Meet Eddie. He is the sales elephant in the room. He represents the unspoken objections, the ones salespeople dread bringing up or avoid all together for fear that such a discussion will kill the deal.
As a result of this false belief, most salespeople miss the real meeting, the one that occurs after the sales meeting. This is the meeting where the prospects convene and discuss the real concerns about purchasing your products and services.
- “I like their offerings, but they are a big company. Are we just going to be another number?”
- “You know, we might be able to do this ourselves.”
- “I’m not sure if we will get the ROI from this investment.”
The salesperson follows up only to hear, “We’ve decided to go another direction.” The salesperson lost this opportunity not because the prospect didn’t need his product or services, but because of his inability to deal with the unspoken objection.
So what can sales managers do to prevent this costly selling mistake?
Teach your team the emotional intelligence skill of empathy. It’s the ability to know what another person is thinking or feeling. But here is the challenge for salespeople: Prospects often don’t say what they are thinking or feeling!
Who can blame them?
The last time the prospect brought up an objection, the salesperson acted like a sumo wrestler. He wrestled the prospect to the ground and overcame the objection seven to eight times. What prospect wants to engage in that type of sales dialogue?
Encourage your sales team to step into the shoes of their prospects. Lose the attachment to the outcome of the sales meeting. Teach them to become very attached to understanding what concerns a prospect might have in making a change in vendors, investing in a product or service they’ve never purchased, or moving from an internal solution to an external one.
Bring up the objections. Don’t overcome the objections.
If you want to achieve more sales, teach your sales team how to quit dancing around the sales elephant. Only then will your salesperson stop missing the meeting after the meeting.
Good Selling!
