Often times when you are selling to someone, especially in a B2B setting, you are thinking “they will either pick me or the competitor.” But this notion is often false. The customer may be looking into other options but they may also decide not to go with them either. According to “Five Selling Techniques That Really Work, And Five That Don’t” by Corporate Visions, 20% – 60% of the deals that are in progress are often lost not to another deal but to no deal at all.
Personally I don’t find this very surprising. People assume that when a customer is lost they must have already made up their mind on whether to even get something like this or not. After taking this sales class I have realized that it is not uncommon for prospective customers to just come in to see if they may be interested. This is a very important thing to understand because if you don’t, you could be misreading the customers intentions.
This doesn’t necessarily have to be a problem either. If a prospect is unsure of whether to buy you just need to show them their pain. Prove to them that they have something that is hurting their business and help them find a way to fix it. If you aren’t the right match then you just need to let that happen. Always understand the customers intentions and do your best to figure out what they really need, because if you don’t you may loose them forever.
BoweryJE22
It’s interesting that you talked about how there was a completely different option other than going to a competitor. I experienced that this summer when selling life insurance. People just weren’t interested in buying life insurance at all.