Sometimes the hardest questions are the ones you need to ask yourself.
Sales isn’t always the most introspective of business activities, but you can make yourself –and your company – more successful.
How?
By stopping at every step of the sales process to honestly ask–and answer–those questions you may not feel comfortable facing.
I suggest using the following as a starter list of “questions to ask myself.” If you are a sales manager, these are the questions you should be asking of your sales reps. I’m sure you can add others to this list.
- Do I really want this business–or am I just hungry for the commission and quota credit? More importantly, can I win – or am I fighting an uphill battle? Be honest with yourself and consider that your time might be better spent elsewhere. You might actually save yourself, and your company, a whole lot of aggravation and wasting of resources.
- Is there something that the customer needs/wants that is going to be too much of a stretch for me or my company to fulfill? Is it likely that this project will falter and disappoint the customer? Bad news travels three times faster than good news – can you afford this potential hit?
- What if the customer wants to get started now – can my company marshall the resources? Are you being asked to slow down the sales cycle due to lack of capabilities or lack of resources to deliver now? Is it better to delay?
- Is there a better alternative out there, other than my solution? If so, how am I going to win this one? Is there something I can give in-trade, or, an intangible I can provide that will give me a leg up?
- Am I the best person to work with this prospect? Do I sense that they don’t care for my attitude or approach? Are they shunning me because of a personality conflict? People will not buy when they are angry, or buy from someone they cannot stand. Before they go to your management, why not cut a deal with another more compatible rep – you get some percentage of something instead of a full percentage of nothing! Get it?
- Will they actually buy in the timeframe I am pushing for– or in their own timeframe? If not, reforecast now – don’t wait for the confirming news. Figure it out now and let your management know now instead of later!
- Do they have a big enough problem that they’ll throw money and resources at it to solve? Says who? You? That’s not going to work. Find out from the decision maker–and find out fast–before you waste a whole lot of time–and cost you and your company a whole lot of money.
- Do I really believe that this product or solution is the best for this client? What about any client – can I really go to bed at night, feeling good about my product or service or am I just biding my time, collecting a pay check? If the answer is no or not really, then find a new job. Half the battle of being successful is believing and having faith that your product or service is the cream of the crop or the best value. If you don’t really in your heart of hearts believe this is true, you will self-sabotage your efforts, make a fraction of the commissions you could make somewhere else, and set in motion a whole chain of misery that might just otherwise be avoided. Do everyone a favor – GET OUT NOW.
- Am I doing everything possible to win this sale? Or am I too busy at home to give it a 110% effort? Get some help if you need it. Sometimes a fresh set of eyes will help you get over an objection or a stalled out sales cycle better than a “wait and see” tactic. Ask your manager to be brutally honest about what you could do to close this one faster, better or with less effort. Ask your spouse or a non-competitive colleague, “What would you do if you were me?”
- Am I really giving it my all? What nagging fact are you avoiding? Face it now and get a strategy together to kill or cure it. If you aren’t giving it your all, chances are you haven’t uncovered something–and it’s nagging at you. What are you hiding from yourself?
- Have I asked all the questions I need to? What stone have you left unturned? Flip it over…
It is not easy to ask these questions–even of yourself–but they can help you succeed!