Creating Urgency in Your Sales Process
If you have a salesperson missing their goals, I encourage you to look at one of two standard issues. The first, and the most common is poor workflow design and management. The second, which I want to talk about in this article is not creating a sense of urgency in your sales prospects.
If urgency is the issue, you have a diamond in the rough, because it’s often an easy fix.
Learn to Push, Without Being Pushy
Most folks shut down when I coach on urgency. They assume I’m going to encourage being an annoying, pushy salesperson. The fact is that those people are annoying because they tend to focus on themselves, not the client. Learn to refocus your push on why the customer needs to move forward. What do they gain by moving forward and taking the next step?
One of my businesses is a mortgage company. In that business, the customer benefit of urgency is often lower fees and faster closings. These are urgent reasons to complete a loan application and check their credit. These are common sales sticking points.
But, even in B2B and other B2C sales scenarios, positioning the value of urgency is all the same.
Moving forward in the sales process should give your customers something they need. Give them the presentation they need to create to convince the boss. Get them limited price concessions for a commitment. Show them how to integrate a solution to beat the competition.
Remind them that every day without a decision wastes time, resources, and money. Not knowing the details of the proposal, price incentives, or signing the deal costs. Any of these factors can add urgency to your sales process to help move the deal forward (or dump a waste of time).
Clarity is Crucial
Lack of urgency and indecision is often the customer not understanding the offer. Overcome this and relight the fire by reviewing your prospect’s goals and objectives.
There’s a good chance that you misunderstood their needs, or those needs have changed. As a result, your offer to them might be off or even confusing.
Regular goal reviews allow you to listen for indications that you need to reposition.
An example of this from the mortgage industry is a mortgage pre-approval. These letters help a client negotiate buying a home with ‘secured’ financing.
Many of these clients seem to float away without ever closing on a mortgage. a client for a new home mortgage, and then they seem to float away.
Why does this happen?
If you dig you often discover one of a few things happened. The borrow is struggling to find a home or their financial situation has changed. Meanwhile, a competitor swoops in with a more compelling offer.
This, of course, sucks because you could have done the same deal based on the new info. But, the customer never knew that.
This is a perfect example of a lack of clarity submarining a good deal.
These periodic clarity reviews keep you and the customer on the same page. It is also a great way to remind the customer of what they want and how you can get them there faster.
Keep Your Proposal Relevant
Always keep your offer or proposal relevant.
Like I discussed above, the movement of time changes your customers’ needs and wants. Re-engage your prospects to help them understand how your offer is still relevant. If it isn’t, you get the opportunity to make any necessary adjustments to remain relevant.
Don’t let your pitch die on the vine. If your proposal or offer has been sitting out there for any length of time use that as an opportunity to re-engage. Reach out to the customer and tell them that you know things change and you want to make sure you’re adjusting. Ask for a few minutes of their time to review their requirements and to update your best offer.
Also, it’s worth taking inventory of your pipeline for sales to marketing fit. Are you pulling in right prospects? Customers tailored to what you’re offering and to what you’re good at selling?
What is the Value Proposition of Taking the Next Step
What will “Yes” do for the customer? What will taking the next step in the sales process do for the customer? These are important questions you should be asking on every stalled deal.
Neglecting to highlight opportunity costs can make no decision feel less costly. In most cases, there is a significant loss in not making a decision.
Here are a few big ones that always fit, one way or another, when you wait to make a decision.
- Time and money wasted anticipating and hedging on the status quo or moving forward
- Time wasted continuing to research and compare solutions
- Losing money as the offer decays — rates change, fees go up, inefficiency gets worse with growth
- Then, of course, there is risk that the price will go up or the incentive may go away
Make sure that your prospects are crystal clear on what they are loosing by waiting.
Reduce Natural Customer Versus Sales Anxiety
Explore your customers’ emotions and motivations. What is the real reason for their hesitation? Often it’s more emotional than logical.
In fact, in my experience, the greatest fear is that the salesperson knows more than they do. Leaving them at a disadvantage. Counter this with transparency and education.
The mortgage industry is an excellent example of how this can work. Recent industry reform made forms, disclosures, and fees easier to see and understand. This brought unprecedented transparency and customer confidence to mortgage loans.
The best way to uncover hidden anxiety and loss of motivation is direct questions. Ask lots of questions and address every with facts and transparency.
Cut Through the Noise. Kill the Distractions.
Most sales transactions are very complex. That’s why you need a salesperson to close the deal. But, be careful not to add complexity to the sale. Your job is to reduce and explain complexity.
The best way to do this is to remove the noise and distractions from the sale. Listen to fears and objections and knock them down one by one.
The other thing that often happens in any complex sale is the customer gets overwhelmed.
Here is what’s often going on. Customers are thinking about all the different things they need to do on their end.
- “How am I going to get a presentation ready for the selection committee?”
- “How am I going to convince my spouse to refinance the mortgage.”
At the same time, you’re barraging them with all the things you need them to do.
- “I need some sort of initial commitment from you to get the pricing concessions you want from my boss.”
- “I need the loan estimate signed so that I can lock your rate, order your appraisal, and get you into processing.”
I reduce all these demands by sequencing them into prioritized, bite-sized, achievable tasks. It is also important to understand their internal decision process. Also, educate them on your process and how to leverage it to get them the very best deal you can offer.
Always Emphasize Urgency
Urgency is a very powerful sales tool. It’s also very often in the best interest of the customer to quickly move through the sales process. While it’s often prudent to move methodically in selecting the right product or service. It’s almost always a money sucking exercise to dawdle through the sales process.
Originally published on BillRice.com
