Don’t be afraid to ask questions that will help you understand your customer’s situation. Don’t be afraid of what objections your prospect might bring up. You will actually make your sale much easier with the good fact-finding. You want to uncover your prospects needs and wants even if they don’t realize he or she has them at this point.

Also you will probably hear some negatives from your prospects, and by uncovering those objections you will be able to tailor your presentation to deal with those potential negatives in the most effective way.

A good fact-finding shows that you are concerned about the customer’s needs and you are not like every other sales person who is simply trying to sell the product to him.

 To quote myself from the book Trigger Events, “All needs are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.”

Remember: Fact-finding IS selling.

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Fact-Finding Is Your Mission is a post from: The Science and Art of Selling by Alen Mayer

In order to understand the cause of a lost sale and to find ways of overcoming these in the future, it is necessary to make a careful analysis of the factors that come into a potential sale:

1. The Salesperson
2. The Product or Service
3. The Prospect

The Salesperson

-    I didn’t pay enough attention to my service delivery

As the salesperson, top-notch service and attentiveness is par for the course. You cannot expect to woo a prospect and then obtain his business if you pay no attention to the details of your dealings with him. Even the finer points make a difference, such as keeping your appointments and being on time, EVERY time! If your service delivery is poor before you’ve even met with the prospect he probably expects it to become even worse once he’s purchased your product. Your prospect will be inclined to head for the hills before he’ll commit to a contract with you.

-    I couldn’t control my frustration when the prospect kept me waiting

Patience and self-control are admirable and indispensable tools that you will need in order to maintain high levels of service. The business that you don’t get today might just come through to you tomorrow, as long as your prospect has been impressed by your knowledge, dedication and professionalism.

-    I didn’t have a good understanding of the prospect’s business or his needs

When it comes to success in selling, first-class service is an absolutely essential part of the deal. This includes being prepared for your prospect in every possible way by understanding his business and his potential needs, before you even meet with him. It will prove to be a great asset to your selling pitch if you can demonstrate a high level of understanding surrounding your prospect’s particular requirements. This will ensure that your approach is appropriate and that the talking points are pertinent to his business.

-    I was not well-prepared for the meeting

Conduct yourself properly at all times, demonstrating the fact that you are well-prepared for your meeting. When you’re unprepared, you may tend to ramble and talk about points that are not at all applicable to the prospect’s situation. He will lose interest and he may also wonder as to your level of expertise, if you have not managed to understand his business sufficiently.

-    I dropped my professional guard and tried to be too friendly with the prospect

Each of us is different and will tolerate familiarity in varying degrees. It is only appropriate to enjoy a professional relationship where you conduct yourself respectfully and from a polite distance, at all times. Unless there is an invitation from your prospect on a social basis, it’s never wise to become his friend when you’re dealing with a business situation.

-    I’m not particularly enthusiastic about the product that I sell

You MUST be enthusiastic about your product. If you are not enthused, how can you expect others to be? Also, if you’re not interested in the product yourself, you’ll have no desire to learn more about it and will be ineffective at sharing that information with potential buyers.

-    I couldn’t answer the prospect’s questions

If you are unprepared and do not know your product well enough, you will be unable to answer your prospect’s questions or even understand his needs. In order to sell a product effectively, you need to understand it thoroughly and believe in its value.

- I bullied the prospect into listening to my sales pitch

It’s your duty to educate the prospect on the finer details of your product and all its features and benefits. You also need to LISTEN to his concerns so that you may address them effectively and be an asset to the process of discovering his ultimate business solution, as opposed to “just another salesperson”.

-    I frequently repeated my statements

Repetition is sometimes necessary and can be of great value, when properly used. But to do so too frequently only displays a lack of training and an indefinite plan of presentation. It can also indicate a loss of self-control. If you’re well-prepared, you will use repetition as a tool to highlight noteworthy points, instead of rambling while you try to find your place.

-    I couldn’t identify the appropriate time to close the deal

You need to constantly keep your finger on the pulse of the deal and be ready to close the deal at the critical moment. Always be aware of where the meeting is heading and take control of how the discussions pan out. If you’re a step ahead at all times, you will be prepared to seal the deal when the critical moment occurs.

As the salesperson, you are the driving factor of the sale. Your strength and determination in closing the deal will ensure its success or failure. Being properly prepared to meet your client’s needs gives you the strength that you need to address the deal successfully.

Don’t simply be the force behind the sale. Be an EFFECTIVE and EFFICIENT force – and ensure your success. Most importantly, CONNECT with your client. Nothing can work on a broken connection.

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Over 30 tips and ideas are included in my special report “3 reasons why you lose a sale… and what to do about it!” to help you be better equipped for your next sales presentation.  Get this special report now!

The Lost Sales – Causes and Remedies is a post from: The Science and Art of Selling by Alen Mayer

Interest is usually lacking for one of two reasons — either you have not secured your customer’s attention, or your argument or selling pitch or presentation is not the best.

If you believe your argument or selling talk is failing to arouse interest, you must investigate the cause.

This could be one of the following:

1. Your proposition actually has no interest for the customer and for good reasons can have none. If this is the case, the sooner you find it out, the better for you both. A salesperson, however, should be very careful about giving up on this supposition. There is a constant temptation to believe it is impossible to interest a customer, when as a matter of fact, the whole fault lies with the salesperson.
2. You do not understand your customer and are not grasping the things that will be sure to interest him.
3. You are not describing your products or services in an attractive, intelligent way.
4. There is something objectionable about you as a salesperson.

In short, you will see that unless the fault is of the first point mentioned, it lies in your failure to understand and make the most of either one of the three factors of the sale: the product, the customer, or the salesperson.

It is very natural when the salesperson is putting up the best talk he knows how, and knows that his products are right, that he should believe that the fault lies with the buyer.

The fault is rarely with the buyer.

While it may be true that certain ignorant buyers will hurt their own interests rather than purchase from a certain salesperson, the reason for this is always to be found in some matter connected either with the salesperson or his products in a direct or indirect way. If the customer will not buy a certain new style of products, it may seem that it is the prejudice of the customer that makes the sale impossible; but the thing that really makes the sale impossible is that the salesperson does not know how to overcome this prejudice.

In short, it is wrong for the salesperson to blame his failure upon the buyer. He can’t properly excuse himself for the failure to make a sale by merely saying, “I could have sold it to him, if he had had any sense.” The salesperson must take the customer as he finds him.

More about how to awake interest on buyer’s side in my next article on this blog.

Why there is no interest on buyer’s side? is a post from: The Science and Art of Selling by Alen Mayer