CUSTOMER PERCEPTION
Disregarding industry, every single person who works in a commercial position deals with how the potential customer perceives the product or services, the company, the person talking... When we are promoting, selling, evangelizing we must inevitably face the client perception and preconceived ideas (and prejudices), whether those are positive and they will welcome you, or even if they are negative. In these two extremes, your reaction should be clear: When perception is positive, you move on with the sales cycle, right? And when the reaction is negative, then you know you must back off and let it go.
However, in many cases things aren't so clear. Some clients will react as having a very positive perception but never buy. Why is that happening? If they like it and they say they would need it, why they do not buy? There could be a bunch of reasons why, like you never talked to the right authority or they had no budget. Then it is obvious your opportunity was not properly qualified. One of the most tricky reason is when the client perceives your offer positively but they think it is a nice-to-have, not a must.
So they though your product or service is excellent, they like you and they like your company and approach, they can pay for it, and you are talking to the decision maker who can close the deal. But the closing never comes because they do not think they need it so much. It does not matter how much you can explain they will improve, you can insist in all its benefits, but for as long as your prospect believes it is not absolutely necessary, there will be no way of getting the order or budget signed in. Once you have identified this reason, it is better to stop insisting and change strategy. You cannot convince someone who does not even listen. Then, what can be done to help change the perception of the client from “this is nice to have, but I don't need it right now” to “I need this now, I will sign the order today”?
You can try with magic and religion, but the only way you can effectively do something about it is look for influencers. Who is she or he looking up to? Who is their mentor or raw model for business? When you find this out, you will have a powerful tool, that if you manage well, it will lead you to closed deal in short time. Influencers are those people who can be at the same level, above and even just below them (“right hands”). Talk to these people and find out what they think about your offer. Then you can evaluate it against previous information.
In the best case scenario, an influencer could even do the work for you and close the deal internally, especially when they are convinced your product/service is a must have. Their influence to the decision-maker will result in a reconsideration of your offer and they will call you back soon to ask you to adjust the offer or to comment payment terms. They key is to play the influencer game, though within some professional ethics, in order to change the perception of your client. Just remember, if they have budget, authority and need, timing is always short.
If you want to improve your skills on strategic sales and negotiations, or if you want to learn how to influence the influencer, we can coach you at IBCC to be successful. Just contact us and we can have a Skype call to exchange some impressions.
