Sales Training - Unreasonable sales requests

Day 115 – When you’re pushed with unreasonable requests. Sometimes a prospect will push you for as much as they can get. Who can blame them? One of the best things you can do is relate what they’re asking you to do back to their company. For example; you sell software with a 30-day evaluation period and your prospect keeps pushing for another week and then another week, and on and on. In your best non-confrontational voice ask, “Mark, how much time does your company allow your prospect to evaluate your product?” Be a good lawyer and make sure you know the answer to this question before asking it. It’s always easy to throw stones when you’re holding all of them. But having one thrown back at you isn’t as pleasant. Unfortunately, this task of throwing back a few stones in your list of sales duties, can be difficult. You run the risk of insulting your prospect and having them tell you their done. So, it’s important to be aware of a few things: * Know where you are in the customer’s buying cycle. Pushing back too early and before you have established trust, can be trouble for you. * Be willing to walk away from this prospect. * Be polite and have a professional attitude. Sales Homework – Practice delivering this message with another sales rep or your sales manager until it flows naturally. Sales Managers – This is an area where you need to coach your sales reps to stand up and be professional. And be a little tough.