Sometimes, you just let things rot in the field…
I was taught early on there were three key skills in sales: prospecting, presenting, and closing.
Most sales folk are naturally great at one, OK to mediocre at another, and mediocre to horrible at the third.
I’m not a natural “closer.” Never have been.
Took me a while to figure out why.
The whole, “you sell like you buy,” theory holds some credence.
I am analytical, prefer to be given all the facts, and am one of those that actually need to “think about it.” People that try to coerce me into a decision are generally disappointed.
But then I realized everyone doesn’t buy that way, and some people do indeed need someone to tell them it is the right thing to do.
But it was still deeper. Reluctance due to some past traumatic experience around sales or money?
Maybe, but there were all those times when closing was no problem…
Then I remembered dad telling me about times he left crops in the field. Zucchini prices fell out and it would have cost more in labor to pick them than they were selling for.
All that energy, space, time, and money invested in a crop that in the end would not bring any value back to the farm, and end up costing it even more…
And what I realized is that my reluctance to close was most often related to uncertainty in my own ability to deliver value.
Working with professionals for a dozen years now I’ve seen several things that get in the way of closing.
– The most basic one is there is no close… no ask for the sale in any fashion, no structure to the sales conversation.
– Others are just talking to too many unqualified prospects and need better branding and marketing (prospecting is marketing, btw) in their Client Cultivation™ practices.
– For some, their ego gets in the way. This happens a lot with lawyers and other learned professionals. They’ve laid out a very logical argument for their solution and think it’s an obvious choice.
They forget (or never learned) that selling is less about making their potential client understand and more about making them feel understood.
But when there is structure and qualification and training and empathy, and still reluctance, the answer may simply be conviction.
This is why gathering testimonials and case studies – and reading them regularly, is so important.
But other times, it requires digging into delivery and operations.
Are you actually delivering value?
Are you at capacity, and you (or your sales team) know you’re going to struggle to deliver on your promises?
Do you believe there are actually better options for your prospects out there?
That’s not something any marketing campaign or mastermind or magical sales script is going to fix.
It all starts with making sure what you are selling is actually delivering value.
#clientcultivation #harvestthesale
