SalesHQ

     When you do encounter a no sale do you move to the next or do you try to understand  why that  call ended in a no sale? BY understanding why it did not go well perhaps the enxt time you encounter s similar situation you can turn that client around

  I know many many years ago I would walk away from that person claiming they were a cheap bastard or  a tire kicker. Now I take the time to analyze why the sale failed. I was astounded by the fact that normally the reason the sale failed was something I did to make it fail.

  What I mean by something I did, it could be someing I did not do  or say,talk to much.forced myy views etc.I do not spend much time evaulating  usually it is a prety quick explanation as to the failure too launch the sales cycle with the client.

I've run call centers throughout my career and one of the areas we've always looked at is, if the sale went to a competitor, why?  Most times, people automatically assume that it's because of price; reality is that's hardly ever the case.  Like you and Smile said, you have to ask the person WHY and then really listen.  Some people aren't comfortable sharing the real reason but with a little digging and some keen observation skills, you can generally uncover the truth.  Did you not follow through exactly when  you said you would and they therefore lost confidence?  Did you miss one of their key buying influences and not address that in your pitch?  Was it truly a difference in feature/benefits between your machine and your competitors?  Sometimes its tough to get the answers but to really improve you HAVE to know so you can work on improving that in the future.

Fantastic topic Rich.  I believe that this is really what separates the big dogs from the pack.  Many salespeople take it personally, and adopt a "screw you" attitude towards a disinterested client.  If you do so you destroy a later opportunity to be helpful to them, or bring them into your company. 

Soliciting criticism or honest feedback is humbling, but is precisely what will improve your sales.  After all, the reasons for not buying don't go away by not asking about them, you are simply ignorant to them.  What you don't know will hurt you.

if you don't listen to the client you will always get a no sale....The ability to understand the difference between an objection of a condition is crucial...You cannot overcome a condition - that usually results in a no - sale and means we as the sales person didn't REALLY do are due dilligence when dealing with the customer.

I always hear - I lost, my price was to high...THat is a cop out 90% of the time.  Understand i am not saying that there are times when you lose because your price is too high.  Means a couple of things though...You weren't driving the ship - you diddn't do a good enough job on your initial call to create value and sepearte your self from your competitors....

B.  You were unable to meet the customers criteria.

C.  You were flat out _OUT SOLD - by a rep from another company.  This is if you lost..

The topic however is no sale.....That is not always bad...To me it means things are changing w/ that prospect and you need to find out what why and how so you can redevelop your strategy and solution to meet the new criteria....IF you have positioned yourslef to be a Business PArtner and not a rep  - this shouldn't be an extremely difficult task...

This is a bit simplistic but I stand by it:

A mentor of mine always said "You gotta learn to love the NOs"

He taught me that sales is a numbers game.  For every ten people you talk to some are kicking tyres, some can't afford, some don't need, some don't make decisions on their own etc etc.  Sometimes your pitch can be brilliant, but it still won't work on someone who has no intention of buying

So what he meant was that You have to get through those NOs to get closer to the yes's.

So, yes I do get analytical about why my pitch failed.  But for the sake of keeping my self-esteem high, when I get a "NO" I tell myself - "Oh, never mind because I am getting closer to a YES.

Yes Rich - you said it better than me.  You always know where you went wrong.  Its hardly ever a mystery. Just move on. Dont beat yourself up.

Right now with the training I am doing we are going over rejection. What they are finding out that people afre calling them back for a no sale. The reason they  clien t had a more enjoyable process saying no to them  than a yes to another. Hence more call backs for our sales technicians to come back and change the no sale to a yes.

  The training  is teaching them to be as polite and nice and make the process as enjoyable as possible for all clients.We want the no sale to react positively even though the ownershp excahge did not happen. The past week has turned 4 no sales into yes.I want the client to say this has been the most enjoyable time whether they finalized or walked away from the transaction.

This topic in the forum received alot of input and would like to see what some new people/members thing about it.