How To Overcome Sales Resistance Forever By Tessa Stowe

When you're speaking to someone about your services do you sometimes feel as if a barrier is coming up for them? The person may resist listening to you, they may resist opening up to you and they possibly might not trust you right from the beginning. These are all signs of sales resistance. Sales resistance is virtually an automatic reaction we all have. To understand this, put yourself in their shoes.

Put yourself in their shoes and think about your own reaction when someone is trying to sell you something. How does it make you feel? Do you feel resistant? Do you feel tense? Do you feel that all the seller cares about is making a sale instead of caring about you? Do you want to leave the conversation as soon as possible? If you feel like this, it is only natural that the person you are talking to will also feel like this if you are trying to sell them something.

The key to overcoming sales resistance is to forget about selling!

When you're having a conversation with someone, it's best not to have the intention of selling him or her anything. Forget about selling. Instead have the intention of having a conversation to explore whether you can help the person get what they want. If it turns out that they have a want or need for your service, they will decide to buy.

If someone is having a conversation with you and you feel they sincerely want to help you, how does that make you feel? Relaxed? Interested? Keen to know more?

Again, this is an automatic reaction we all have. Notice there is no "sales" resistance with this approach.

Do not try to fake sincerity. You can't pretend you really want to help someone and at the same time be thinking that you really want to make a sale no matter what. What you are "really" thinking will be picked up by the person you're talking to. They'll know right away if you're sincere.

There is another way to overcome sales resistance: get yourself known.

If people don't know you, they may perceive you and what you're selling as a high risk and people naturally and automatically tend to resist what they perceive as high risk.

When you are well known in your niche and positioned as an expert, people will automatically and naturally perceive you as lower risk. People rightly or wrongly automatically think that if you are well known and positioned as an expert, you must be good at what you do otherwise you would not have achieved this status.

When you are well known people will be attracted to you and will be open to what you have to offer and say. There will be very little resistance - provided of course your intention is not to sell them something!

In summary, if you want to overcome sales resistance forever there are two things you need to do. The first is don't have the intention of making a sale when you're talking to someone. Instead, have a conversation with the intention of helping them. Trust that those who have a need or desire for your services will buy them. The second is to get known fast as this will, amongst other things, overcome the risk perception of doing business with you.
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Tessa Stowe teaches coaches, service professionals and recovering salespeople 10 simple steps to turn conversations into clients without being sales-y or pushy. Her free monthly Sales Conversation newsletter is full of tips on how to sell your services by just being yourself. Sign up now at SalesConversation.com.

Just Ask for the Business By Tom Hopkins

Without proper training and application, it can be uncomfortable to ask people for their money. Too many sales people put their offering out there and wait.

If a prospect doesn't quickly see the value and jump right in to own it or participate in some way, the salesperson may start to lose confidence in their abilities or in the value of their product. And this wavering of confidence weakens their desire to close the sale. In other words, the salesperson doesn't ask for the order, call for a decision, or otherwise try to get a commitment from the prospect.

We conducted a little survey and asked people who were not persuaded to buy why they didn't go ahead with whatever it was they were offered. Interestingly enough, the most common answer was that they were never asked. The prospects were contacted, a product or service was demonstrated to them, and their questions were answered.

In some cases, they were convinced of the value of the offering and probably would have gone ahead, but nothing happened. The salespeople didn't ask the prospects to make commitments or to part with their money, so they didn't.

Don't ever let the fact that you didn't ask someone to make a buying decision be the reason a prospect doesn't go along with you.

Knowing when to ask, however, is just as important as doing it in the first place. Sometimes salespeople wait so long to ask for the sale that the right time to ask passes them by. To get past this timing challenge, figure out how to take a prospect's buying temperature. You do this by asking an ownership question, like the following:

“Not to be assumptive, but if everything we've discussed here makes sense, how soon would you want to begin benefiting from your new computer system?”

Because you're asking what could be considered an assumptive question, soften it by beginning with “Not to be assumptive, but. . . .”

If you were asking a personal question, you would start with, “Not to be personal, but. . . .”

Sure, you're being personal; but by stating it that way, you show respect for the prospect's privacy and give her an option not to answer if she's uncomfortable.

You never want to purposely make a customer uncomfortable, but you will face selling situations in which you need to ask questions of a personal nature. If the prospect answers such a question enthusiastically, in the affirmative, she's probably ready to go ahead. But if such a question brings up another concern or hesitation, then she's probably not ripe yet to make a commitment. This strategy is commonly referred to as the trial close.

It's wise to know a few different ways of handling the trial close. One strategy, called the alternate advance, involves giving your prospect two choices but either one advances the sale. This way, no matter which option your prospect chooses, the sale moves forward, because the prospect isn't given the option of saying “No.”

Here are a couple of examples:

SALESPERSON: “Mr. Hall, which delivery date would be best for you, the 8th or the 13th?”

MR. HALL: “I'd need to have it in my warehouse by the 10th.”

What has happened in this exchange? As long as the salesperson can meet that delivery date, Mr. Hall owns it. If Mr. Hall is uncertain, he'll raise an objection here or try to change the subject.

SALESPERSON: “Jim, would you be the one trained on the use of the new system, or would you want someone else to be involved?”

When Jim tells you who to train, you know that he's going ahead with the sale. The test close was positive, and now, asking for Jim's money shouldn't cause you or him any discomfort. It's a natural follow up to his positive response.
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Tom Hopkins International
7531 E. 2nd St., Scottsdale, AZ 85251
Tel: (480) 949-0786 or 800/528-0446 Fax: (480) 949-1590
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