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Why Timing Is Everything in Sales

Sales

Yogi Berra once said, “You don’t have to swing hard to hit a home run. If you got the timing, it’ll go.” Just like baseball, sales timing can make your selling much easier.

Are they ready to buy?

Nothing makes selling harder than when you are talking with prospects who are not ready to buy. How do you know they aren’t ready? They won’t buy if they are unaware of a need to make a purchase.

Imagine you sell home alarm systems. Think about which prospect you would prefer to sell to because they recognized the need for a home alarm. Would you prefer the homeowner who had just been robbed or someone who never had been and didn’t know anyone who had been robbed?

I’ll bet it’s the person who recognized the need, even though it was too late.

A lack of customer awareness dictates your selling strategy. Your job is to help a prospect become aware of the need. Your strategy would be educating prospects with a lack of awareness about security needs. You could ask about their need for peace of mind if they had children home alone after school. You could show prospects police statistics in their neighborhood. Your prospects might be unaware of the need for a home alarm system.

Are they able to buy?

Your prospects may not be able to buy even though they may want and need your services. How can that be? Maybe you missed their budget cycle and there’s no way they can buy until next year. Or perhaps, even worse, is they just bought from a competitor a short time ago. They might be unwilling to admit they made a mistake and switch suppliers.

Missing a sale is worse than losing a sale—at least you’re given a chance when you lose a sale. You don’t even have a chance when you miss a sale.

What can you do now? You need to clearly identify “drivers,” something that causes you and your products or services to be needed. These drivers should be unique to your business. An example of a driver could be someone with a new baby in the family. This family might need photography work, insurance products, or a new home.

If you were thinking that all you need for sales success is hard work, you’re wrong. But good sales timing will allow your sales to take off.

Profile: Maura Schreier-Fleming

Maura Schreier-Fleming is president of Best@Selling, a sales training and sales consulting company. She works with business and sales professionals to increase sales and earn larger profits. She is the author of Real-World Selling for Out-of-this-World Results and Monday Morning Sales Tips. Maura focuses on sales strategies and tactics that lead to better sales results. Maura is a sales expert for WomenSalesPros. She is part of their group of top sales experts who inspire, educate, and develop salespeople and sales teams.She speaks internationally on influence, selling skills, and strategic selling at trade association and sales meetings, demonstrating how her principles can be applied to get results. She successfully worked for over 20 years in the male-dominated oil industry with two major corporations, beginning at Mobil Oil and ending at Chevron Corp. She was Mobil Oil’s first female lubrication engineer in the U.S. and was one of Chevron’s top five salespeople in the U.S. having sold over $9 million annually. Maura writes several columns to share her sales philosophies. She's been quoted in the New York Times, Selling Power, and Entrepreneur.