A significant number of small businesses can sometimes struggle to get their prospects to say “Yes”.
Have you ever been in the situation where a prospect loves your description of what you can deliver for them but as soon as you mention the price tag they suddenly go cold?
It can be pretty soul destroying when it happens and can really mess with your sense of who your ideal clients are as you can begin to feel they can’t afford your services.
It can also make you feel that you’re a bit rubbish at the whole sales thing.
Has it happened to you?
What causes it?
There are several elements required to successfully sell your services and if one or more of them aren’t working then you can very easily run into difficulties in your sales conversations.
In a nutshell sales is a dialogue and in that dialogue you need to convey some key information.
Depending on the price tag of what you sell the length and style of that dialogue will differ, with those services with a higher price tag usually requiring a longer more in-depth dialogue than those with a smaller price tag.
If you are having some problems getting a “Yes” in some of those conversations then, rather than thinking the issue lies in your choice of prospect, you need to look inwardly.
The challenge is around your ability to convey a compelling message.
I could write an entire book around this one topic but today I want to specifically talk about how to handle objections (I’ll cover the other areas in the next few blogs).
If you can’t successfully handle their objections then, no matter how wonderful your service is and the level of transformation they’ll achieve, they will still say “No”, and you’ll be frustrated.
How do I know what the issue is?
During the sales dialogue you need to gauge if they have any concerns. The easiest way of doing this is to ask!
You simply say “Do you have any concerns about proceeding?” It’s as easy as that.
It’s very common to convince yourself in your inner sales conversation (you know, that one you are having with yourself while you are in that sales meeting) that they’ll say yes once they have read your proposal and if not you can follow up on the phone. Have you done that?
Stop!! Your best chance of securing the client is to have that conversation while you are in front of them as your chance of success decreases rapidly once you leave that meeting.
There’s a better way
I definitely advocate that you ask that question but before you get to that point there’s a key thing you can do that will increase your success rates.
You need to handle their objections before they articulate them.
Most prospects have 2 main concerns.
1. Is this a good use of my money?
2. Is this a good use of my time?
So you need to cover these off early in your sales conversation. This will make it a whole load easier for them to say “Yes”.
You need to be able to address those two fears in a compelling way which simply wipes them off the table as valid objections.
How you do this will depend on what service you sell but the best way is to ask why it is that your prospect wants to use your services.
Once you know that piece of very powerful information you should be able to overcome all their objections and secure a yes.
It really is that easy
It can be very easy to convince yourself that you’ve got it all wrong; that you’re talking to the wrong people, that your pricing is too high, that people just don’t want what you have to offer.
Have you done that?
Stop! For the majority of businesses the issue is just tweaking their sales conversations and then things start to flow.
How well have you been uncovering your prospects objections and handling them while having that face-to-face dialogue?
What can you do to improve your conversion rate?
Have fun implementing these tips and watching your conversion rates start to soar.
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