Here are two areas to consider:
Salespeople making assumptions.
How skilled are you at really uncovering and understanding if there is a real problem that needs to be fixed before showing up? How often have you gone out on a call assuming that the prospect was compelled to buy something, or was willing to spend money, and could fire their current relationship? And then when you show up:- Your prospect says they are unhappy, thinking about, or looking into options, and you automatically start thinking they are ready to buy. A real live prospect! This can happen because you do not have a healthy skepticism of prospects. You get happy ears, believe everything they say at surface level, and fail to ask deeper, probing questions.
- Has your prospect ever said, “I’m the decision-maker,” and you took them at their word? Did you ask them who else might be affected by this decision? When they have made decisions like this in the past, who was involved?
- Here’s another sales mistake in making assumptions. Your prospect talks about their current provider and the mistakes they have made, their bad service and price increases, and you think they are willing to leave the incumbent. Not so fast, they might just be looking for more information to make their current provider step up and improve, or get better pricing.
- What about when the prospect says, “This looks great, I really like what you’ve done here.” Do you think that they are ready to buy, and then surprised when they say “I need to think it over.” ? Did you uncover the monetary impact of their not making this change or other compelling reasons to act now or did you make the big sales mistake of assuming they were ready to buy with a few signals?
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Prospects make assumptions too.
How often do prospects make assumptions about you and how you do business?
- Have they been brainwashed by marketing and social media that everything is about price?
- Do they believe that all insurance brokers, bankers, and investment advisors are only out there to make commissions and don’t really care about them and their needs?
- Do they figure that you are in the business of providing free information and quotes because that is what they have experienced from all the other mediocre salespeople they’ve dealt with?
- Do they assume they can take their time because you will pretty much do anything to get the business?
- Do they believe you are like all the rest? Because your pitch sounded like every other salesperson they have met with:
- "We have great service"
- "Our products are industry-leading"
- "We care about our clients"
- "Our pricing is competitive"
The next time you make a call or go out on an appointment, pretend this is the first time that you have called on a farmer, doctor, department head, or CEO. Do your homework ahead of time about their industry and company so that you know the right questions to ask to understand their potential concerns. When they answer your first question, ask another about their answer. Continue to probe further so that you get beneath surface-level answers.
That is how you will avoid this sales mistake about making assumptions. It is solved by finding out all the information about what that prospect needs or if they need anything at all! Do not assume anything about what they may or may not need – find out. In fact, your discovery conversation should have them telling you exactly what they need and when they need it, if you are asking the right questions. You must have the curiosity of a child but carry a healthy level of skepticism that perhaps your prospect is not a prospect at all.
