Pre-selecting
February 26th, 2007
Hello everybody,
I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! By the way, I felt so bad, you all know by now that Saturdays are open forum day and I answer everyone’s questions that I didn’t address during the week. Also the best question of the week wins a special prize from “The Specialist”. The only snag was that I left out one question last Saturday and I thought about it all day Sunday! I am going to answer it now. Ms T. asked, “When do I know I have made the sale?” Great question. That question differs upon the level of your expertise. I don’t want to discourage anyone, but usually I know whether the prospect is a sale or not within seconds of meeting them.
Keep in mind I am “The Specialist”. If it were any other way you wouldn’t be reading MY blog.
A beginner salesperson knows when he or she has made a sale only after the paperwork is complete. Some sales persons know after the small talk, others know at different intersections throughout the presentation. The beauty of sales is that, as you progress, you will watch yourself slide up the scale and your ability to recognize the sale will continue to grow. Having said that, I have seen countless sales persons prequalify prospects and jump to erroneous conclusions about who IS or IS NOT a sale! A dangerous trap to fall into. Beware, never predetermine your prospect. Give every potential prospect 100% of your ability and give everyone your best presentation as if it were your last presentation. I was very fortunate, I learned this lesson at a very young age because it happened to me. I went to an expensive car dealership when I was only 24-years-old and I was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt. I had the money to buy the top-of-the-line model. I asked a salesman if I could buy this particular car and the salesman just laughed at me. His exact quote, and I will never forget it because it had a profound affect on me…he said and, I quote “Sonny if you can buy the tires I”ll give you the car”! Talk about pre-selecting! I very calmly asked him to introduce me to the newest salesperson on the lot and preceded to pay cash for the car! I took it a step further and brought my partner to the lot and the same rookie salesperson sold him one too!
It is a lesson I never forgot and I hope through this story you will never forget! By not preselecting prospects you will get to enjoy one of the great thrill rides of sales. The ones you think are sales turn out sometimes not to be sales and the ones you think cannot possibly be sales turn out to be your biggest and best sales!
Keep those comments and questions coming. I certainly do enjoy hearing from you.
“The Specialist”
February 27th, 2007 at 12:13 am
How do you handle potentially hostile prospects who have a basic distrust of salesmen. In other words, if they look like they are a “hard sale”, how do you warm them up?
February 28th, 2007 at 8:08 am
You’ve just described my day yesterday. The prospects I was sure to close did not, and the one’s I went into as a formality, because I told them I would come in, did closed. I sure in retrospect that my attitude had something to do with it. i.e. I was trying too hard with the “prequalified prospect, but was relaxed with the guy I thought there was no chance. Hmmmm