If you haven’t bookmarked Salesopedia.com, I suggest you do so now. It is a relatively new site but is full of excellent sales advice. Clayton authors a great sales blog over there that I highly recommend reading.
His latest entry discusses an article by one of our favorite sales authors – Jeff Thull – titled Ten Timely Tips For Mastering The Complex Sale. Point number 1 is one we preach:
1. Every sale is not as good sale. About 35% of all sales are bad sales. In one way or another, they leave the customer disappointed or the seller with excess costs and diminished returns. Often salespeople are so concerned with getting the order that they write business that is not good for themselves, their company or the customer. Walking away from a situation that is not profitable for anyone is the right thing to do.
We work with many sales managers and this is one of the most difficult lessons for them to accept. It is tough to walk away from a prospect, but you can’t make a bad deal good.
This lesson is one that the sales manager has to impart to his team also (another difficult task for them to accept). Some times a sales manager has to let the salesperson go down the wrong path and lose a prospect to learn that it would have been better to walk away. Of course, we tell them only allow this bloody-nose lesson to occur with a small prospect.
And here is a point that cuts across the grain of traditional sales processes:
5. Never ask for the order. If you have to ask for the order it should be clear that your customer has missed something, and its your fault. If the diagnostic protocols have been followed, and the customer has recognized problems that can be eliminated by the solution you offer, the decision to buy will come as the next step in a well-executed quality decision process. The arm-wrestling of the traditional selling process is replaced by the acknowledgement that a mutually beneficial business relationship is developing.
I can sense the eyebrows being raised by this one, but Thull is right. Qualified deals close themselves. A “strong closer” is actually a strong qualifier.
The article is filled with modern-day sales wisdom and well worth your time to read it in its entirety.