Why Don’t You Ask for the Sale?
Posted by: Cheryl Clausen in sales coaching, tags: increase sales, increasing sales, marketing strategy, sales coaching, sales marketing
photo credit: austinevan
Are you afraid to ask for the sale? Have you ever had a sales trainer suggest that you don’t ask for the sale because you don’t want to. Insinuating you’re afraid to do something perfectly logical?
You don’t ask for the sales because you don’t want to ask for the sale BECAUSE you know there’s no logical reason to do so. Your internal warning signals are shouting to you, “don’t make a complete fool of yourself asking for a sale you can’t make.” Your natural fear instincts exist for a very good reason.
Those fear signals not only warn you of real physical danger they also warn you when you are about to cause emotional danger to yourself. Don’t force yourself down a path leading to your own humiliation. Rather change your approach and change your outcomes.
You don’t want to ask for the sale BECAUSE…
- What you have to offer isn’t a match for what the prospect needs. When this is the case, make and friend and walk away. Never try to desperately force a sale that shouldn’t happen to begin with. You will live to regret it.
- You didn’t set yourself up right before the actual sales appointment. Because you didn’t take the time and make the effort to set yourself up as a trusted adviser you now have to deal with the adversarial relationship most people have with salespeople. Why dig yourself out of a whole you shouldn’t be in in the first place?
- Even you recognize you haven’t helped the prospect uncover their “reason why” they should buy. People aren’t going to buy to be nice and help you out. They need real reasons to make a “yes” buying decision. They need to believe your offer is the right offer for them.
- You don’t like it when someone tries to pressure you into buying and you don’t want to do that to someone else. Good for you. Never use pressure tactics. Those tactics might work for a one-time transaction but they back-fire when you want life-time relationships.
- You helped them uncover a reason why they should buy, but you didn’t help them uncover the motivation to act. You can tell because the prospect is completely logical about the offer and stays focused on data and facts. You help them gain the motivation they need to act and act now when you help them envision the future they want in every detail.
You don’t want to ask for the sale because you know the prospect isn’t ready. All too often you and the sales trainers you work only focus on closing statements. As long as you place all your attention on the closing you’ll never correct the problems that make closing so difficult.
You’ll want to ask for the sale when you adjust your marketing and sales conversations to make closing a natural conclusion to a great conversation. You won’t be afraid to close because you’ll know its right. In fact, in most cases you won’t have to “close” because the prospect will do it for you.
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