“Sales don’t start until a prospect says no!” is a classic expression that will make any job applicant popular. There’s certainly some truth in this expression in the case of a prospect not intending to say no and actually saying something else in disguise. For sometimes prospects say no to get things over with and so they express their inability to make a decision. A refusal like this can easily be undone. For example when a prospect leaves the wrong impression on purpose and it turns out he is not authorised to make decisions...
(68) When your prospect doesn’t have the answers due to not being able to confer, it means you’re sitting at the wrong table. ⇐
Another one of those killjoys is ‘too expensive’. What the prospect really means then is you haven’t convinced him of the profit he’ll make by accepting your offer. It just isn’t clear to him what the benefits are. He’s worried about all the time it will cost and bails out. This deal can still be saved, but expect nothing in the short run. You’ll probably get to speak to the prospect in due time once you announce a lot has changed in the meantime. Then ‘too expensive’ won’t be an objection anymore. This approach will also buy you some time for shedding light on your methods and for looking into this prospect’s purchase motives...
(69) When a prospect bails out because it’s too expensive, he really means the advantages of buying haven’t gotten through to him. ⇐
The chances of there being a prospect on your list who will not at all benefit from purchasing your product or service are very small. Unless you’ve randomly picked some addresses from a phone book, you’ll always have a good idea of the group of organisations that can benefit from your offer. However, you’d be mistaken in thinking that the whole group will have the same motives for showing an interest. Each organisation will have its own motives and even if different motives show some similarity, the chances are high that the priorities differ. So always adjust your offer in accordance with the most important purchase motive. You’ll recognise this motive simply due to it being at the top of your prospect’s list of priorities...
(70) Prospects who say no to your propositions actually mean to say you haven’t found their purchase motives yet. ⇐
I’m still surprised how often price is claimed to be the reason for a deal going sour. Prospects are inclined to name price as their objection for purchasing, because price is difficult to dispute at this point in negotiations. For the same reason you’ll announce the deal was called off because competitors proved to be cheaper. Much research has been done on the importance of price and this showed that only in 15% of all cases the deal was actually called off for price reasons. In the remaining 85% price is claimed to be the reason, while in reality there are other reasons. Mostly reasons that prospects do not wish to elaborate on. Sometimes the reason can even be the prospect’s inability to judge the offer...
(71) Contrary to what you may believe, according to your prospects, only 15% of your offers are declined due to price. ⇐