Dave Kurlan is a top-rated speaker, best-selling author, sales thought leader and highly regarded sales development expert.
A recent sales call on me provided some good examples of what most salespeople have a difficult time doing. Read the
Baseline Selling Tip I wrote about that earlier today and then come back here.
Done? In this post, I'll address the possible reasons why this salesperson and some of yours make these mistakes.
The most likely reason,
Need for Approval, occurs when the salesperson knows what to do but is uncomfortable doing it. In this case, it was asking the follow up questions that would get to the real problem, the real budget, the real cost and not bailing.
He may have become
emotionally involved, losing control, having to simply read his prepared questions.
He could be
uncomfortable talking about money, preventing him from carrying the budget conversation or the quantification any further.
If he had any of the first three problems, they would prevent him from executing the sales process. On the other hand, it's possible that he hadn't learned how to conversationally drill down until he identified the real problem, quantified it and obtained the budget.
The most likely scenario is that he, like most salespeople, learned it but never understood it or practiced it enough to be effective at it.
Baseline Selling will help with either of those issues.
Do your salespeople have any of these problems?
Evaluate your sales force and find out.
(c) Copyright 2006 Objective Management Group, Inc.
