Probably one of the fastest ways to get rid of a salesperson, apart from telling him you’re happy with your current supplier, is to tell him that whatever it is he’s selling, “isn’t in the budget.”
For some inexplicable reason, the salesperson still accepts this as the gospel truth and pack up their bag and leave. At least dumb salespeople do.
It’s time for all of us to smarten up using some straightforward salesforce best practices.
Buyers are Liars
Let’s put that old fable to bed. Buyers are not always liars, but they don’t always tell you the truth. Some buyers are simply nice people and don’t want to hurt your feelings by telling you that they don’t want what you’re selling so they take the easy way out and make up the budget tale.
In many cases, the prospect is telling you the truth. That there is, indeed, no money in the budget for what it is you’re selling. This doesn’t mean you should stop selling, it just means that you need to dig a bit further into your bag of value to see if you have something that will make the prospect say, “To heck with the budget, I want that!”
The salesforce best practice suggests that while many companies actually budget for the purchase of specific items, they spend a ton of money on things that are not in their budgets.
We All Do It
We all know someone who has gone out and purchased a large-ticket item, for which not only was there no money in the budget, but there was no money in the bank account either. I’ve always marveled at how a person who is on the verge of bankruptcy can go and buy a huge boat or something equally nonsensical.
Then again, I’ve been known to make a purchase on the spur of the moment for which my spouse assures me that there is no money in the budget. That’s always good for a tense discussion (argument). Am I the only one this happens to?
Our prospects are exactly the same. They purchase things every day that were not in the budget, and some of these things are big-ticket items. So what gives?
What gives is that the not-in-the-budget excuse is a red herring or diversion intended to shut down the selling process. It’s the prospects’ way of telling you that they are not interested in what you’re offering.
If They Want It, They’ll Buy It
The simple truth is that people are more inclined to buy what they want, even over what they need. It happens with people and it happens with companies.
We’re back to the family who is head over heels in debt but goes out and buys a new barbeque or splurges on a new vehicle when the old one is perfectly okay. The reason? They wanted it!
Unless whatever you’re selling represents a huge cost to the company, salesforce best practices suggest that you stand a reasonable chance of making the sale, providing you handle the sales process effectively. What I mean by that is you need to spend enough time digging, probing, and qualifying to help the prospect develop his “want” for what you sell.
Needs Versus Wants
When a person just needs something then usually the sale is a no-brainer and relatively easy. Unfortunately, need-based sales are often price-sensitive sales with the lowest-price supplier getting the deal. Even in a need-based sale, if you can move the person towards wanting what you have, you’ll have an advantage when it comes to budget.
Needs are different than wants. Here’s an example: I don’t know too many people who get a thrill out of buying tires for their vehicle. What usually happens is that we let the tire tread get to the point where if we go another two miles down the road, we’ll be riding on rims. We need tires! At this point, we go into the local tire store and purchase the least expensive set of tires that will get us through the next 100,000 Km or so. We then take those tires that were a need-based purchase and put them on a vehicle that was a want-based purchase, like a Hummer or pick-up truck with roll bar and lights that we need for driving around town.
If we purchased vehicles like we purchased tires, we would all probably be driving around in the lowest-priced vehicles we could find but, no, most vehicle purchases are want-based. What are you driving? Get the idea?
Developing the Want with Salesforce Best Practices
You can’t just ask the prospect if he wants something, at least not in so direct a manner. You need to lead the prospect to the want stage through effective questioning.
You will need to develop questions that are specific to your product or service but here are a few salesforce best practices to get you started.
“If cost wasn’t a factor, what would you be looking for in a…?”
“What would it mean in terms of dollars and cents if we could…?”
“Apart from cost, what’s stopping you from moving forward with…?”
“What are you looking for in terms of…?”
“What features are important to you?”
“What would you like to see happen?”
“How does the problem affect…?”
“What has to happen before you would consider moving ahead with…?”
You’ll notice that all these questions are “open” questions and invite your prospect to give something other than a “yes” or “no” answer. The key to uncovering what the prospect really wants is buried in these more elaborate answers.
Finishing the Job
Once you’ve uncovered or discovered the prospect’s real wants, your job is to see if you can make it substantial enough to outweigh your prospect’s mythical, “It’s not in the budget,” concern.
The salesforce best practice is not to push your prospect to their “wants” by selling; but to lead him there with your questions. Once your prospect, not you, decides he really wants what you’re selling, the sale is done. Wants outweigh needs and when the prospect truly wants it, budget concerns are minimized.
SalesForce Training & Consulting is a professional coaching and training firm that specializes in helping companies navigate their way in a Salesforce.com environment. SalesForce Training is based in Toronto, with trainers in Boston and Chicago, providing sales coaching, sales management consulting, Salesforce.com training and Salesforce.com Admin support, sales training and sales personnel assessments.
by
