There is one present at every single training session we conduct. You never know who it will be but eventually someone raises their hand and begins a sentence by saying “what you have to understand about our business is _______” and they basically proceed to explain some nuance or circumstance related to their world, that they seem to feel invalidates part of what we are teaching them.
Was it you? Would that be you?
There are a number of interesting dynamics going on in this situation. First of all having effectively worked with 100’s of organizations it is unlikely that we are not familiar with their “unique” situation. Secondly because our engagements start with the C level and upper management we are pretty familiar with the circumstances surrounding their particular sale. Finally because we begin and preface all of our trainings with a sales force evaluation we usually have a crystal clear understanding of the sales challenges.
And still it happens every time. Somebody wants to show the “trainer” that what they are teaching won’t work because their market is so different.
Typically when you later take a closer look at the personal assessment of the sales person that raises this issue we will see things like excuse making and when we look closer at the organization we will recognize that they are not using an effective sales process .
So for a moment let’s look at some of the reasons that are consistently brought up to us that apparently make this persons sale so different.
1) You have to know their space and their industry and they (prospects) won’t talk to you until they know that about you!
2) We have a relationship sell and you cannot move and definitely not push the prospect
3) Our prospects won’t respond to questions and conversation they just want to get to price
4) We are transactional it happens too quickly to follow a process like this
5) No time
6) Not enough time
7) Our product is very technical and they expect to discuss that first
8) They have seen a demo or webinar and they are asking us more questions about the product and we need to answer them or they will go away
So what do you notice about these “objections”? Ironically they all involve leaving the prospect in control. Many depend on the product or service to sell itself and they don’t depend enough on the sales person to sell. They claim to be relationship focused but in reality are not about building a relationship – merely maintaining an acquaintance status.
As a result we typically end up conducting a role play with this person, allowing them to show us how none of what we teach works – guess what? It does, the person ends up conceding that even though they attempted to be difficult, even though they exaggerated the usual client response and even though they were purposely trying to stump the trainer (none of which actual prospects are doing by the way) we managed to break through.
Lessons: as sales people don’t stay in your rut and recognize that some of what holds you back is you. Look for new ways to get to the next level and count nothing out. Get rid of “it won’t work”. Why not run through our Sales Achievement Grader
As a CEO take a look at your sales organization. Are they stuck in yesterday? Are they fighting the last war? Want a snap shot of reality - why not take 10 minutes and Grade your Sales Force
