Advice on Closing Sales

Q:I've started a new job as the "Marketing Coordinator" for a small business. One of the problems the business is having, that the manager has asked me to resolve, is that the salespeople pursue a lead, provide a quote, and talk to the customer. Everything seems to be going well, then suddenly, the prospective customer stops communicating with the salesperson, does not return phone calls, and does not reply to emails. The sale seems to be lost, but the customer never actually says "no".

A:My feeling is that a few things could be happening: 1. Prospect was not serious and was just sort of looking. 2. Prospect went with the competition. 3. And, related to 2, there is a hidden objection that is not being addressed. What I am thinking of proposing, is that the salespeople go back, and call these lost sales (sort of lost: the customer never said "no") from about the past month, and make a big effort to actually get these prospects on the phone. That is, call multiple times on each one, not leaving a message for several calls hoping to get the person on the phone, then see about closing the sale. It could be that they just got caught up in other things and are now ready to buy. The other purpose of these calls would be to find out what the customer's objections are and, if they did go to a competitor, find out why they did not go with us. It would be sort of informal research to find out what is happening with these customers and why they are making the decisions they are making. Yes, I too have seen the sort of: "He is a likeable guy" thing with hiring, and frankly, keeping a salesmanager or salesperson for too long. For example, at the last place I worked, the sales manager was a friend of the owners, so they kept him despite obvious imcompetence. He had no ability to follow through, plan ahead, or deal with problems. His one strong point, and this is worth something, is that he was very likeable and made the rounds at the company talking to everyone. They eventually had to get rid of him, but it took a really long time because, I think, he was so well liked. So I think your point is well taken. However, at my current situation, I think it is a training issue. Since I and the salesmanager have started coaching on asking lots of questions, listening to the prospect, never ignoring an objection, etc., the close rate this week was considerably higher. Clearly there was a training issue. We said: "If you run into an objection for which you don't have an answer, don't try to paper over it or ignore it (make sure you are listening so you hear it in the first place), don't be afraid to say, 'I don't know, but I will check into it and get back to you'." We also talked about, well, basically talking less, and letting the prospect talk more. Sometimes, it seems that salespeople are so into giving their pitch on why this product or service is better than that one, etc., etc., they don't slow down to realize that they are in a real conversation with a prospect. We said: "Ask questions. Find out about the prospect's business, situation, needs, and concerns." The asking questions, listening, and dealing with objections has already shown an approvement. This coming week, we are going to specifically delve deeper into dealing with objections.