If you’re in sales, here’s a formula to live by:
Approach x Effort = Success
Sales plans and strategies are empty unless put into action.
This is common knowledge, so why is it so hard to pick up the phone?
Just knowing the “how” isn’t enough, you have to want to do it. The sales world has a host of challenges (fear, vulnerability, the threat of rejection) to hold you back.
Rejection is a major part of the sales world. The simple truth is not everyone needs or wants what you are selling. Most of the time, a “No” from a prospect has little or nothing to do with the quality of your pitch. They simply aren’t looking for what you’re selling.
The most challenging lesson of sales is this: it isn’t about you. The offer isn’t about you, and neither is the rejection.
It is common to view success in a sales context as getting a “yes” out of the prospect. But through our decades of collective sales experience at Sales Arbiter, we’ve come to a different perspective.
Don’t waste your time selling to anyone and everyone; focus your effort on prospects who actually will benefit from your offer.
The most successful sales careers are built on long-standing relationships with clients, so only make a deal when you see a true benefit for the prospect.
To combat the feelings of rejection, change your perspective on success.
Your goal as a salesperson: discover whether or not your offer is beneficial to the client.
Make the sale about the prospect, not about you.
Don’t push the benefits of your offer exclusively, but rather engage in a conversation with the prospect to identify their needs.
This idea is radical because it moves your position from adversarial (you want them to spend money they’d rather not) to cooperative (they are expressing a pain that your product or service can cure). Both parties are now working together to fix a mutual problem.
Odds are, the prospect won’t take your meeting if they don’t have a problem, but just because they have a problem doesn’t make your offer a perfect fit.
Focus your pitch ONLY on meeting the needs of the prospect.This strategy ensures you make the most compelling offer possible, focusing just on the issues and opportunities the prospect considers important and leaving the rest behind.
Another advantage: this strategy dulls the pain of rejection because the decision is mutually agreed upon. By discussing the needs of the prospect, you will be able to tell if your product is a good fit, and so will they.
If it isn’t, no harm no foul. You didn’t fail. They just didn’t need it. Because you focused on identifying their needs, the pitch was a success regardless of outcome.
By employing these tactics and strategy, you will find any “No” easier to bear and win the respect of your prospect at the same time.
Sounds like a pretty good deal, eh?
