Deal With Problems Up Front
A common problem people have in sales (and with life in general) is not effectively dealing with problems that keep occurring over and over again.
First off let's be realistic. If something happens three or more times in a row or within a short period of time, guess what?
YOU CAN BET IT IS GOING TO HAPPEN AGAIN!
Yet most people will plug away as if it's never going to be a problem again and seem actually to be surprised when it recurs. Or almost as bad, they just live with the dread that it will come up (not a great way to live) and then struggle with it after it becomes a problem. That's like ignoring the red light on your dashboard and waiting for a rod to start knocking before you check the oil in your car's engine.
I prefer a preemptive strike.
I'll use a sales situation to illustrate. Let's say for example you sell a Long Term Care policy. You keep getting the same objection from prospects, and that objection is always price:
- regardless of whether they need it, or want it
- regardless of the fact they have two parents in long term care facilities and know first hand the cost of paying for care
- regardless of the fact that they know a long stay in a nursing home could bankrupt them
You keep hearing your prospects say, "I hate paying insurance premiums!" and there you are, having to fight again.
It has happened five times in five calls this month, and you always end up with the prospect fighting you because they don't like the premiums. And, no sale.
From now on, instead of going through the whole sales call waiting and dreading dealing with that objection, "I hate insurance premiums", just START right there. You might say "Mary and John, this is probably going to be a real short visit. You see, some thing that keeps coming up whenever I talk to people about Long Term Care is they say they hate paying the premiums. And that's a hard thing for me to deal with. If that is going to be a problem, can we go ahead and discuss it now?"
What you have done is defused a lot of the pressure and started a dialogue about the real reasons they feel that way (if it is a problem). My feeling is, if I am going to have to fight with a prospect I would rather find out up front. Especially if the 'fight' is going to be a guaranteed loser. I can save myself a LOT of time.
Now, if you find out that premiums are going to be an issue you can start asking questions to get to the real problem, the real reason they feel that way. And you are dealing with the problem from a position of strength instead of having to handle the issue at the 'close'. (Closing, by the way, is not the real problem most people have with selling... but I will cover more of that in future columns.)
For now, just look for that thing that you hate having to deal with on your calls and start dealing with it up front. It will make you stronger and you will find your calls getting shorter and your sales more frequent.
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