It happens at least 100 times per day. My five-year-old son will ask me a question that begins with “Why”. Why can I not have dessert before dinner? Why do I need to go to bed at 8 o’clock? Why do I have to limit the amount of time I watch TV in a given day?
Sure, it can sometimes be tedious to answer what seem to you reading this as simple questions. To stay sane, I remind myself that he asks because he is trying to understand the reason why something is happening. It is a whole lot easier to accept something if you understand the rationale- there is a prime example in the superhero room down the hall. Just as this knowledge helps kids, it is hugely valuable to premium salespeople- especially right now.
Trust me, in the heart of a pandemic, we have a lot of salespeople who are wondering why their prospect is not getting any closer to buying than we hoped. While it will be easy for them to throw their hands in the air, the best salespeople figure out the reasons why a sale is not happening.
This obstacle is not new to the sales world since March 2020. Prospects have been leaving their pursuers stuck in sales purgatory since the dawn of business. Sellers agonize over why the sale is not happening. It is simple. The prospect finds a reason not to buy and fails to communicate to the salesperson that he will not be moving forward. The painful habit was best articulated in my prior consulting work by the leadership team of the Atlanta Hawks who plastered the phrase, “We love Yes, like No, and hate Maybe” on the wall of the sales floor.
While many salespeople are quick to blame the prospect in these instances of perceived indecision, “maybes” are generated by the salesperson. Most people have learned to call these challenges objections. Many times they have rehearsed their rebuttal to whatever that objection might be to try to move things along.
Sorry to discredit your last sales training, but objections do not really exist in premium sales. Objections are simple ways for prospects to try to soften the blow of rejection for the salesperson. Hidden underneath the objection, is the reason a prospect is not moving forward. In order to learn from the sales process, and potentially alter its outcome, you need to figure out the reason a prospect did not buy.
To gain this understanding, my advice and guidance to those selling the most expensive seats in a venue has always been to focus on bringing value to every communication through the sales process and to make sure to be relevant to the person(s) you are pursuing.
Why are value and relevance so important? Without them, you never get deep enough into a sales discussion to understand the why. When you are viewed as a valuable resource, businesspeople are willing to give you real answers. Show you are a relevant member of the business community and understand its inner-workings. It will lead to you being able to have frank conversations with prospects so you can uncover the reason they are not buying. If the reason is valid to you, move on. If not, by being valuable and relevant, you have earned to right to challenge the thinking of that prospect and still have the potential to close.
COVID has added a bunch of reasons to the list of normal ones (like price or usage) which makes it much more necessary for a seller to seek to understand the reason a sale is not taking place. Not feeling safe in a stadium is a valid reason for not buying. Feeling like a prospect’s customers will not get the warm and fuzzy feeling going to an event with that company’s salesperson who is outside their “bubble” makes sense. The product not fitting into next year’s budget is not a reason, just an objection that means you are not showing you are worthy of getting true answers just yet.
I know I make this sound easy- it is not. Showing that you have valuable insight to offer the CEO of ABC company takes work. Maintaining your relevance in the business community you are selling in takes effort. With that said, there is no greater skill to close premium deals. We recently mentioned how tough sales are to come by these days, so you should use the best tool you have.
Need help in increasing your relevance or building your value? Feel free to lean on me and the rest of the SSG team for help.
Now go sell something!
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Evan Gitomer is a contributor to The Strategic Sports Group newsletter.