Black Sales Journal

I had a meeting with a buyer to discuss adding another line of business to his account.  I felt that I could save him money, and I felt I could make some money for my company and me as well.  He was always an easy person to talk to, and I measured my relationship with him at to be at the highest level.  As his need for the product was high, this might just be a matter of timing.  He was accepting proposals from three vendors in total.

I went to him, presented a ‘death grip’ (a proposal that had price and product that could not be denied) and his response was, “I am going to stay where I am on this one.  You price is good, and I like your organization, but maybe next time.

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Almost every business relationship has a limit, and it is usually because of the trust factor.  When the requisite level of trust is absent, the resulting trust deficit might be based on the sales professional, and in many cases, it will be based on the company that sales professional represents. Either way it ‘stops’ the sales process in a way that does not result in any revenue changing hands.

In the case above, the buyer did not have enough confidence in either me, or my organization, to let money change hands.  Obviously this was a learning situation for me.

The Trust Deficit

“Every sale has five basic obstacles: no need, no money, no hurry, no desire, no trust.”

Zig Ziglar

No one wants to think that they are not trusted, but usually this is not personal …this is business!  You have not necessarily done any wrong, but you may still have work to do getting rid of the trust deficit

This obstacle is seldom meant to beckon that you aren’t trustworthy, it is meant to show the relationship is not as solid and intimate as you thought.  You can overcome this lack of trust, and should not take it personally.

Are You At a Disadvantage?

Black sales professionals you should assume they are at a disadvantage until it is proven otherwise.   Let me explain that.  Being at a disadvantage means that you have work to do.  Assume you do not have all of the trust necessary to close the deal, but the good part is that you are in the game.

Trust is an essential factor to consummate a business relationship, and the raw truth is that when you are Black or another minority, you need to work continuously to make sure that trust is present as you may be lacking one of the most important aspects of a positive business relationship, something I call preference.  If you will remember from earlier of issues of Black Sales Journal, specificallyBSJ 12/27/2010 Preference, Prejudice, and Perceptions and Your Customer, and BSJ 12/12/2011 Racial Preference in Action to name an important few, preference is important.  It is at the top, and the bottom, of any business relationship.

Preference is ‘socially’ legal.  Preference is still different from “racial preference” as you will see if you read the above articles.  Racial preference is vexing, and is everything wrong with business.  Racial preference is racial prejudice!

I will speak more on this important item in a moment.

Building Trust

How do you get the trust you need.  How do you generate the most complete relationship?  Well, I am going to point you in the direction of a couple of in-depth articles on building the trustful relationship between you and the customer:

Black Sales Journal 7/11/2011- Deepening Your Customer Relationships – The Holy Grail for the Black Sales Professional

Read this to know how to construct and maintain the strongest relationships.  Remember, relationships are everything.

Black Sales Journal 1/20/2011 – Deepening Your Customer Relationships Part 2

Read this one to gain access to a simple customer profile that you can change as you see necessary, and other tools to help you record and recognize the relationship and its strength.

The Role of Racial Preference

Racial preference is essentially racial prejudice, and there is frankly no other way to state it.  Are you at a disadvantage?  The answer is ‘possibly’.

We need to face the fact that there are many buyers who could care less about your color, and believe in fairness.  Many more believe that they do, but are affected by forces that they don’t even recognize.

That is the nature of racial prejudice.  It is easily hidden from view, and with that in mind I suggest you always assume you are at a disadvantage.

Read about it in the articles I cite, you will recognize it, and learn to make the proper assumptions.

Relationship Building 101

Build a relationship for all of the reasons cited in these posts, and put your energy and resources toward making sure that you cement together a solid, enduring relationship founded in trust.  Deliver on your promises and commitments and you will create the underpinnings of a trusting relationship.

Ask the customer how you are doing…get meaningful feedback from this important relationship.  More in Black Sales Journal 3/12/2012, Ask Your Customer for Feedback.  You will be amazed at how the customer begins to start to develop an affinity for you if you will put yourself on the line like this.

Be the best at what you do, and remember you cannot win without your customer’s trust, and relationships are everything.

Your comments are appreciated.

2012 is still going, but as we enter October it is obvious that you have just under three months to make goals, and possibly save your job, or make additional gains which might also give you a financial boost.

You almost want to tell your prospect or customer: “It’s the Fourth Quarter, Do You Want to Buy or Not?!!!!”

Three months is far from an eternity, but it is enough time to make some things happen.

It is a tough economy out there so some customers are not making decisions with the timeliness that you might need, but that is the way that the last quarter goes.  I am going to pose some basic actions that might make it more clear what your opportunities are, and maybe even help give results when you need them most.

It’s Not Now or Never – But Now Would Be Better!

I once was buying for a large social service organization.  Having had a sales background I marveled at how many of the sales professionals (some more professional than others) tried to get me ‘off the dime’.  In many cases they did not realize some of my limitations, such as the funding cycles of a not-for-profit.

As a buyer, and as a sales professional and sales manager, I recognize that the more you know about your customer, and their liberties or limitations, the better you are.  Remember as well that everything pivots off of the relationship.  If you have a strong durable relationship, you can approach topics that others might find more difficult.

Stay in front of your buyer – But with a purpose! – Face-to-face is the always the best way to put the gentle pressure on to close a deal.  For customers who appear slow to make a decision you will want to set-up last quarter meetings to discuss any number of items (customer satisfaction, upcoming year needs, recaps of services during the current year, etc.).  If you set up these meetings at mid-year, it puts you in front of the client at a crucial time…decision time.

Use tact and probes to determine objections. – This is no time to ‘jelly foot’ around.  You need to use your probing and interview skills to determine why you can’t close this one.  Be tactful and direct in determining what the objections are, and realize that getting to the bottom of this is easier than finding a new prospect.  Something is keeping the customer from making a decision; your job is to make sure that it is not some aspect of your product, organization, or you.  If you don’t have the right product-price combination, get your customer to tell you without negotiating against your own organization by cutting the price before you know if that is the problem.

Add something of value! Move to close. – I am not into ‘smoke and mirrors’, but you may have to find something that has either service or economic value, and ‘sweeten the pot’.  You can’t let the offers hang out there indefinitely, but you probably don’t want to retract them.  A suggestion is that you can try adding  things to the offers for a limited time.  Make sure it is something that you can afford to give, and remember that you should be able to put some value on it, because if you cannot, your customer will assume it is of little value.  An example would be, a financial products sales professional indicating telling the customer that if he/she consummates the deal that in the months of November or December that they will receive a retirement planning session for free.

Keep Score

Nothing is worse than believing in the unbelievable.  Make a list of your prospects/customers that owe you answers and grade them.  Just being honest with yourself is worth bundles.  Spend your time making the most probable ones happen, and move down the list from there.

Don’t leave stones unturned and questions unanswered. Tie up the loose ends and by all means, be the professional.

Your comments are welcome.