Many buying decisions are delayed due to prospect procrastination in one of two primary areas:

1. Expertise: They are unfamiliar with your solution or are not an expert like you are—so they procrastinate. They have no sense of urgency. They feel they could make a mistake or lose if they buy the wrong thing.

2. Money: Decisions that involve a significant financial investment naturally increase the prospects’ tendency to procrastinate.

The combination of an unfamiliar solution and an expensive product creates the perfect storm for prospect paralysis.

The Hard Truth: If procrastination is based in confusion or fear of making an expensive mistake, it is totally the salesperson’s fault if a sale is lost to procrastination!

Professional Selling recognizes that you must get the prospect to make a decision. You must take action so the prospect does not procrastinate. Why? Because the longer a sales cycle takes, the less the prospect retains, and the lower your chances of closing the deal.

Below is a cheat sheet of questions you can use to prompt action and get decisions.

Pre-Qualifying Questions

Use these early in the conversation to gauge urgency and establish next steps:

• How important is this to you, personally?

• What would you suggest we do to move this forward?

• What do you gain by moving forward?

• From a timing perspective, what makes this a particularly attractive (or unattractive) time to address this?

• What could you do as a first step to moving forward and getting a decision?

• Suppose you had all the information you need. What would happen next?

• How will you know who has the best solution?

• What actions could you take right after our meeting to get this approved?

• What is the challenging part for you of getting this approved? (Let’s talk about how to handle this. What problems/issues do you feel you might encounter?)

• What will it take to make this happen?

• What happens between now and our next meeting?

• Are you comfortable taking this to the boss with the recommendation to go forward?

• If the proposal contains all of these items, will you approve it and go with our plan?

Qualifying Questions

Use these to dig into budget, authority, and true commitment:

• How would you categorize your willingness to move forward on a 1-10 scale?

• What’s missing to get you to a “10,” or what would you need to see to get you there?

• The last time you did business with someone like me, how did you know you were making the right decision?

• How committed are you to solving the problem? (The right answer: Very committed.)

• Do you have any concerns about working with me? How about my company?

• What hurdles or risks do you see in moving forward?

• Have you decided that our approach is the best one to address your issue?

• How were you planning to fund this investment?

• What are you authorized to spend?

• Have I earned the right to ask you what your real budget, funding, or target price is?

• How do you see us helping you, and why us as opposed to someone else?

• If you think our price is high, wait until you see what it costs you when you go with a competitor’s cheaper version.

• Let’s assume price wasn’t an issue for you. What else is holding you back?

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 Coaches take an “Ask vs. Tell” approach. Don’t tell the employee what to do, instead
ask powerful questions. This allows the employee to create their own solutions. When
they go through the thought process to get to resolution, they are much more bought-in —
it’s their idea!
 Coaches focus on the employee vs. the task — it’s about their development.
 Coaching is not about “fixing” anyone. Again, it’s about their development and
facilitating the learning process.
 Coaches set up a clear accountability structure for action and outcomes. It helps keep
the employee focused on achieving the desired goals.
 Coaching is something that can/should happen as needed and in-the-moment, which
is the best way for learning to occur. It’s a great way to reinforce what may have been
learned in the classroom by capitalizing on those on-the-job learning experiences.

Acting more like a coach

So how can a Manager behave more like a Coach?

1. —Ask good questions to enable the process.
2. Meet the employee where they are.
3. Guide the conversation (through questions, not directives) to a mutual agreement of the
priorities of development.
4. Ensure that the feedback information is heard and understood by the employee.
Again, asking clarifying questions is the best way to do this.
5. Do your part to support the employee through a shared commitment to their goals,
responsibilities and action steps.
Coaching = Effective Conversations
What makes a conversation “effective”? It’s about a dialogue (asking), not a monologue (telling).

The best coaching questions are:
 Open-ended;
 Focused on useful outcomes; and,
 —Non-judgmental (avoid asking “why?”).

Here are some examples of good open-ended questions compared to the close-ended version:
Open-ended/Inviting Questions
 What is the status on “x”?
 How can I help you?
 Can you tell me about that error?
 Walk me through your thought process?
 What other approaches might you take next time?
 How are your emotions influencing your perception of the situation?
Close-ended/Evaluative Questions
 Are you finished yet?
 Do you have a problem?
 Did you make that mistake?
 Will this really solve the problem?
 What made you think that was a good idea?
 That’s clear enough, isn’t it?
 Didn’t I go over this already?
 Why didn’t you do “x”?

So are you up for the challenge? Your employees, the business and your career will all benefit if you begin to operate in Manager-as-Coach mindset.

Your employees will be developed and challenged in way that truly builds new skills and enables
them to learn from experiences.

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• Do we understand their issues, who’s involved, their “conditions and compelling reasons” for changing?
• Do we know their buying and decision-making processes?
• Do we understand where they are in their process?
• Did we “rush” through the sales process, missing critical steps or milestones?

It seems customers procrastinate for a few predictable reasons:

• They may be unfamiliar with you, your company PLUS they may have no urgency to change because we didn’t ask good questions, or enough questions to determine their compelling reason(s) to change.
• They are unfamiliar with your solution OR they are not an expert, like you. They feel like they could “make a mistake” or lose if they buy the wrong thing.
• Money: Without having done a good qualifying process to determine their compelling reasons to change, almost everything looks expensive, since there is no “value” established. This leads to indecision, procrastination and stalls.

Here are a few critical considerations and tactics to help avoid this and actions to take to keep them moving.

1. At the end of each call, you must “Recap & Review” what happened, what was discussed and what was agreed to-using your Active Listening skills.

• You mentioned that you need to…

• Your current supplier is not doing …

• You have a deadline of…

• You need ____ to make the final decision

1. After doing a “Recap & Review” of the meeting…ask one more simple question: Did I miss anything? This helps gain further input and gives the prospect the opportunity to enhance your statements and add any final understandings.
2. Next summarize the next step to MOVE FORWARD: (date/time/invite others/commitments/etc.)
3. If prospect is “non-committal” about a next step: You need to acknowledge this and nurture them and slowly and softly ask:

“(name) What is your biggest FEAR or CONCERN about moving forward with us?”  OR: “What hurdles or risks do you see in moving forward? (pause…don’t react…just listen.) Let them speak. Acknowledge their concern(s.) 

Ask them what they’d like you to do to address them. Have a conversation with the goal of creating a better & clear understanding to relieve their concerns.

1. If No Next Step: Ask why not?
2. Let them tell you…don’t interrupt; don’t make excuses; don’t start “re-selling.” Just listen. You may find out that it is something you can address…to keep the process moving; or else it is over, and you can save time and move on to another account.
3. Never leave a meeting/sales call without an “agreed to next step.” If we leave a meeting without an agreed to “next step” with the prospect, we have just lost control of the process…and the “chase” (unfortunately) will begin.

Conclusion: Identifying where & why deals get “stuck” is a critical exercise to categorize what you must do to move forward. Improving this one area can have a huge impact on your sales success and results.

Want a no risk, objective perspective on your company’s sales and business development processes, call us @ 630-560-3614 or just contact us 

And tell us what you’d like to discuss.

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• Remember:  “It’s natural to be liked.”  If your need to be liked gets in the way of executing your sales plan and activities, it will have a negative impact on your sales and success. The strongest impact is usually in the beginning of the process…the cold call. Will you worry about if you are interrupting a busy person, or if they might get flustered with another sales call?
• Replace your need for approval with a need for respect!  Gaining respect from others is the key. You need to know that they respect you for your experience, your knowledge, your skills (listening & questioning), your uniqueness, your integrity and your difference. Seeking respect will get you to act and perform differently than seeking approval.
• Understand the consequences of your need for approval. If you get a high number  of “TIO’S” , call backs, “no decisions”, put-offs and stalls…it is usually because we don’t want to appear to be aggressive or pushy….and we would rather be liked or approved by the prospect. If the prospect has a problem, the way to gain their respect is to be persistent, polite and professional…ask for the appointment or decision. They will ultimately “like” you if you help solve their problem…not if you accept their stalls…because you will not have helped them with their problem(s).
• Seek approval in you personal life, not at work in your sales life. Have someone special in your life who gives you all the approval and caring so you won’t need it from prospects. If you don’t have someone today…find them!
• Overcome Rejection…quickly! Don’t dwell on the rejection…it is a waste of time and it puts you farther away from reaching your personal goals. Realize that they are not rejecting YOU as a person; they are rejecting any of the following:
  1. The call
  2. The interruption
  3. The offer
  4. The message or your approach
  5. The request…for a meeting

Remember: once you realize the rejection is not personally directed at you, the easier and faster you’ll be able to move on.

Overcome Call Reluctance or Anxiety today…Partner with another sales person to make calls.

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 So, what do we do to be better in our communication to get agreements & commitments?

We must adopt a clearly written letter/email that spells out the “expectations” for “Both Parties” regarding:  What is needed and expected, as a next step!

Solution: It is the: “AS WE AGREED TO LETTER.”

(This avoids the “I think I know what is going to happen; OR…You think you know what we are going to do or, have to do next” …mindreading or assumptions- don’t count.

The “AS WE AGREED TO LETTER” …

Brief correspondence. Used as a summary of agreed to “next steps and expectations” of BOTH parties.

It is simple but effective. It contains the “moving forward” expectations in “Bullet-points.” It has date specific deadlines or agreements…so the process DOES NOT GET STALLED.

It works extremely well in advance of your “NEXT” step/meeting/agreement.

Dear Mary,

We covered a lot of issues in our meeting today. As we agreed to, here is the recap and next steps in the process: (example below)

FOR EXAMPLE: Possible Bullet Points

• The problems (impact/consequences/$ cost) you have uncovered that the prospect NEEDS to ADDRESS or FIX
• The budget or funding  “$$$ range” you need to stay within
• All the decision makers who will need to be involved & present
• Samples or Demo or some tangible evidence to share
• Last (but not least) the agreed to & anticipated date & time when the next meeting (with an agenda) will be held…as well as your expectation(s.)

Result: You can “control” many steps of the sales process and help eliminate misunderstandings while gaining agreed to commitments using the “AS WE AGREED TO LETTER.”

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In 1896, Italian economist and sociologist Vilfredo Pareto formulated the 80/20 Rule. It states that 20% of the work force produces 80% of the results. How does the 80/20 Rule apply to you, your accounts, and your results?

• Which prospecting efforts produce 80% of your successes?
• Which customers produce 80% of your sales?
• Which activities and personal development account for 80% of your growth?
• Which sales people produce 80% of your revenues (for sales managers)?
• Which skills produce the biggest gains in sales?

How Do I Reconnect, Recapture and Repeat My Successes?

Harness the power of the 80/20 Rule for sales, Invest your time improving your skills, learning about your customers, their needs, problems, and situations. Make the 80/20 Rule work for you…Many salespeople exhaust up to 80% of their time working on weak accounts that collectively bring in less than 20% of sales. Change your focus – leverage your efforts, be more productive and effective.

Make the 80/20 Rule work for you!

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Good training will accomplish three goals:

1. It will teach skills that develop efficient work habits (behavior).
2. It will form positive attitudes that promote healthy self-esteem and belief systems.
3. It will build salespeople’s knowledge of techniques which allow for qualifying, closing, and developing relationships.

Get the most out of your Sales Training:

Basic Do’s:

• Let salespeople know what you expect of them
• Let them know you are willing to help
• Give positive recognition for skills learned and results achieved
• Track activity and results
• Keep salespeople informed on how to help each other
• Provide an environment that allows people to break through comfort zones, take calculated risks, and tolerate failure (if there is learning)

Basic Don’ts:

• Don’t assume everyone learns at the same pace. Be patient; some skills may require multiple demonstrations to be learned
• Don’t expect everything to work the first time. Just because it looks easy, it may not. We all find certain skills difficult to learn or master
• Don’t assume everyone will continue to practice a skill or strategy. Re-enforcement is needed. It’s an on-going process.
• Don’t believe a salesperson knows how because they have prior experience. They may have inherited bad habits or incorrect methods that need to change.
• Don’t expect perfection too soon. It takes time to develop good skills and habits. Be patient and supportive.
• Don’t ridicule salespeople for making mistakes. We’ve all learned that mistakes become learning experiences. Some mistakes have been our greatest “teachers”.
• Remember, learning takes place in small steps. Focus on results, with gradual improvements. Make immediate feedback (pros and cons) the norm.

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What are the “MUST ACHIEVE” Sales Goals in Q4?

Once the goals for Q4 are in place, accountability for time and Sales activity (behaviors) is the next critical component. 

YOU MUST KNOW: “Where are your salespeople spending their time?”

Let’s answer that question by asking you…

What are your expectations? Remember Prime Time (hours we can contact customers & prospects). What activities should they be focusing on first?

• What types of activities will give your salesperson the greatest return for time spent? List the activities. Also, what ____% should they spend per week on this category? $$$
• What activities will give them the least benefit for the time invested? List all these activities. What _____% should they spend per week on this category? (-)
• What can you recommend gaining a more favorable Balance of Activities? (How do you increase payoff activities (prime time) and at the same time reduce lower payoff activities? What would you suggest?
• Remember the adage: Sales is NOT a 40-hour job!!!
• How will you monitor this… CRM, software, point system, pipeline management, weekly scheduled meetings, Calendar “block Time,” one on one coaching sessions, etc.

Sales Manager, Your Challenge: List the Specifics & EXPECTATIONS you want your salespeople to achieve:

PERFORMANCE GOALS: Sales & margin; New business/new accounts captured.

PERFORMANCE ACTIVITIES:

• Prospecting: specifics! Prospect Contact:(Appointments/Qualifying/Commitments/proposals, etc.)

• Pipeline Management-Weekly reviews: New opportunities?  Where is each account? Last meeting-how did it end? Next steps? What’s needed to move the deal forward? What will close-this week? Next week? What help do you need from me?
• Time management: Revenue generating activities/priorities!
• Existing Customer Contact-Account Management-what is their business with us? How do we become more important to them? What additional sales opportunities exist, i.e., “Share of wallet?
• Coaching Opportunities: with each salesperson. Joint field calls; Coaching: deals and roadblocks; listening to recorded phone calls; ROLE PLAYING; Objection handling; Call planning strategies; Business To CLOSE!

When you employ this process, you should not be surprised by their success…the only surprise is if they don’t do it…and you allow it!

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You cannot manage time, but you can manage yourself through a disciplined process of maximizing your time by prioritizing activities which will help you achieve your sales goals. This discipline must be ongoing, not something you do once or occasionally.

How do you self-manage activities?

First, identify time wasters, then, identify the source of time wasters and finally, change your behavior pattern.

Example: You spend 1 hour browsing social media each morning before you make calls. Who is the source? YOU.

Does this really create personal procrastinating, because you don’t want to face a prospect saying, “no”? How could you change your behavior?

Perhaps plan your call schedule the night before? Establish daily activity/performance goals. For example, make “X” number of calls and have “Y” number of conversations before 9:30am every day. In order to manage activities you need to measure, track, and evaluate what you do.

Develop a checklist in terms of Organization.

• What activities can you prioritize in order to reach personal sales/income goals?
• Number of completed phone calls, number of appointments, number of closed sales at $xx,xxx ?
• What needs to be accomplished weekly and daily in terms of behavior? Do you track and measure it?
• What keeps you from achieving goals?
• What must you stop, or start doing to achieve your goals?

Action:

• What behaviors must you focus on to produce results?
• What distractions or low priorities can be eliminated?
• Set specific daily, weekly, monthly activity goals.
• What activities make money?

Evaluate:

• What goals did you achieve?
• What problems or setbacks did you encounter?
• Did you make the right choices?
• What did you learn from this?
• Do you know your “metrics”? How many calls to appointments? How many appointments to proposals? Closing % of proposals?

Remember: Time is a depleting asset which cannot be recovered. By priority planning you will be able to concentrate daily on important things first. So what are your priorities (ow what should they be) in sales to help manage your time?

Do it now!

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