"The customer loves our product and service and they want to buy from us, but right now they are handling some higher priority situations, however I am sure right after that they are definitely going to buy from us!" If you constantly hear yourself or one of your sales professionals make this statement and find that the customer still has not purchased after several months, you need to understand something; you are NOT a priority and you need to become one. Why is it that the sales professionals number one priority is to close the sale and yet buying the product is the prospective clients last priority? If the product or service helps the customer, they like it, they want it, then why would it not be a top priority, if not the number one priority? The answer is simple; a sales professional's product or service cannot become a clients number 1 priority until the sales professional understands the customer's priorities. There are a couple of things a sales professional can do to move buying their product or service up on the customer's priority list without having to always offer a financial incentive or 'limited time offer'.

Limited Time Offer Snag Up

Many organizations create a sense of urgency or move up the priority list of their customers by trying to offer a financial incentive or a limited time offer. This works in many retail environments, which is why retailers have weekly specials and advertisements in news papers, but what about in business to business sales or those retail sales that are not based on a weekly special or advertisement?   The sales professional must create a sense of urgency or become a priority of the customer, true, but where a sales clerk and a sales professional differs is staying away from being "the cheapest". Selling on price alone devalues the product-it is about selling the value, the benefit, not the price paid alone. The difference is found when you start to focus on becoming a priority. If a sales professional tries to create a sense of urgency as a solution or as a strong close, all you have is limited quantity or limited time offer, but if the sales professional focuses on the priority in the beginning by asking the right questions, they are able to influence the customer to buy now without having to offer a discount or limited quantity close.   How might you ask?

Becoming a Priority

When developing your purposeful questions (qualifying questions) develop questions that will allow you to understand the goals and current priorities of the prospective customer. The better a sales professional understands the customer's goals and priorities the more likely the sales professional will be able to show how their product or service will help benefit the customer as their top priority-to link the two together.   This is a lot more than asking open-ended questions or leading questions, that is old school persuasion selling stuff.   The sales professional needs to ask questions to truly understand the prospect's responsibilities and the pains of their job until they have gained enough knowledge that they can directly show how their product or service can help the prospective customer with their immediate goals or priorities. By doing this, the prospective customer knows they need to buy now. A good sample question is, "What are your top 3 priorities this quarter and this year?", and ask to truly understand the "why" and the "how" of those priorities. The better the sales professional understands the customer's perspective the more likely they are to help them make an immediate and beneficial decision. Many times a sales person only asks questions based on their product or service-and then immediately make an "offer". They ask questions about how the customer is currently using their product or service and what they like and dislike, etc.   Based on those standard questions, unless their number 1 priority happens to incidentally be to purchase that product or service, that sales person will be waiting until the customer has time to make a decision (uh, sometimes never). By asking the right questions a sales professional is able to determine how their product or service can become a top priority or sometimes just as important, maybe after asking all of the questions, the sales professional finds out that their product or service cannot be an immediate benefit to the prospective customers goals and priorities and the sales professional is able to plan accordingly.  Accordingly means that the sales professional is able to give a more accurate forecast of when the customer will be making the purchase and most importantly the sales professional knows when to and when not to offer a financial incentive to get the prospective customer to take immediate action-versus it being a default mechanism.

More than just a Close

There is not a magic wand for closing more sales, and coming up with witty sayings will not do much more than get a good laugh. The real magic is in the preparation and the skill of selling. A sales professional can close more sales when they focus on the benefit the prospective customer is looking to obtain, not just the benefit of their product or service.   When a sales professional understands the prospective customers priorities they will be able to become a customer's priority.