Why sales deals aren’t closing?

no_sale

I’ve had times of greatness and times of not-so-greatness.  Times where deals close when you want them to and deals that continue to fall out of the sky and you continue to close.  Opportunities that come up and opportunities that you can never find.  The life of sales is like a wave:  when it rises high up you’ve got to catch it before the next crash and if you catch it right, what a great ride!

What if, however, your sales aren’t closing?  Do you change your strategy?  Listen to Dan Lok, who gives fantastic and innovative advice on why people don’t buy and how to improve your strategies!

https://bit.ly/2SOAX2H

Here’s another article by WorldLeaders that gives more reason’s why you might not be selling or closing.

https://bit.ly/2LhtPcy

Let’s go through the scenarios one-by-one……

  1. Not working with real decision makers. Are you calling high enough up the food chain or dealing with lower staff that don’t have budget?  I think all of us have fallen into this trap and it comes with the territory because often times you just don’t have access to the top decision makers.
  1. Is there a strong business case? If you are selling on feature and function, most likely you are not giving the decision maker enough ammunition for the business to make the investment.
  1. Quotes instead of proposals. Are you providing enticing proposals with justification to the business or just price quotes with how much it costs to purchase?  You need to make sure your proposal is rock solid.
  1. Submitting instead of proposing. Emailing a proposal instead of presenting it.  Not good.  You need to meet face-to-face and present it.
  1. Not asking for the sale. You have to ask and ask continuously!  You’ll never get anywhere if you don’t ask.
  1. The customer will inundate you with objections. Just human nature.  Be prepared for a stall or pricing objections.  On either front, you need to come armed with redirection and ways to engage in meaningful discussions that involve the value to the business and what they are about to buy.

Tony Bilby

Cracking the Cold Calling Code

Cold Calling King with Tony Bilby

Wolf of Wall Street – King Cold Caller!

Cold calling for a salesperson should be as normal as breathing or walking down the street. If you are a salesperson and you don’t cold call then make it a priority, a daily or a weekly habit. If you are salesperson that doesn’t cold call, but you are hitting your quota or making a great income, congratulations, because you are probably benefitting from cold calling you did early on in your career. Can you imagine how you might increase your sales if you cold call even with an established account base or even to others you might not know within that same customer organization?

You may have a great product or have others prospecting for you, but you are only going to able to process orders for so long before the competition swoops in or your quota gets big enough that you have to pick up the phone or get in front of customers more often in order to stay competitive.

Great sales closers cold call to get appointments set, continue to touch base with existing clients, and network to new clients over the phone on a regular basis building rapport and developing relationships.

Brian Tracy provides 7 tips in his blog “7 cold calling tips to improve your closing rate.”

http://ow.ly/ezGU302pWmT

Step 1 – Focus on the Client – Make sure to focus on the client and their companies needs. Don’t talk about yourself or your company, but focus on their issues.

Step 2 – Elicit responses from carefully planned out questions. From general to specific, be armed and ready so that you can handle immediate objections and address potential challenge areas.

Step 3 – Don’t use cold calling scripts. Ask questions about their business, their market, their budget, and their challenges. If you are in technology, like I am, learn as much as you can as a sales consultant about the product you are selling so you can immediately identify a customer “gap” or need that your technology might be able to fill.

Step 4 – Don’t overwhelm the prospect on the first meeting. Just bring a basic notebook, but don’t break out an entire briefcase of brochures, etc., as this may be too intimidating.

Step 5 – Don’t try to sell anything on the first call! You want to gather as much information as you can so that you can come armed with a more customized presentation and use case based on the information shared.

Step 6 – Keep the prospect relaxed. Keep it light and easy. The more comfortable they feel the easier they are going to want to open up.

Step 7 – Uncover the real customer benefit. What are the challenges that you will solve with your product? What drives them? How strong are the politics within the organization? Will they get promoted based on making the right architectural decision? Do you know enough about their environment that your product will integrate well and correctly? Have you, as the advisor, truly suggested the best approach and the best formula to make their organization successful?

No matter what product or service you sell, make sure you deliver. One of the best rewards for selling, closing, and keeping the customer happy, is for the happy customer to refer you to another potential customer at another organization.

Tony Bilby