Question

Topic: Strategy

Obstacle To Closing Sales

Posted by Anonymous on 10/8/2004 at 7:54 PM ET 125 Points
I sell a unique, web based software program that is used by salespeople in specific industries. These industries are not big users of technology. I have a recurring obstacle that I would like some help with. In my sales pitch, I stress the benefits of our product, the ease of use, etc. In 99% of the potential clients, I get a very positive response, but in the close, often find myself up against the excuse that they are in the middle of a software conversion or installation and they don’t want to entertain anything new until the present project is complete. In most cases, it is an enterprise back office solution. Occasionally, it is a website that they are unable to complete. In no cases, is the project they are doing directly related to our product or would really impact the implementation of our solution. Furthermore, our product does not require any significant time to implement or to begin receiving benefits. The clients I am selling to are sales managers or CEOs and not directly involved with the IT effort, but nonetheless, are resistant to adding what they mistakenly believe is an added burden on their staff.

What can I do to overcome this obstacle?
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by Chris Blackman on 10/8/2004 at 9:34 PM Member
    I agree with a lot of what Olivier says. Sales people love buying stuff. They love the whole process. They love hearing how someone pitches, and yes, they do play games with the sales person.

    Having said that, what business has a "software buyer" other than the IT Dept?

    That buying is fragmented across the potential user base. How often here have we told people here to bypass the IT manager and go straight to the business user who will benefit from the product?

    So question is, who benefits? Sales? Finance? Manufacturing?

    The answer is probably Sales and another department.

    So the best bet is to keep the sales person under control and get a second person from the other department that will benefit involved too.

    You have to decide whom that person is. You know the product. Who else do you think would benefit from the sames person using this product?

    That way, you can keep the process on track, and the sales person won't play games in front of a colleague who might see them as being pedantic or wasting time.

    Then, make sure you address et3dotcom's very sensible suggestions upfront by explaining this product requires no IT support, is fully intuitive so it requires no training, all they do is install and use... And that problem should be nailed, too.

    Hope this helps.

    ChrisB
  • Posted by Chris Blackman on 10/8/2004 at 9:40 PM Accepted
    I just realized this is a web-based product... So you could sell it as a SERVICE not a product... They aren't buying something that needs support and maintenance, this is like renting a list or subscribing to a magazine or tender watching service.

    Those points are true if there is nothing to install on the users machine. If everything they need is done via the browser and associated plug-ins, you should be emphasizing this as a service, not a product, and all the other stuff the IT dept is doing will become insignificant.

    Hope this helps even more!

    ChrisB
  • Posted by ReadCopy on 10/9/2004 at 5:17 AM Member
    There is a key rule in selling that I think your missing, that is to ensure that your Prospect is properly Qualified!

    Part of the qualification process will need to be ... "when will your prospect be ready to install your software", if its within the next 6 months then qualify them "in", if its 6 months plus, you still need to manage them through the funnel, via marketing techniques, but you do not really want any F2F sales contact, as that is too costly.

    Good Luck
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