Customers Are Careful
In selling expensive, sophisticated products with long life and installation
time, it will often take three or four visits just to reach the point where the
relationship is strong enough that you can talk business seriously. It is not
uncommon for the sales process to require six months
or more of meetings and
proposals before the customer feels comfortable enough to make a large, long-
term commitment. Be patient.
There is a good reason for this caution and delay. In many cases, the
prospect’s reputation and even career can be on the line. If he makes the wrong
buying
decision for his company, it can cost him his job. He can be demoted or
even fired. For this reason, he cannot afford to make a mistake.
Begin Qualifying Early
Use the approach close or the demonstration close
in your first interaction
with the customer. This enables you to qualify him immediately. The answer to
one or both of these questions tells you at the beginning whether or not he is in
the market for your product.
“If I could show you exactly the car you are looking for at perhaps the best
price
in the city, would you be interested in taking it for a drive?”
If the prospect says, “No, I just bought a car, and I won’t need another one for
a
few years,” then you know that this person is not a prospect. There is no point
in trying to establish a high-quality relationship and understand more about her
situation. She is not in the market.
