So you couldn’t close the sale - what's next?

If you failed to close the sale, it means something must have gone wrong. Perhaps you met with a client who does not need your product or service and no matter what you said or did, you wouldn’t have been able to sell your product. It is possible, however, that the customer would behave differently and buy your product if the conversation were different. Perhaps you made some mistakes, and perhaps you can avoid making them in the future. Ask yourself the following questions:

1. Was I properly prepared?
2. Was the client interested in buying?
3. Did the client believe you?
4. Was my strategy well thought-out?

From the perspective of the salesperson

These are very important questions which you’ll have to answer if your sales aren’t successful. Going further, however, you also need to know that in a perfect business world, a sales relationship should be seen as a win-win situation, though every experienced salesperson knows that’s not quite true... Customers want to get the most out of the conversation without making any promises - they’re looking for ‘free advice,’ they negotiate the best terms and prices without revealing their hand. They manage their time very carefully but don’t always respect salespeople’s time, because they know the more time you invest in a given sale, the more you’ll try to close it.

In observing the market and the behaviour of salespeople and potential clients, we realize that overwhelming number of salespeople fail because they don’t take control of the sales process. Over the years, customers have learned the process and sales techniques well enough to effectively defend against them. They use effective tricks aimed at taking control of the process and thwarting the efforts of the salesperson:

1. The client doesn’t always tell the truth and ‘hides his cards’ well.

Clients know very well that one of your first goals is to generate interest in your offer, so they often pretend to be interested in order to get the information they need. They provide the minimum amount of information about their real situation and intentions. They don’t say how much they’re able to spend. You’re not the first salesperson they’ve met.

2. The client wants to know what you know.

They want information for free and they assume that the salesperson can help increase their productivity and lower their costs. They know that you’re good at what you do and they want access to your knowledge and the best price, but often not buy from you... they want to gain an advantage over their current supplier.