Sales Results Media
Two words that make sales happen- Control & Accountability
Two words that make sales happen- Control & Accountability
There are two key elements that can keep a sales professional from closing business in today’s tough economic climate. Having lack of control and lack of accountability with your prospect creates serious difficulties in being effective with your sales today. While we are clearly involved in a buyer’s market, one must have an effective process to help each prospect solve their specific problems without becoming a punching bag for them along the way. Lacking of control in a sales meeting allows the prospect to glean an endless amount of information and time from you without committing to specific next steps moving forward. The failure of sales professional to hold their prospect accountable to solve their problems can leave the prospect without urgency or a real desire to change their existing situation.
In order to understand the importance of control and accountability in your sales, here are a few selling scenarios for you:
Scenario #1- Imagine walking into a prospects office and she immediately starts asking you questions about your business and the possible solutions you offer. To many sales professionals, this sounds like a great beginning to any sales meeting. While it’s true that the prospect appears to be interested, the sales professional has LOST control of the meeting and may have a great deal of difficulty in closing the sale.
Scenario #2- Imagine that the meeting is nearing its end and the prospect says to you, “This all sounds great, I will call you in a few weeks with my answer.” If you felt your heart fall into your stomach upon reading this, you’ve obviously been there before. Chances are that the prospect said this to you because she is not looking to be accountable to make a decision with you today, even though the decision should be a no brainer to them. A good percentage of these deals are lost as the weeks go by. Eventually, the prospect seems to just disappear into the abyss.
Scenario #3- Imagine that the prospect is able to extract most of your expertise, pricing and solutions in your first meeting. In addition, they are shopping your price and are leveraging your competition against you for concessions. As the economy tightens, competition expands and information is continually improving, your ability to keep a prospect focused and committed to making the best decisions are critical to you closing more business.
While the solution to these scenarios isn’t something that can be learned and implemented in minutes, the lesson can be. By not controlling the prospect throughout the sales process and holding them accountable to actively solving the issues they have shared with you, it can be very difficult to close new business. The key is to take control at the beginning of the meeting to insure that you start out on the right foot. Through setting strong agendas, asking tough questions and holding them accountable to move forward with you, every sales professional can improve their likelihood of closing more sales.
For more information about how we help our clients solve these issues for good, please visit our website at www.salesresultsinc.com or call 847-317-1575 to speak with one of our Senior Advisors.