Sales situations can crop up and any time. I was sitting with a client a few days ago helping him prepare an ad for a magazine. The ad was designed to generate leads in the form of phone calls and/or visits to his website. Right in the middle of our meeting the phone rang, he answered. It was a potential client calling in from the ad we had placed in last months issue. I thought: "this is great" and then my client pulled out a sheet of paper and started reciting all the reasons why this person should hire him.
What does the client want?
Whew, with all the talking my client was doing the prospect could not get a word in edgewise. My client was on fire. He was telling the prospect everything he thought she should know so that she would say: Yes, I want to buy your service. My client was upbeat, dynamic and forceful. The trouble is my client never found out what the prospective client wanted. What was she trying to achieve? This key point is one of the casualties of a sales script that is delivered without regard for the client viewpoint.
Sales resistance
When my client got off the phone we discussed his sales technique. Interestingly the lady had told him what a good salesman he was. The only trouble was, she did not buy. Sales resistance can come in many forms. Sometimes people resist by telling us what they think we want to hear. My client obviously wanted to be a good salesman. It's possible that she told him what she did in order to get him off the phone.
Hitting the sales bullseye
Selling is about having a conversation and asking intelligent questions. In the word "conversation" the first two letters indicate more that one person will be speaking and hopefully listening as well. Only then a true conversation is had can you get the kind of communication that leads to a productive use of time for both parties. This does not mean that a sales happens every time. Sometimes you can be productive by determining that you and your prospect do not have the proper fit. When this happens its fine. Hopefully it happens quickly so you can move on to find the right kind of client for your business. When this happens you have hit the sales bullseye.
