When our sellers don’t get a “yes” from their buyer they might have been beaten. It’s more likely that they lost.
A seller who is beaten has done everything under their control to position themselves to earn their buyer’s business, whether that’s the first order or 50th.
Your sellers lose when they stick to their comfort zone instead of their sales process or they haven’t practiced qualifying enough to stay present and respond to their buyer’s statements. Both are coaching opportunities.
A seller who chooses to stay in their comfort zone usually doesn’t believe that either a) they have the right to ask a question of their buyer or b) they don’t believe that if they ask a particular question that their buyer will respond with information that helps the sellers determine if that buyer is qualified.
In the first case the mindset, “I have the right to ask, and my buyer has the right to say ‘no,’” supports sellers in increasing their confidence as does role playing with a senior executive from inside their company who the seller might believe is “more than” then seller. We’re all humans selling to humans and sometimes sellers get lost in titles or years or experience instead of focusing on qualifying.
A lack of focus on qualifying is the culprit behind sellers not believing a particular question will “work.” In those cases, the seller is attached to the outcome (a positive response from their buyer) instead of the process of qualifying (taking whatever response they get from their buyer and using it to gather more information by asking an additional question).
In a post-mortem on an opportunity ask your sellers, “did you get beaten or did you lose?” Both answers are okay. The former indicates we might have work to do on our positioning and the latter indicates a growth opportunity for our seller.
Teach your sellers to get beaten and they’ll win more often.
Until next time… go lead.
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