Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’re aware that the world is going to end tomorrow. Or not.
But we sell like the world is actually going to end all the time. At the end of the month, or the end of the quarter, we throw all types of aggressive offers, promotions and incentives at our sales teams and our prospects in an effort to quickly close more business.
We create artificial urgency to get deals done based on our own, internal needs and sales forecasts. And in that context, there really is no tomorrow. We need the deal today – for this sales period’s quota and commissions – and will do anything to pull that in.
But, of course, the world doesn’t end. The calendar turns, the sun comes up, and we’re faced with a new month or a new quarter. The product or service is still there. If the prospect didn’t buy yesterday, they can certainly buy today. Or tomorrow. Or next month.
Do this too often, and your prospects will get used to an endless stream of end-of-month promotions. Their intent of driving urgency and accelerated closed sales will lose its teeth.
Just because it’s the end of the quarter doesn’t mean at all that urgency or need has changed for the prospect. No prospect is going to make a long-term commitment for something they don’t yet need, just because you’re waiving the set-up fee.
Urgency needs to exist at the customer level. They need to understand the business, financial and revenue impact for themselves of not moving forward this month or quarter.
If you’ve already identified a core business need your product or service addresses, then every day that goes by represents a growing opportunity cost of NOT buying. Therein lies your opportunity to increase urgency to move forward sooner than later.
That doesn’t mean the world is ending tomorrow. But it’s a far more natural way of increasing customer-driven need, urgency and closed business.
