Did you ever notice that the most excited prospect, the one who loves your product the most and can find nothing wrong with it, is also the prospect who has no power to say yes? Hesitation and questions about your product can come only from real decision makers. Why? Because hesitation caution, questions and objections are a natural response from any serious buyer about to engage on a substantial investment.
Despite the fact that hesitation is a natural part of the buyer's decision-making process, most sales people don't recognize why it happens, and in turn react poorly when it does. We need to ask ourselves: if all serious decision makers have questions before making a major purchase, should we be surprised when a prospect hesitates? More importantly, if hesitation and questions are a natural response from serious buyers, what is the best way to address them? The common approach for dealing with questions and objections is fatal to the sales process: PANIC.
How can we control our surprise and stop the panic?
First, let's look at the best way to reduce the overall amount of prospect hesitation you are experiencing. Quite simply, the most effective way to reduce hesitation at the end of the selling cycle is to call high early (to executives), and to be proactive in addressing concerns. Bring questions or objections up first. As a preventative measure, if you run into a certain objection a lot, bring it up first. For example, if you know that your price is never the lowest, you might suggest this to your prospect early in the sales cycle:
"Bob I appreciate all the information you have provided regarding your project, and based on what you have said, I think our products may be able to help you. However, I want to tell you up front that although we are not the most expensive option, we are not ever the cheapest. Knowing this, does it make sense for us to continue with this process?"
If your prospect is going to hesitate and raise questions about your product eventually, you are better to be proactive, bring them up early and tackle the concerns head on so you can move through the sale with ease.
Now, let's assume you have done all the right things and you still have hesitation or objections at the end of the sales cycle - don't worry. It happens to even the top 10% of sales people some of the time. What should you do?
It's important to understand the real meaning of objections. Prospect hesitation should come as no surprise if you think about it this way: Anyone, yourself included, who is about to make a large investment thinks twice about that decision before they commit. When a prospect is seriously considering your product, it is natural for them to be nervous and re-evaluate the criteria to make sure that they are not making the wrong decision. With software sales, real prospects, ones with decision-making power, almost always become critical at final decision-making stages They are examining their own internal justifications and knocking the idea around vigorously to be sure it is not defective. But remember, prospects do this because they are seriously thinking about engaging! A large investment is at stake, and saying yes is risky.
Viewing objections as negative and ignoring them until the end of the selling process causes sales people to panic, and revert to aggressive non-consultative selling skills. We stop asking questions, stop caring about the customer's concerns, and our confidence disappears. We talk too much, defend our position and practically beg for the order - maybe we start discounting? The deal begins to evaporate as an aggressive defence is launched, fighting for our point of view, rather than working towards an understanding of our prospect's real issues.
Next time, try to avoid adversarial tactics and panic. Remember that your prospect's hesitation is just a defence mechanism designed to protect them against the risk of making a wrong decision. Your job is to help them discover that engaging with you is the right decision.
Improve your hesitation-handling attitude
Examine your behavior
Why are you panicking? Are you doing something to provoke this behavior in your prospects? Maybe you can prevent or reduce hesitation from occurring:
Appreciate your prospect's hesitation and try the following new techniques:
Remember
Selling is about helping your prospects solve a problem, not about
trying to force them to see your point of view. Objections mean your
prospect is asking for help, and you are in a position to help. Be
prepared, ask questions, listen, don't panic and engage.