Think your team has a “closing” problem? Think again.
How often have you heard leaders say, “My salespeople can’t close”? If you’re a sales manager, you’ve probably even said it. But failing to close is never the real problem. Never. That’s just the symptom. The problem is that sales reps neglect important activities during early stages of the sales process.
Unless you address the broken links in your prospecting system, your sales reps will continue to struggle. It’s like back pain. You can stretch and put heat on an aching back, but unless you treat the source of the pain—a pulled muscle or degenerating disc—your back will continue to hurt.
Put Your Finger on the Real Problem
When you start analyzing what really went wrong with missed sales opportunities, you’ll typically discover that your sales reps didn’t make time to prepare for their meetings. They didn’t plan agendas, do their research, tailor their pitches, or even check the clients’ LinkedIn profiles to identify shared interests, connections, and similarities.
Other common prospecting problems:
This is not how you wow prospects, build relationships with them, and convert them into clients.
One of my clients was on the way to a high-profile meeting. If his team wowed the client, they had an opportunity to close a million-dollar deal. I asked my client how the sales reps prepared. His answer: “Oh, we talk about it in the car on the way to the meeting.” Was their sales manager clueless, or what?
Start at the Source
If your team has trouble closing, go back to the beginning—qualifying prospects—and examine your entire sales process for missing links and broken tactics.
Ask these pointed questions:
Don’t even think about training your sales team on closing techniques. Save your money. Instead, give them a sales process that works.
The ROI of Referrals
More often than not, the problem is with a team’s prospecting methods. If your reps are chasing cold leads, they’re pretty much set up to fail. There’s only one kind of lead that should be in your pipeline. Only one kind of lead with a 50-percent conversion rate. Only one kind of lead that sales managers should care about.
That’s hot leads—the kind you source through referrals from trusted allies.
Every sales professional agrees that referral selling is, hands down, their most effective prospecting strategy. When you prospect through referrals:
Ditch the Canned Pitch—Ask the Right Questions
If your team is getting in front of the right prospects and still can’t seal the deal, they’re not engaging in insightful discussion or asking compelling questions.
Thoughtful and provocative questioning has a huge impact on close rates and sales revenues. When sales reps ask smart, probing questions to understand what their clients really need—not just what the clients think they need—the scale of projects increases, creating win/wins for everyone. Your company gets bigger deals. Clients get solutions that actually solve their problems and create measurable business results. And they are happy to offer referrals to their networks.
Bravo! You’ve addressed the problem, not the symptom. Your client looks good, your team is prepared, and deals are yours to win. You are now a true sales manager.
http://www.nomorecoldcalling.com/note-to-the-sales-manager-why-your-sales-reps-cant-close/