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A client not answering calls or returning emails can derail a sales rep.
We are going to cover 3 areas of why clients may ‘go quiet’ on you.
- Are you adapting to clients – reading the signals?
- The client’s buying strategy
- The salesperson is too pushy
Are you adapting to clients? Reading the signals?
Imagine Salesman John. He has an exceptional solution you want, but when you meet him, he is late. You try to overlook it (it was, after all, just a few minutes), but his lack of apology was annoying. You value accountability. He used some unfamiliar jargon in his pitch, which was irritating. He also asked about your partner and implied they needed to be there; that got your nose out of joint. It’s OK, he doesn’t know (your reason). As he left, he said, ‘I’ll email you later today’. By 6 pm, there was no email. You find this slack; you count on his word. You call his mobile; it’s an overly casual voice message with laughter vaguely audible in the background.
When his email arrives the next morning, it’s very much how you want it—short and to the point and covering all that you require. Great, but he made several glaring grammar errors. You try to overlook this, but it’s bugging you.
Good solution or not, John, is now on the back foot, fighting for this business. In a short window, the ‘errors’ he made carry disfavourable prejudice.
John meets with potential client Sam, who too wants John’s solution. When John arrives, Sam notes that this is indeed something he very much needs and is happy to spend more time than planned with John.
He needs a thorough education on how John’s solution would fix the problem. Sam doesn’t quite connect the dots in John’s pitch and jargon and feels embarrassed to ask again. This embarrassment leads to frustration, and he calls the meeting short.
John’s perception and reflection are, ‘Sam is a rude, arrogant potential client. He said he only had 15 minutes, and I went as fast as I could.’
John meets potential client Sarah, who knows this is the right solution for her company.
In the meeting, John spent more time addressing Sarah’s colleague than her, which confused her. She had previously emailed two questions, which John didn’t address in his demo. He had incorrectly presumed their reasons for wanting his solution were reason ‘A’. Sarah is perturbed at his assumptions and how he hasn’t spent any time getting to know them or understanding their situation. She needs this solution, so if she goes ahead it will be reluctantly with John.
Within a year, she will seek out and build a relationship with the main competitor and will withdraw from using John’s company.
John meets Sandeep. Sandeep likes a good handshake and eye contact. John does that; all systems go here. John didn’t send a reminder email the day before; Sandeep would have liked that.
Sandeep found John overly familiar and somewhat rude on the first interaction by making a comment about his weekend and ‘the wife’. Sandeep was lost for words. What happened to manners these days? However, Sandeep needs this solution. John had regularly mentioned ‘doing a good deal’. Sandeep wonders – is he implying we are short of money? The audacity annoys him.
As you note in all these scenarios, the potential client wanted the solution but was put off by the salesperson’s manner of interaction. ‘Technically’ John did a good job in every other way, for the most part, it was just the ‘little’ things that put them off.
John reflects on the lost business and assumes that his product is not as good as the competitor’s, or the old favourite, ‘they got it cheaper elsewhere’ – unimaginable to accept that his engagement influenced the decision-making.
The client’s buying strategy
Everyone has a different decision-making process and buying strategy.
Ever wondered why certain individuals buy off you, yet others don’t?
Have you noticed that your regular (and ‘easy’) clients are, for the most part, similar to you? Rapport and conversation flow easily.
Sales Mastery is about realising that we all think and operate differently. It is about observing the client, especially recognising how they buy, and adapting your sales style accordingly.
When it comes to client interaction, we tend to treat them as though we are selling to ourselves. The saying of ‘treat others how you wish to be treated’ is utterly incorrect in a sales context, because what we like, expect, and deem as professional does not necessarily correlate to someone else’s expectations or values.
Standardising what we like can blind us to thinking it’s the only way, or even worse, creating the misconception that it is the ‘right’ way. You will naturally find and gravitate to people who align and agree with your way of thinking; that’s life. It’s easy to find people who agree with you.
So, in acknowledging individuality, collect everything you value, believe, all concepts of how you like to be treated, the criteria of what you consider doing a job ‘right’, place all of it in and lift that metaphysical bubble into the air and recognise, ‘This is ME, this is what I care about, value, judge, expect and how I buy. This is how I measure professionalism and how I want to be treated. Likewise, each of my clients will have their own standards and set of values.’
All clients are different. All clients have different expectations.
There is no one-glove-fits-all approach.
Knowing your own buying strategy and behaviour will highlight and help you understand your natural sales defaults.
Buying decisions and strategies are based on underlying cognitive factors around “in order to buy I derive my confidence from”:
a. seeing it
b. hearing about it
c. touching it
d. seeing it working
e. revisiting it as a solution x number of times (eg could be 3 times or could also be ‘time’ as in length of time – i.e over weeks or months)
f. comparing options (it could be just one or several alternatives)
With this in mind, when explaining how your solution will solve an issue, it’s critical to really observe what the client is saying and doing. For example, “John, I look forward to seeing you. That’s crystal clear. ” These are the clients’ words. Even before you meet, you are aware that they emphasize ‘seeing’. In NLP terms (neuro-linguistic programming), we would identify this as ‘visual’.
Based on that, you will need visuals, as that is how they build up a story. Your words may be ‘This is how it will look to you’, ‘imagine this’, ‘visualise how etc.
Alternatively, if they regularly mention, ‘I hear you, I hear you’ then they are likely to spend time ‘listening’ to what you say.
In NLP we would refer to this as ‘Auditory’.
Don’t panic if they are not picking up the brochure or looking at your presentation.
They will intently listen. You may say, ‘How does that sound? Does that resonate?’
On the other hand, the tactile brochure handler who is writing copious notes and constantly handling the solution is on the high ‘touch’ spectrum.
In NLP we would call this kinaesthetic. They need to touch and feel to buy.
For the client who states, ‘I need time,’ you need to keep adding value between calls and visits.
The one stating, ‘I need to compare’ – you need to give them other options (or even just the perception of options!) so that they can evaluate and feel they are making the best decision.
The salesperson is too pushy
Our job as salespeople is to understand our clients, present the best solution for them, and explain it (educate) in a way that makes sense to the buyer.
Quite simple actually.
Things that stop us from being ‘partners’ and ‘collaborating’ and going into ‘persuading’ mode, possibly going too far and becoming pushy are:
- Not spending time in understanding the client
If we don’t understand them, we end up selling TO or AT them. This is the ole ‘spray and pray’ method, or my ‘favourite’ – the ‘show up and throw up’. It’s bygone years of when salespeople were hired for their ‘gift of the gab’. Presuming to know, it becomes ‘persuading’ mode, when really we don’t have the knowledge or insights of the client’s actual needs. And as such are trying to ‘talk them into it’.
- We don’t know the competitor
The client mentioned that they liked Company B’s solution (your competitor), and you are now derailed because you’re not up to date on what that solution is or how it will solve the problem. So you have to draw on other tactics: be nicer, drop the price, and hope to convince them. Even a bit of guilt is pulled out of the bag. You may appeal to their ego. All false and disserving.
- We are down on our figures
Pressure from the boss, family finances, and ego will all contribute to turning a great salesperson from proactively hunting ‘new opportunities’ to almost a ‘killer instinct’ frantically ‘hunting to win”. A short-sighted tactic.
What can you do?
- Be very sold on your solution, know exactly what successful outcomes and results look like.
- Tell yourself success stories every morning.
- Target your ideal client (if you are outbound prospecting). Learn how to nurture them and be of value, give give give unconditionally and without any pressure, and invite them to an event.
- When dealing with incoming enquiries, listen more than talk. Spend time understanding them, and avoid trying to sell to them.
- Stop trying to sell and start helping with a solution mindset. The sale is a consequence of helping
Help without expectations. This may go against everything you have learnt, but really if in your heart you are helping then it shows in your intent, your investigation, your questions, your due diligence and your planning.
Be confident and have certainty over your solution and how it will help.
Surrender any feelings about what we want from the other person. Remove any notion of pressures of reciprocation. They will then have the psychic space to become agreeable.
What is next to better understand client behaviour
Learning more about personality types and buying strategies. It’s advanced material that when added to a well-trained, highly competent salesperson’s set of skills, can be extremely powerful, as you’ll be tapping into a whole superior level of masterful behaviour adaptation.
Read: Who should be selling? Product specialist or salesperson? >>>
Read: Pulling the sale towards you >>>
Read: Leaders that use extended DISC have the upper hand >>>
Read: Good ole fashioned service >>>
Read: Follow Up >>>
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Piece written by Charmaine Keegan, author of over 20 eBooks, is a sought-after guest speaker, panellist, and keynote. She is a Certified Trainer Extended Disc System, of Situational Leadership, of NLP (how we operate), Hypnotherapy (unconscious communication) and Timeline Therapy (recognising your beliefs about sales and money – and recognising that of your customer). She has studied the psychology of human behaviour and is considered an absolute authority and true expert on sales techniques.
She has ‘walked the walk‘ so her content, programs and keynotes are highly practical and focused on results.
Smarter Selling is sales and mindset coaching for high-performing leaders and teams