Excuses?

from my email:

Daily Sales Tip: No Excuses!

"Why did you lose that deal?" is a routine question that managers ask their representatives.

One simple way to identify the sales superstars in the crowd is to analyze the responses. Most representatives will reply, "We didn't get the support we needed from headquarters," or "We don't have feature A or B," or "Our price was too high, wah, wah, wah." If that were the case, why is it that every single day, sales representatives are winning deals in which their price is significantly higher than everyone else's?

The response from a superstar will be short and sweet: "I was outsold," or "I didn't earn their trust." A superstar knows that customers do not buy based on the product or service; they buy based on their level of trust in the sales representative. A superstar does not make excuses. It's not just that he or she is good at fessing up; it's more than that. Superstars understand how people make decisions.

Bad representatives think people make decisions based on price or features. Superstar representatives know people make decisions based on whether or not they trust and rely on you. So if a superstar loses a sale, he or she says, "I didn't qualify the opportunity correctly, I didn't get to the decision-maker, I didn't uncover their needs adequately, or I didn't understand the customer's buying or decision-making process. This is all about me-me-me." The average loser representative says, "It's all about something else."

Source: Dan Adams, principal and founder of Adams and Associates

Sphere: Related Content