Indecisive, stalling prospects can be frustrating, especially when they have every reason to buy your product or service, but fail to do so for no good reason.
While there are no easy answers when dealing with this type, Ted Barrows, sales consultant, offers the following tips to share with your salespeople:
- Patience is key to dealing with indecisiveness. Try to identify real product concerns from those based on insecurity.
- Avoid pushing for a close where there’s clear resistance. It’s a better strategy to stop and reevaluate rather than pushing yourself right out of consideration. Try to ask questions to find out the source of the resistance.
- Focus on measurable results. Customers want to buy solutions to problems. They want to buy security, convenience, financial gain, grater productivity, etc. They’re not interested in merely buying products or services.
- Focus on what customers want, not on what you want to sell. If the prospect doesn’t believe that the purchase is going to represent a personal win, there’s little chance of a sale.
- Create urgency. Use questions to reason for the prospect’s indecisiveness. When prospects answer such questions and identify their reasons for not making a positive decision, you have an opportunity to deal with what’s holding them back.
- Use a direct approach. It’s usually better to take a direct approach with indecisive prospects. A simple question such as, “What if we went this way as our next step?” may help them make a decision.
