Ask for the business!

My fiancée and I are currently in the process of building a new house for our ever expanding family. Last Sunday we met with a sales consultant from one of our short-listed builders, in fact the preferred builder, to negotiate the final terms. What surprised me in this meeting was how little he tried to influence us and build our confidence in making the right decision.

Given the salesperson had done a great job to this point over several meetings, moreover we are his target market and ready to buy now — what he should have done was simply: ask for the business. And although a few thousand dollars over-budget, we would have put pen on paper. Instead he engaged in reverse psychology, which subsequently pushed us in the opposite direction. As a result we went around the block and found a similar floor plan that we liked with a builder we had not yet considered. We are now in negotiations with them.

I’m all for a measured approach, developing the relationship and buy-in and engaging a tested sales process, but when it comes time to ask for the business — don’t hold back! Ask for it with clarity, confidence and conviction. The worst response you will hear back is “maybe”, but this also serves as an opportunity to explore deeper into your client’s needs. The best response you will hear is of course, “yes”. The next best response is, “no.” At least then you can move on and indeed towards more willing and fitting customers.

Many salespeople, much like the above example, suffer from “rejection anticipation” in that they are so used to dealing with time-waters and rejection they start to expect it. This mindset then becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy and one that fuels underachievement and diminishes motivation. In sales, this is the last place you need your attitude to be.

Customers don’t just make agreements by themselves, they need to be in safe environment, have confidence in you and your ability to deliver, and be empowered with all the right information to make the right decision — then for goodness sakes, just ask for the business!

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Trent Leyshan is the founder and CEO of BOOM Sales! a leading sales training and sales development specialist. He is also the creator of The NAKED Salesman, BOOMOLOGY! RetroService, and the Empathy Selling Process.