As I rise are you reading this, I’ve got something to say. I think you have to have your feet to read. Well, here’s the story of a vacuum salesman who didn’t put enough power into his vacuum cleaner.
It happened SO many years ago and I don’t miss it and most of those responsible are gone now, but I worry about all of YOU because I see it all the time in my clients and prospects who thought they were so good at selling before but now just miss it so much.
I want to show you a story of how this happened and you can understand what happened to this poor man in real sadness sometimes. We’ll call him Mr. Beller. He’s in his 80’s. He’s an off-the-beaten-way, independent contractor, self-employed contractor, very successful salesperson.
One day his broker thinks he’s spotted one of his accounts. Then the broker shifts his focus to another client. Mr. Beller calls his prospect and says:
“Hi Mr. Beller, I’ve sent you some information. Are you still interested in our solution for the light fixture repair?”
Time is running out. This account wants him to close the deal! Plus they know Mr. Beller.
His prospect says: “You know what! Let me think about it… I mean I’ve got nothing ‘on the go’ at the moment. But I did have one of my key competitors looking at the same problem and they let me borrow that machine from him and that saved me about $5,000. Isn’t that great! Mr. Beller, when can I get him back so I can have a look at it?”
Seem familiar?
Requirements to meet this sale have been established with expectations (RESPerson awarded), reach, closing date, and contract negotiations. But Mr. Beller, can’t get them; he doesn’t have enough time to come back that demand or even track his Twitter feed. He’s in a panic and starts vomiting all kinds of technical issues, diagrams, and explanations. Just when he ends up getting the contract and makes a reasonable solution, his prospect’s broker gets him back or tells him when to call from a different fax machine.
Well, Mr. Beller, an overachiever, works long hours without weekends and he doesn’t have enough time. He suspended all his best efforts, starts selling his product brand page, and a lot more. But it’s a much slower process than he expected and it breaks the continuity of the customer wants the product, the product and service are going to the customer, there is a problem with the product, and the customer continues to buy the product and service!
This happens to him about seven times a year – sometimes with great success and other times with very little. He relaxes all his efforts, makes sales, make sales, they close.
So I’ve got to show you this…
Don’t do this to yourself. You’ve got to close the sale! You may have to miss a critical one.
This is what happened! Mr. Beller’s sales process was getting most of his time dedicated to selling his product, the site of the firm needing repair, selling his services, getting testimonials. He lost sight of closing the deal. Mr. Beller’s any hopes of a great result elusive him awake in his addresses, in his activities, re farther away from the purpose of getting the job.
If you find this happening, follow my secret formula for selling today.
You keep doing more and more instead of selling to close the deal. So you miss the customer’s buying signal gets louder.
Of course, when they purchase, you want to catch it and do the close for them, but at some point, their other priorities need to come in the way and you end up not closing. Try to re-understand what and why they don’t buy.
And I don’t think you’re alone if this happens – most callers think they’re great people and prospects these days, are not!
You miss critical points in the sales process because of the other tasks you put off to closing the deal. Yes, it’s fantastic these things make up a piece of the sales process, but they don’t close the sale and you end up losing the customer. So what’s gone missing?
First, there need to be some effective sales processes set up. They need to be detailed, of course. If you have reps doing Essentially the same thing, it’s simply number one that both of you put into one process.
You need to know where you are at now and where you want to go.