Problem:
“What am I doing here?” Robert said to himself. He was twenty minutes into the initial meeting with this prospect, and he was clearly fighting an uphill battle. All his attempts to develop rapport were met with apathetic, almost frigid responses. His questions, simple and innocuous though they were, received little more than one or two word responses. What’s going on here? he wondered. This guy won’t even crack a smile and yet he gave me the appointment. Is he just having a bad day, or do I have a hygiene problem? He just couldn’t figure it out, yet he kept at it, trying to pump some life into this dying appointment. He wanted to quit, but his ego wouldn’t let him. And after all, it was difficult to get meetings with people these days. We’ve all been there. We work hard to get an appointment and are determined to take the sales process all the way through to the end, to make that “all-important” presentation. No matter what. And it almost never pays off.
Diagnosis:
Some prospects just aren’t worth the effort. Let’s face it, there are “good” prospects, and “bad” prospects. In fact, a bad prospect is not a prospect at all. Any prospect that is antagonistic, vague and even non-communicative is a bad prospect. But salespeople, despite the obvious danger signals, are almost completely reluctant to disengage. The old “hope-a-hope-a” strategy is firmly entrenched, along with a liberal dose of denial of the obvious warning signs. This old adage comes to mind…if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it probably IS a duck. Well, if it exhibits all the initial danger signs of a bad prospect, it probably is a bad prospect.
Prescription:
The good ones deserve our time and effort. The rest should be dumped like a bad habit. Every prospect must pass the first qualifying hurdle, or you must disengage quickly. There are definite warning signs, and fortunately, they show up early in the process and are easily recognizable, if you know what you’re looking for. If you can’t answer positively to these five quick qualifying questions, your continued efforts with the prospect probably are not worthwhile. Here they are…
- Is the prospect friendly?
- Will the prospect answer your questions?
- Does the prospect know what he wants?
- Does he want it in a relatively short time frame?
- Will the prospect work with you on an exclusive or relatively exclusive basis?
If you’re getting a bunch of negative answers to the above, it is probably time to say “Adios” and move on. Here’s a nice way to do it. “I don’t think we’ll be able to help you. Generally the folks we work with are…(tell it like it is). Would you like me to make a suggestion as to a company that might be better suited to your needs?” (Send him to your competitor and let him deal with the problem.)