Selling "Speed Bumps"

Posted by Walt Gerano on Wed, Apr 25, 2012 @ 08:48 AM

I am driving out of the rental car facility in Houston and like most places where you rent cars they have speed bumps. Now I know everyone knows why.

They want you to proceed with caution, avoid accidents and get out of the place safely.

It got me thinking that maybe we should have some speed bumps for our sales process. What happens when we go too fast?

We don't listen effectively, we don't allow for moments of silence in the conversation and we risk missing important information from the prospect.
 What's the consequence? Too many lost opportunities, too many inappropriate quotes and continually failing to reach our goals.
 Consider putting these speed bumps in place for more sales.

1. Plan your call in advance. Think about how you will begin the call and then how you will transition into the business part of your discussion.

2. Expect some "speed bumps" from your prospect, you know those questions that you wish they didn't ask but they do anyway. Think about how your answer when they bring them up.

3. Ask great open-ended questions to get them to do more of the talking so you can do more of the listening.

4. When there isn't a compelling issue that they are having, put the car in park and get out.  There is always another one to "test drive".

Drive safely out there.

Tags: Sale Process, qualifying sales prospects, sales planning, close more sales