Adrie's Blog

Yes or NO

Last week someone told me how he viewed a NO from a prospect - he takes it as "Not Yet". You keep thinking about a comment like that, reviewing all the discussions that you have had where a prospect said "no" and actually - there is a lot of truth in the story.

Like I have written many times before - it's all about timing - so it could be that your timing is just not right. This is something you can make sure you add to your list of questions when you are visiting a prospect, ask yourself during the conversation "is this the right time for the customer?".

In general - asking for the contract seems to be a big issue for many people. They seem not to want to be rejected, to hear that "no" so they'd rather not ask anything at all. By not asking, the client remains in your pipeline, even though the date of anticipated closing shifts along - but rather head in the sand then a clear (but negative) answer. For many companies this forms a real problem - when you are looking at a sales team's forecast and you have to decide based on that whether to increase of decrease production or take on additional personnel - it is imperative to have the true picture, rather then something that exists only in the salesperson's head. I really believe that sales people ought to be assessed for their ability to ask for a contract, be it in a test environment or in practice.

I once worked with a technology firm who was interested in employing us for our business development services. The CEO challenged me with the following question: "One of my sales people has had a potentially great deal on his pipeline from Toshiba in France, but something keeps cropping up that delays the decision. Could you find out if that order will ever get placed?". Within two days I had found out through my own connections at Toshiba that that particular order had been granted to a competing firm four months earlier... you can guess what happened to the salesman!

Apart from asking for the contract, which is your job, a prospect will often have all sorts of reasons for not taking a decision. My answer would always be "OK, if I can meet that criteria, will I get the contract?" At least that defined a clear tit for tat - I do the work to satisfy a new criteria, but in turn I do get the contract. Try and always steer towards a scenario where you give two choices (like you would with children!) instead of an open question - it takes you one step closer to actually getting the deal. For instance, don't ask "can I make an appointment with you?" but say "I could see you on Thursday at 8am" - often the answer would be "I am not in the office at 8am but I am here at 9am most days" leaving you with the final say "OK, then I will be there at 9". This is productive instead of open-ended.

With sales, you need to be creative - that is definitely true for Entrepreneurs. If it is YOUR company, you have credibility, you can be creative. Do your homework and try to think from the client's perspective in terms of timing, in terms what their real (rather then perceived) problem is and how you can solve that for them. As the owner of your organisation you should never lose from a salesman of a large corporation - in the end, you will have to ask for the contract. Just don't be shy!