No one on our sales team wants to be perceived as a “pushy, aggressive salesperson,” which means they sometimes miss the moment to close or they sell past the close.
They may also fail to recognize that their prospect is ready to buy, but aren’t sure what to do next because they don’t buy our stuff as often as our salespeople attempt to sell it.
Sure, we could coach our salespeople to say, “are you ready to buy?” to a prospect, but that is more likely to trigger a positive response from a prospect that is hiding a series of stalls and objections.
When it comes to gently nudging our prospect across the finish line, we recommend the following best practices to sales leaders to support their salespeople.
1. Salesperson and prospect agree at the end of the previous meeting what will happen in the next meeting if the prospect loves our salesperson’s solutions – without setting expectations in advance our salesperson is setting themselves up to hear, “this looks great. Let us take your proposal internal and we’ll get back to you” at the end of their presentation.
2. Salesperson presents solutions to two of prospect’s problems and confirms prospect is 100% satisfied with solution – by asking and confirming “are you 100% satisfied with our solution to this problem” twice our salesperson increases their rapport and credibility with their prospect, which increases the potential for earning that prospect’s business.
a. Have the prospect select which solutions they want to hear solutions for – even before they present our salesperson will increase their credibility with their prospect by asking, “so which problem do you want to hear a solution for first?” followed immediately by “why that one?” after the prospect makes a selection. To paraphrase a Sandler Rule, the first problem a prospect brings up might not be the most important to them.” By letting their prospect guide their presentation our salesperson puts the prospect at ease and makes them feel like part of the process instead of the recipient of a feature-and-benefit dump.
3. Salesperson asks “what do you need to see, hear or experience from me to be comfortable moving forward?” – David Sandler said, “most salespeople spend five minutes making the sales and 55 minutes buying it back.” If a prospect is ready to buy our salesperson needs to stop presenting and start transitioning their prospect into a client.
a. Salesperson continues presenting – if their prospect needs to hear more, they will likely select one of their outstanding problems and our salesperson repeats best practice #2 and #3 until there is nothing left to present or their prospect says “nothing, ready to move forward.”
4. Salesperson revisits what “move forward” means and confirms their prospect is comfortable moving forward– this was already defined when our salesperson and their prospect set up the presentation, but their prospect has likely forgotten or isn’t totally clear on what “move forward” means because their only experience with moving forward with a salesperson is handing over their wallet. That may be the case for us too, but there are other details our salesperson needs to sort out in addition to payment.
5. Salesperson congratulates their new client and books first quarterly review – booking the first quarterly review before parting ways with their new client is critical to reduce potential for their client to stay with their current vendor.
Using those five best practices and coaching our salespeople to own our sales process will project confidence to their prospects and prevent their sales opportunities from stalling at the finish line.
Until next time… go lead.
