospect in your approach - no matter how convincing your presentation - no matter how strong his desire for your proposition, all the work that has gone before is wasted, and absolutely lost if you fail actually to get the order.

Someone said once, “Ask, or the answer is always no”. If you don’t ask for the order, rarely you will receive the business and commission you desire.

Download our free Crash Course

We’ve all heard the saying “you win some; you lose some”. And it’s true. But as a successful salesperson you’re not interested in settling for winning SOME of the deals and simply accepting that you’ll lose a few as well, just as a matter of course. A successful salesperson will set about discovering the reasons behind lost sales and will learn from these causes in order to advance and beat the odds. No more settling for “win some; lose some”! You’re in the business of selling. So let’s focus on winning the deal instead of being prepared to lose the sale some of the time.

You cannot be expected to get the sale 100% of the time. Sometimes the sale is lost to conditions beyond your control. But it does help to understand more about those deals that slip through your fingers when they just may have been saved by foresight and a little more training.

Download our free Crash Course and discover the cause of the lost sale. Find its remedy so that you will be better equipped to handle the next presentation and close more sales.