I’m sure we’ve all gone through one of those dreaded meetings with our ‘prospects’ which ended in a ‘disaster’, when they simply did not buy into our presentations and pitches, and politely turned down the offer.
What went wrong? Did we not meet with the ‘right’ decision makers? Would it have worked if we slashed the price/budget? Were they not the ‘Qualified Leads’ we were looking for?
You may have come across many such questions including the ones like, “Did I turn down the AC too much during the meeting?”
All of these could very well be valid questions in helping you decipher ‘why you didn’t strike the deal’, but even though you get everything right, as with your presentations, sales pitches, value propositions, including the right temperature in the meeting room, and let’s say the prospects were quite impressed with your products, they may still turn down the offer because there was no ‘URGENT’ need to grab the ‘opportunity’!
When 44% of salespeople have an 80% probability they won't close the sale, it begs to implement as many ‘tricks’ we have up our sleeve to crush that deal…
Today we look into questions that can evoke a ‘Sense of Urgency’ amongst our prospects with Robert Cialdini’s ‘SCARCITY PRINCIPLE’, and nudge them into taking our sales offer:
1. How would you leverage your business if you could implement this now?
During our conversations with the prospects, oftentimes we tend to get carried away with showering them with tons of benefits we can offer, without even lending an ‘ear’ to discover how that would actually work for them.
With the question, “How would you leverage your business, if you could implement this now?”, they get to put on their ‘thinking hats’ and start imagining how your product would change their business outcomes and goals.
This creates an opportunity for you to actually hear in their own words and examples, and find clues as to ‘what is a real ‘priority’ for them’, rather than assuming from your angle laden with ‘benefits’.
The prospects are subtly drawn to speak under the assumptions and ‘emotions’ that they’ve already implemented the value you’re offering them, but in reality it’s only in their imagination, a persuasion trick from Cialdini’s book giving the ‘Abundance to Scarcity’ effect.
It's as if they’ve just taken a ‘free trial’ of your product and now they don’t have it anymore – the trial period has expired. And the only way to avail the benefit is to ‘BUY’ the product/service!
Your job is done here. A feeling of ‘Urgency’ is created amongst your buyers, who now feel they're missing out on the opportunities your offer can give NOW, instead of a vague timeline in the future.
2. What could possibly happen if you differed to invest today?
Salespeople tend to get carried away with piling up facts, figures and reasons and throwing them at the prospects, hoping they’d cling onto something they find of value...
But not many salespeople realise that, when showering these benefits onto the prospects, they're actually taking a ‘defensive’ or ‘batting’ stance and striking them off the field – and both seem to play this ‘persuasion Vs defense Vs negotiation’ game, which only goes back and forth without an anchor to create value for both parties.
So, before the client gets into a defensive spiral and gets the ‘he/she is trying too hard… must be desperate’ feeling, you should back off from the ‘Persistent Salesperson’ mode and get into the ‘ADVISOR’ mode, and ask the question, “What could possibly happen if you differed to invest today”?
This question puts the buyer into feeling, “he/she is not trying to sell me anything”, in fact it evokes some sense of ‘trust’ with the client and you'll be seen as someone genuinely trying to help them make a better decision, just like a business advisor, which will get them to seriously consider the consequences or the ‘opportunity costs’ incurred from not making that investment.
This way the ‘scarcity’ principle and the ‘urgency’ switch is back to work again as clients hate to be deprived of meeting their priorities and opportunity for added revenue, resulting from a worthwhile investment.
3. Do you have any other options at your disposal?
For every prospect sitting with you on a Sales meeting, making the optimum use of their ‘resources’ is key to business success.
If you give them an option or an offer, they’ll always (and they should), come up with the question, “But isn’t that something we can figure out ourselves?” Which is a plausible question, because many processes involved with a business operation can be tackled by internal teams, if they have time, capacity or appropriate trainings to furnish them.
It's important to understand that when clients pose such questions, they’re not downright opposing your solutions, but they're looking for ‘assurances’ or inviting you to convince them that – the investment, if they make it, would be the right decision, helping them save time and resources, and bringing them more revenue in the long run.
So in response to such question, you again put on the ‘advisor’ hat and ask, “Do you have any other options at your disposal?” and then listen intently as to what they feel are their options in finding solutions to their problems or challenges.
This helps you to delve into their past experiences and find out their successful and not-so-successful bouts, analyse their tools and approaches, and most importantly, figure out how wasting time with options that don’t serve them is costing their utmost priorities…
That’s’ when you can draw the ‘what if’ picture to subtly mentor them as to how your options can actually fill the gap and shortcomings they’re facing, and how it can translate as increased revenue, optimised resources and saved time – a lucrative offer to fill the ‘scarcity void’ and act urgently.
To Sum It Up…
As Brian Clark from Copyblogger says, It's a core characteristic of humans to tilt towards a tendency to procrastinate and ‘to think about it later’. And it holds firmer ground when the matter is about reaching out to our ‘wallets’ to buy anything… even though we desire to make the purchase.
Creating a ‘sense of urgency’ will substantiate the already present desire amongst your prospects and help them take the offer with a sense of relief and logical reasoning.
If you'd like further assistance or would like to discuss anything covered today, we'd love to hear from you.
Call Andy Fox (me) on (03) 5249 5570 or email andy@element7digital.com.au
Our Website is element7digital.com.au
