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How to Lose a Sale Before You Start #478
The other day I was assembling some furniture, you know the kind that comes boxed from Ikea labeled with lots of Swedish vowels and umlauts like Ektorp, Docksta Klippen, and Frakta. Wouldn’t you know it I started connecting one side with a bottom and the top to the side and just as I was finishing up I realized I had the left on the right side and the right side on the left. Ugh, I had to start all over. My mistake was a bad case of hubris and thinking reading the instructions was beneath me. Oh, what a fool. Looking back when I connected the first two parts, I was doomed to never complete it. This kind of thing happens in sales too? You take a path that makes no sense and fight to finish it without any sense of wu-wei, non-action action. You’re going to put that square peg in a round hole no matter how long it takes. Right? Wrong. That doesn’t work. How to lose a sale from the start. That’s the topic for today.
Today’s Chapter: Speak to the End
For the want of a beginning
A deal can be lost
Without a destination in mind
The journey is hard to fathom.
The master seller has a goal in mind
Yet mindful that nothing is fixed, static or nonmoving
With map and compass
A path can be plotted,
But only if you know where you’re going.
Speak to the end
The beginning is an assumption.
Today’s Story
Pat and Chris spent the morning walking through Chris’s sales funnel. One deal was particularly troublesome. Pat asked Chris, “Why isn’t this deal progressing?”
Chris answered, “They don’t seem that interested anymore. They already have a solution and they seem to be happy with it. I’ve shown them what makes us better but it doesn’t seem to make a difference.”
“They already have a solution?” asked Pat. “Why are we talking to them?”
“Well,” said Chris, “I met them at the tradeshow, I asked them to meet with me and they did. I gave them the standard presentation. I keep following up, but there’s no real progress.”
“For how long?”
“Three months.”
“Three months.” Pat muttered, “It sounds like we don’t have what they really want and we never really took the time to dig in and find out what they need at the beginning. It seems to me we never had a chance and could have avoided all this follow-up energy if we just asked some key qualifying questions at the start.”
“Oh,” said Chris.
“Yes,” Pat responded. “This deal was lost the first day we met with them. If we had talked to them about the end goal this all could have been avoided. Let’s move on. It’s time.”
Take Action Quote
There is an old proverb that goes like this,
For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the message was lost.
For want of a message the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.
Benjamin Franklin included this version in his publication Poor Richard’s Almanak, preceded by the words,
“A little neglect may breed great mischief.”
Salespeople participate in this kind of mischief all the time, wasting time and adding fuel to the reputation of the pushy sales professional
The Chinese word for the Tao translates to Path. The way of that path is one of harmony. Pushing a prospect who has no interest is like pushing a rope. It can’t be done. It’s wiser to work with prospects who need your services. This starts by discussing the end goal at the beginning. Any effort to talk them into something else is a waste of time.
“Take care with the end as you do with the beginning.”
―
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Sales Babble shares selling secrets for non-sellers. Masterful selling is deeply understanding what buyers need, discerning if you can help, showing what you have and helping them to make a decision that is both good for their business and yours. See https://salesbabble.com
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