7 minute read
Overcoming the moment when the sales process grinds to a halt
from REP AUG 21
Handling the Brush Off
By Jim Poggi
This column usually focuses on the lab market, technology, and point-of-care lab testing. This month, I’m going to take us in a different direction. The reason is that no matter how well you know your products and how well you work with your key suppliers, if you don’t have a good sales process, you will not be able to optimize your results, and some opportunities you should win will slip away.
So this month I want to address a challenge we all face from time to time, and one that took me a long time to learn from. This column is about overcoming the brush off, that moment where the sales process grinds to a halt for one reason or another.
What do we hear? Sometimes nothing; no response to email, phone calls, personal visits where the person we want to engage is not in the office so we leave information and hope that they get it. Each of those responses is troublesome in one way or another. If we even make contact, the excuses run the gamut and include: ʯ “It’s just not the right time.” ʯ “I like it, but management just won’t buy in to it.” ʯ “I put it in the budget and we’re going to need to wait and see if it gets approved.”
The brush off I used to hear early in my career was: “We asked purchasing to generate a PO and are waiting to hear from them. No need to check in with them. We will do that for you.”
Right. And don’t expect that PO any time soon.
We always want to respect our customer relationship, assuming it will become deeper and more valuable over time. At the same time, we believe our product or service makes sense for the prospect, and we are committed to help our valued supplier sell it. And of course, we could always use a little more revenue. What do you do?
LET’S MOVE
FORWARD
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The first step is ALWAYS to step back and analyze the situation.
Customer side of things
ʯ How deep is your relationship? ʯ How many different buying influences do you routinely work with in the account? ʯ What is this customer’s role in the buying process and do you know that for sure? (Maybe they do not have the authority to buy and do not know how to tell you that.) ʯ To what extent have you established mutual trust and respect? ʯ Is this a new customer trying you out, an established customer whose business is growing or, worse, an established customer whose business is slowly slipping away?
Product side of things
ʯ What is your customer value proposition? ʯ Has the customer bought this type of product before? Have they bought for this reason before? ʯ What sort of reaction have you gotten to this product from other customers?
Supplier
ʯ Is your supplier credible? Did they make a good impression on the customer? Any red flags when you met with them and the customer? How are other customers reacting to the product? Did you let them run the sales process without checking in as often as you should?
Building a better sales process
Once you’ve done your homework and think you have an idea of what went wrong, what do you do? Beyond learning from the experience and committing to avoid this situation in the future, building a stronger sales process is your best option.
Know your customer. Know the customer inside and out. Be sure to know every buying influence and their motivation. Some folks are trailblazers. Others want to know who else uses the product. Economics always strikes a chord, but this is not the only benefit customers want. Stay in frequent contact and ask questions.
Don’t go it alone. Sometimes a different perspective or different voice to the customer gets the job done. Be sure to ask your key supplier to step in and help tell the story. For more complex products, get your manager and even home office experts involved. Get their opinions. You are the quarterback. Colleague input can help you uncover customer signals you might have missed.
Know your competition. From time to time, we all get outplayed. Acknowledge that and commit to know your competition and their product better than they know yours. What is their pitch? Who are they talking to at the customer’s office? When the competitions wins, why do they win? Carefully ask customers, your supplier and other colleagues what they know about the competition. Tailor your sales presentations and process to create the greatest amount of leverage for you, your product and supplier. This is an “odds against opportunities” business and you will quickly learn whether this is a product you can consistently win with or whether the reaction of this customer will be typical of other customers. Then you need to decide “pass or play.”
Know when to put a deal on hold. As a rookie, I was so stubborn I was determined to get every deal and spent too much time trying to win over prospects who just were not interested in me or my product. If you and your supplier have worked thoughtfully and diligently and still cannot break through, put the deal on hold. You can always revive it later if circumstances or personnel change. Focusing on the best prospects, products and opportunities is a more rewarding outcome for you, adds more value for your key suppliers and assures customer satisfaction and referrals in the future. You have an impressive bag, be sure to get the most out of it.
Finally, “no” is the gateway to “yes.” But only if you learn from it and use that learning to develop and implement the lessons to be a better sales representative. Other than stubbornly continuing without analyzing what went wrong, another key failure mode is becoming discouraged by a “no” from a customer. Sometimes we get the impression that if our first customer says “no,” that “no” will be the consistent customer response. Only when you have diligently analyzed the situation and sought counsel from others can you make that claim. The best distributor account managers know when to persist, when to look at different product opportunities and when to disengage with a specific prospect. Strive to be the best.
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