John Glennon is the owner of Insight Sales Consulting Inc, an authorized Sandler Training Licensee. He can be reached at jglennon@sandler.com, toll free at 1-866-645-2047 or visit www.glennon.sandler.com.
The TACTIC: When setting appointments, always get invited in. NO BEGGING!
The RESULT: Begging someone for an appointment, setting yourself up in a situation in which you have to convince someone that you have something to offer, will eventually get you sales. But this is a hard, hard, hard way to make a living. All of the pressure is on you to perform.
The prospect gets to sit back and decide if your performance is worth any more time. Would it not be better for you to determine if the prospect is worth your time and effort?
When the prospect invites you in, the responsibility is on him to tell you why. You are in control of the situation.
Which would you prefer, begging or being invited?
DISCUSSION: Why do salespeople beg? Because in many instances, the prospects will put up with it.
From the salesperson’s point of view, the prospect is showing interest. Any attempt by the prospect to leave or terminate the situation is viewed as an objection. And, as we all know, objections have to be overcome.
So here we have a situation in which the prospect is trying to be polite to a beggar, and the beggar is getting, from the prospect’s point of view, more and more insistent with the begging. What’s a prospect to say? How about, “Send me some literature; I’ll look it over.” Or, “I don’t have any money in the (choose one: budget, wallet, checkbook).” The list of brush-offs is extensive and well known.
APPROACH: Begging is a habit that is reinforced by prospects because prospects have been trained by salespeople who beg for a living.
Instead of saying “… if I could have a five-minute appointment, only five minutes, I know you would be interested,” an alternative would be to stop playing the role of a beggar and say, “Mr. Smith, after I meet with most CEOs, we jointly decide that my product is not appropriate for their needs.
However, 15 percent of CEOs see the value of my product. When would you like to determine if you qualify as one of the 15 percent?”
Salespeople using this tactic would get fewer appointments with this approach, but on the other hand, they would waste less time on non-productive appointments and make more sales.
If you really want to stop begging, get a small tape recorder and tape your side of the conversation. Then play it back to someone you trust and tell them to note down all of your begging phrases. Once you have that list, ban those phrases from your vocabulary.
THOUGHT: Beggars do make some money. Non-beggars make more money. Which would you rather be?