There are lots of things that can happen during the sales process.
Sometimes it happens fast.
The prospect has done previous research. They’re buying into what you’re selling.
Other times, the prospect maybe be on the fence. They’re not ready to fully commit no matter how convincing your evidence is.
It can be frustrating.
You see that the client is struggling and could benefit from what you’re selling. You can show them case study after case study of how it works. You can cite research and industry articles where experts have discussed what you’re selling.
But even still they might just not get it.
Make The Call
I don’t know when the right time is to make the call. There might not be an exact moment.
There will probably always be a slight belief that if you move on from a prospect that there was a chance you would have won them over. If only you had just a little more time.
That may or may not be true. You have to play the odds at some point. You only have so much time and energy.
That time and energy are probably better spent finding and working with prospects that do buy into what you’re selling. You have to make the call to let go of those that aren’t buying in.
If you’ve presented a clear case and the prospect still has questions. Make the call.
If they’re asking to go over the same information again and again. Make the call.
If they’re going beyond reason trying to pick holes in your case studies or if they are grasping at straws. Make the call.
Learn From The Situation
It’ll be frustrating to lose a potential sale. That’s one way to look at it. But in reality the sale was probably never there to be had in the first place.
But you can take positives from the situation.
One would be looking at how the prospect came into your sales process. If you sought them out you can look at how you or your team identified them and look for ways to better hone in on the right customer.
If the prospect came to you through inbound channels then you want to look at the filters you have setup in that channel.
For example, they may have searched on Google for a term and it led to your homepage. Review the content on your website. It’s possible that the content was too vague and possibly mislead the prospect to think that you were selling something that you actually weren’t.
And it’s good to look at how you dealt with the situation. Did you skip a step in the process and make the person feel pressured to make a sale? Could you have led earlier with a qualifying question? Maybe a question about budget earlier on would have revealed that the prospect was never the right fit.
Build A Little Motivation
Moving on, letting go and learning from the situation are the best things to do in the situation. Moving on would include getting on with finding more people that do get what you’re selling and that are excited and bought in to the concept.
But you can also use the situation as a little bit of a motivator.
Nothing malicious or anything like that. But many successful people like to kind of find a few chips to put on their shoulders. It can help with motivation a bit. Nothing is better than doing something for yourself, but if someone doesn’t buy into what you’re selling you can take the next client and succeed with them.
That will give you a little extra confidence that what you’re doing does work. Because when someone doesn’t buy from you it does get you down. You don’t have to wish them ill will, but succeeding with another client makes things feel good.
And that also opens the possibility that the prospect will come back to you in the future. I believe in trying to always leave a situation on good terms. You never know if the person will come back.
You have to play the long game even if you’re moving on for now. The person may not be ready, but in a couple years they may see your continued success with others (maybe even their competition) and come back ready to hire you.
Final Thought
It’s not enjoyable to be turned down for a sale. It’s not fun if someone just isn’t getting what you’re selling. But at some point you have to call it and move on. Move on to the next prospect that is ready to buy.
Also look at it as a learning situation. And a situation where you can use it as a little bit of motivation. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to prove the doubters wrong.
But don’t burn the bridge. You always want to play the long game even if you are a little hurt in the present.