Sales Rescue

Have you ever had a verbal conformation that the prospect wanted to buy from you, but later on they got ‘cold feet’ or ‘buyers remorse.’

There are a number of ways that you can try to overcome this situation.

1. Get them to commit to signing an order or agreement in the first place.

2. Write to them after they have placed the order, re-enforcing the positive points of your proposition, telling the customer or client what a sensible decision that they have made and how they will benefit from the purchase.

The second point I don’t really like, but that’s a personal point of view. The first point strays into the area of legal advice, so no comment on that one! Talk to a practicing suitably qualified person.

If a sale is going down the pan, you need to communicate and find out why.

Don’t use e-mail, its too impersonal.

Get on the phone or meet the person and ask them what are their concerns, try and isolate the real reason (s) someone has changed their mind, then offer a solution.

Ask some questions like these

What’s stopping you going forward?

What are your concerns?

Is it the return on investment?

Will buying this product/service give you a return you are looking for?

Is it the delivery options?

Is there an issue with financing the purchase?

Are you happy with the guarantee?

Keep calm and don't let any frustrations show, have a genuine concern.

Sometimes its not in your clients best interest to proceed, in that situation its better to agree with your prospect and accept the situation, or if you feel its not right for them mention it yourself.

On the assumption that it is the right thing for the client to proceed, when you have isolated the concern if you don’t have an immediate solution take time out, consider what else can you afford to do to make it work.

It’s not all about price cutting, for instance recently I restructured a deal where there was a strong guarantee, but the client was still not sure, so we structured our deal whereby if we did not deliver they could not lose.

We did not cut our fees just how they were paid.

I welcome any comments you have, your own experiences etc.

Regards

Mark


Integrated Marketing  Copyright Mark Wheatley 2009 All Rights Reserved