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All of us in sales have, since day one, had it drilled
into us that we must "ask for commitment" from the buyer.
Unfortunately, too many of us interpret this to mean simply,
"ask for the order". Thus, we feel that the only time to ask
for commitment is at the end of the sale - at the "close" -
when we ask for the Ultimate Commitment. In reality, you
should be asking for commitments at various points in a sales
cycle. Why? Well, any of you who have experienced "things
were going so great, why won't she call me back" syndrome
will understand why. First, if a prospect is unwilling to
agree to do even the smallest request, what does that signal
to you about how serious this prospect is? Second, the more
commitments you get your prospect to make and keep, the more
he has invested in the deal, the more he's stuck his neck out,
the more difficult it will be for him to simply walk away from
it. Think about it. If your contact has invested lots of his
personal time, and gotten others to do the same (including the
boss); if this investment has become a high- profile one
throughout the organization, it's going to be pretty difficult
for him to simply pull out and say, "we're just going to stick
with the status quo", without getting a whole lot of egg on
his face.
Remember, commitment is a two-way street. Too often,
out of an eagerness to please, we commit to doing something
for our prospects without asking for a reciprocal commitment
from them. You have just as much of a right to ask a qualified
prospect to invest time and effort to get you what you need as
he does to ask you to get him what he needs.
ACTION ITEM
Next time your
prospect asks you to "send him some literature", agree, but
reply with, "Sure, I'll be happy to. To allow you the time you
need to review it, shall I give you 7 days or 10 in which to
do so, before I call to continue our discussion?" Next time
your prospect says, "can you bring your team in to do a demo",
reply with, "Sure, and whom will you be inviting to attend the
demo? May I ring them and introduce myself?" If you're not
getting reciprocal commitments from your prospect equal to or
greater than the ones you're being asked to make, that's a big
red flag that you must address
immediately, before even thinking about proceeding. Better to
ferret out early a prospect who is unlikely to play ball with
you, and who is likely, in the end, to have wasted your
precious time, and instead move on to one that will work with
you to achieve their objectives through an investment in your
product or service.
Good Selling!
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