The Secret to a Smoother Sales Process? Anticipating the Unexpected

In a recent blog post titled Stop It Before It Sticks on the Resource Skills Management blog, the author writes, "When the road department hears that snow and ice are predicted, they use the saying 'stop it before it sticks' and pretreat bridges and overpasses before the storm. They don’t wait until roads become impassable before they act."

If you think about it, sales has its own pretreatment strategies. There's a lot you can do to prevent problems in sales, and at the same time, you can avoid many problems as well.

Set up expectations

All too often, customers think they know what to expect from you, but end up expecting something unrealistic. Your job should be to tell your customers what to expect so they are not disappointed.

What sorts of things come to mind? You should explain when to expect deliveries or go over product performance expectations. Just remember to under promise and over deliver.

Recognize when you are vulnerable

Any time there is a change in management or your key contact leaves, you are vulnerable. At this point it’s too late to begin the process of earning your business. However, you can demonstrate to your new contacts why they should keep your business. This means you need to determine what you can do for your customer to reduce their costs or add to their bottom line.

I was able to keep a key piece of business because I recognized this vulnerability. My principle contact left the company and I met the new senior manager at my next appointment. Imagine my surprise when I walked into his office. He was tilted back in his leather executive chair wearing cowboy boots. How did I know? He had his feet up on his desk. His first words to me were, “I’m your worst nightmare. I don’t know you, I don’t know your products, and I’m not loyal.”

Wow. Of course, he was right. I immediately asked him if he had reviewed the file on my company and my ongoing work with his employees. He hadn’t. This was no surprise. I quickly showed him the new savings reports I had prepared which documented the cost savings I had delivered the previous year to his company. He was pleasantly surprised. He was a tough customer and had I not demonstrated that I was earning his business, I would have been vulnerable and lost that large piece of business.

Know your competition

Good competition keeps everyone on their toes, and so does weak competition, but for different reasons. You probably have competitors who have real strengths, and you respect them for it. You work hard to earn your customers’ business just like your strong competitors do.

I’ve also had competitors who were only too happy to dispense misleading information about my company to prospects and customers. You can’t let these weak competitors like these steal your business. You need to know what they're saying about you so you can proactively counter any misinformation that's been said to your prospects.

Don’t be afraid to clarify any misinformation. Be proactive and say, “You may have heard [the misinformation].” Then discuss why it’s false.

Know your problems

Just as the road department knows that snow causes traffic problems, you have to know what causes problems for your customers. Obvious problems are delivery delays, billing errors, or products that are off spec. Think about other issues that may arise and cause your customers to experience problems. Do you know areas that are critical to their operation? How does your product or service impact those critical areas?

Now is the time to figure out what can go wrong with your business. Just like the road department is ready for problems, you can be too.