Reading Your Prospects Minds

You have to admit, it would be great if you could read your prospects minds. Knowing exactly what they are thinking about as they make a decision to do business in your industry would be a huge advantage. Your sales reps would know exactly what to say and what to do to close all of them. But even if you had all of this knowledge, would you take advantage of it? You would be surprised to know that the chances of you or your sales team exploiting information of this kind is probably very low. In fact, when given the exact reason that a prospect will make a buying decision, your team will almost always ignore that reason and sell based on what they have always sold on.

This may seem strange to talk about, but the discussion could not be any more relevant to your sales success. Why? The answer is both incredibly complex and overwhelmingly simple; habits trump knowledge every time! The truth of the matter is that if you did know exactly what your prospects thought about before making a decision your instinct would tell you that they are wrong and that you need to show them why. By doing this, you create a sales dynamic that is next to impossible to overcome with any consistency. Sure, you can sell some of them and the mere fact that you are still in business proves that. But the difference between companies that carve out a small niche to survive and companies that dominate an entire industry boils down to a simple concept. If your prospects think it is important, it is. No matter how silly or irrelevant the issue may actually be, it is the difference between closing and not. A great example of this concept lies within many industries. Companies whose primary task it is to get prospects to switch from one service to another often attempt to convince the market that they offer a superior service. That is to say that we do “this” better because….. What market research shows in a lot of industries is that many choose not to switch because of one simple thing, the transition itself. New technology and unfamiliar people can make companies nervous. Sometimes, it simply boils down to the work involved in transitioning from one company to another even when the benefits are obvious. Attacking this issue is best done by positioning yourself as transition experts. Talking about how easy the transition is or how involved your company is in this process can often address these kinds of objections before they even surface.  Winning the battle is often done in the opening and not in boardroom.  Understanding that prospects are inundated with solicitations that often say the same thing allows you to exploit the seams that lead to closing deals.

Do you know what makes your prospects move? Do your reps know what to say in order to hit buying triggers? Chances are the answer to both of these questions is no.  Chances are, your reps and your marketing are still attempting to explain why your products/services are better.  Chances are, you need to talk to Defiant Sales Consulting.