The last words a salesperson wants to hear are “I need to think this over,” or “I think I will sleep on this,” or “Send me some references,” etc. These stalls from prospects are all too common and are absolutely worthless to the sales professional. In fact, they become a liability to the salesperson who takes them. The salesperson develops a case of the hope-a-hope-a’s, believing there is still a chance to sell something, and chases the prospect who didn’t have the guts to tell the salesperson the truth that he/she is not interested. Days, weeks, maybe even months are wasted by the salesperson chasing an opportunity that never was. This sales behavior is real, because I used to waste my time chasing maybe’s over and over again.
The sales professional needs to make a decision right now to never accept another “Maybe” again. I mean, getting a “No” from the prospect has more value since “No’s” contain clarity and allow the sales professional to divert energy and resources to more productive opportunities.
The Up-Front Contract
If you want to remove “Maybe” from the prospect’s vocabulary, then how you set up the sales call before it gets going becomes very important. Establish an agreement with prospects on what you plan to do for them before you actually do it and give them the chance to agree to your plan. This is a called an Up-Front Contract. Here are the steps to follow to set a good contract with your next prospect:
1. Appreciation: Thank the prospect for agreeing to meet with you.
2. Time: Get confirmation from the prospect on how much time they can spend with you and assure them that you will not go long. This puts the prospect at ease knowing that there is a defined ending to the meeting.
3. Agenda: What is the purpose of the sales call? It is not to learn about the prospect and make a new friend. You are there to sell so be very blunt when telling the prospect about your purpose. This will actually put the prospect at ease. The blunter you can be, the less the prospect has to worry about hidden agendas.
4. Permission for Questions: Don’t just start asking, get permission first. Questions can be abrasive and you are going to ask a lot of them, so make sure you get permission for questions. You can also give permission for the prospect to ask you questions.
5. Permission for “No”: The best way to remove “Maybe” as a potential outcome of your sales call is to give permission to the prospect to tell you “No” if they don’t want to buy. Tell the prospect that “No” will not hurt your feelings. You can even add that “Maybe” is not an acceptable outcome to the call. Another benefit is the prospect can further relax with you because you have given them an escape route to use if they decide they are not going to buy.
6. Define the Outcome: On the other hand, if the prospect is still interested in you after the discussion, then ask for clarity in the outcome of the sales call. Offer up an example of what a positive outcome could look like if the prospect is still interested. Maybe it is another meeting a couple weeks out where you present a solution designed to address the issues you uncover. What is important here is that if the answer is not “No,” you want clarity on what the next step in the sales process is before you leave the meeting.
Up-Front Contracts professionally posture the meeting, increase the productivity that comes out of the meeting, and nearly eliminate “Maybe” as a possible result. Prospects will recognize the professionalism of the contract and this is also to your benefit. I highly recommend that you script this portion of your sales call by writing out a good contract word for word to use in your next call. This will require some assertiveness on your part, but a good Up-Front Contract will result in no more “Maybe’s”
by Karl Schaphorst, President
402-403-4334
www.karlschaphorst.sandler.com
Sandler Training is a global training organization with over three decades of experience and proven results. Sandler provides sales and management training and consulting services for small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) as well as corporate training for Fortune 1000 companies. For more information, please contact Karl Schaphorst at (402) 403-4334 or by email at kschaphorst@sandler.com. You can also follow his blog at karlschaphorst.sandler.com