Here are my top three great sales excuses and what to do about them.
The price is too high
Your sales team need to focus on value and not price. Whilst the price is important, it is not the only consideration. I love the famous story of Red Adair, who hung up on a man who had asked how much it would cost to put out the fire on a rig in the ocean. When asked why he hung up without answering, Adair responded, “If a guy wants to know how much it will cost to put out an oil fire, it ain’t been burnin’ long enough.”
I’m waiting for my pipeline to come in
There are some big deals just around the corner ! Deals will come and deals will go. It is really important to have your team focused on the process and not just on individual deals. I like to use a coverage figure of at least 3 X target. However, make sure you super qualify the pipeline, particularly on large deals. Have a rigorous close plan in place at all times. (I have attached a sample close plan to this post).
No one is buying just now
Essentially if your sales team are blaming the economy or other conditions they are saying that they don’t have control over the outcome. What they are hired to do is to think creatively and come up with valuable solutions and not useless excuses. In tough economic conditions companies will still be buying. You teams job is to identify which products, regions or geographies to target and be creative. Ask them what their plan is to overcome this situation (rather than resigning that is).
I have put a sample close plan here: Example_Closeplan
“He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.”
Benjamin Franklin