Sales EQ

26AskingThe Most Important Sales Discipline

A rejection is nothing more than a necessary step in the pursuit of success.

—Bo Bennett

“Um, uh, so,” Bill was stuttering, barely making eye contact with the buyer. He looked scared. “What, um, do you, uh, think?”

Sitting next to him, I was thinking, Seriously, after all that work the best you can come up with is “What do you think?” This company needs us, you made the case, you earned the right, so ask for what you want!

Marla, the buyer, replied, “Thanks for the presentation, Bill. You've given us a lot to think about. Tell you what. I'm going to run this by my team and we'll get back to you in a week or so.”

After nurturing the prospect for more than a year waiting for the buying window to open, six weeks of work to get on Marla's calendar, five discovery meetings, a product trial and pilot, two solid weeks of work on the presentation and proposal, building a rock-solid business case, and delivering a flawless presentation, Bill blew it with a passive, weak, nonassumptive ask.

His disruptive emotions derailing him when it mattered most. All he had to show for his effort was a “call me maybe.”

In sales, you must ask for what you want, directly, assumptively, and assertively. Don't expect stakeholders to do your job for you. When you fail to ask, you fail.

Closing

I can't get away from salespeople who quiz me about closing techniques and sales managers who beg me to teach them how to get their salespeople to close.

From superstitions ...