17/11/2014
Dallas TX Sandler Brief: When is a contract not a contract? | Sandler Training by TrustPoint Management Group
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WHEN IS A CONTRACT NOT A CONTRACT?
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Salespeople sometimes dig themselves into a hole by leaping into action at the very first sign of interest from a prospect.
I have experienced more growth in sales strategy and technique in the last 18 months working with Karl than I have in the prior 10 years. If you have the guts to be honest with yourself and with your organization and aren't afraid to grow Karl can help you take your sales team and company to the next level. Alan Neill | Vice President | Business Development | BRG, Dallas
Maybe something like that has happened to you. Perhaps you had a “good initial discussion” with a prospect, and, based on that conversation, you agreed to invest time and energy gathering information, working up prices, and putting together your presentation. Then what happened? You kept your word. You delivered your presentation in a competent, professional manner. As you wrapped up, you felt confident that one of two things was going to happen: You were either going to get the sale (which was what you wanted), or at the very least, you were going to obtain a clear decision. Instead, you got one objection after another, followed by a series of stalls, and finally, you left with nothing more than the prospect’s promise to give your presentation some “careful thought.” Unfortunately, the above scenario is a common one. If your expectation about what will be achieved during a meeting and how it will be achieved is different from that of the people with whom you are meeting, it’s a sure bet that someone (you) will leave the meeting with unfulfilled expectations – likely accompanied by feelings of frustration and resentment – and no sale. Before you volunteer to do any of the work in this relationship, it makes sense to establish clear, appropriate expectations and time investments on both sides. How do you do that? Lots of salespeople are familiar with the Sandler® concept of the UpFront Contract, under which both sides agree ahead of time about what the ground rules of a discussion will look like, and what the possible outcomes of the exchange will be. Yet too many salespeople end up attempting to establish “contracts” that do not require the prospect to do much of anything! In reality, that is more of an up-front surrender. Over the phone, at the end of that “good initial discussion,” the up-front surrender might sound like this: You: Beth, what I’d like to do is come by next Tuesday at 10:00 AM to show you some pricing and production options, and also go over the program we put together for ABC Company so we can see how everything looks to you. Does that make sense? Beth: Sure. You just surrendered. If you imagine that what you just read constitutes an up-front contract, guess again! All that happened was you agreed to do everything… and the prospect has agreed to do nothing (other than show up for the meeting). Your goals here are actually much more substantial. You want to establish a clear objective for the interaction, clarify the initial time investment, identify the specific topics to be discussed, gain agreement on the intended outcome, set benchmarks by which to measure the progress made, and, last but not least, give the prospect something to do between now and the time you meet. This is where salespeople so often sabotage themselves. They imagine they’re securing an up-front contract, when all they’re really doing is volunteering to do all the work themselves. That’s not an effective “contract,” because the other person has not committed or decided to do anything. Here’s what a contract where the prospect is fully engaged would sound like: You: Beth, why don’t you pick a day when you can invite me in for an hour and we can determine if the type of targeted marketing programs my company has created for other distributors would make sense for you. [Beth chooses Tuesday from 10:00 - 11:00 AM.] You: That’s great. Can we set aside an hour for this discussion?
http://www.trustpointtx.sandler.com/pressitems/show/10312/1050
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