You are on a roll, the prospect seems to picking up on your every word and you are mentally counting the commissions you’ll make after he inks the purchase agreement. Suddenly you realize that his response to your closing questions is all wrong. The prospect has no perceived urgency, his need wasn’t as strong as your initial research had shown and his company has neither the time nor the assets to purchase and implement your program . . . but they may have in the distant future. How do you exit gracefully and still maintain some semblance of a relationship for the future?

 

This is where an exit plan strategy will come to your rescue. Prior to any presentation appointment, in fact prior to ever making any sales calls, a professional salesperson should plan on how to get in the door, how to get recognition of the prospect’s need and the rep’s company’s answer to that need. They also need an exit strategy in case the prospect isn’t a prospect at present. A graceful exit; “It is apparent that your need for our product may be further in the future, what might be your timeline on implementing such a program?” The salesman has established that there is still interest, but there is recognition that it is a waste of time to go any farther with the presentation. He can leave and spend his time more productively, maybe calling on prospects he qualified a little better.

 

It is smart to bail out of a situation that show no prospect of producing new business, but how to avoid getting into one in the first place? Better qualification of sales leads, that’s one way of avoiding wasting time on unqualified prospects. There are a number of ways to assure you are calling on qualified potential customers.

·        Develop a profile of the current best customers

o       Their business segment

o       The title of the person who selected your product

o       How they implemented and use your product

o       What department uses your product

o       What are the results of using your product, how has it benefited the customer, qualitatively and quantitatively

o       Will they recommend your product to others

·        Develop a list of prospects with a similar profile

·        Make qualifying calls to see if there is a similar need and who makes the decision on which products to acquire

·        Make an appointment with the prospective decision-maker

·        Ask appropriate qualifying questions before beginning any presentation

·        Pitch and close, or exit gracefully

 

If all of this seems like a lot of work, it is, but it is necessary if a sales representative is going to spend his time productively. It has often been said of any professional task, that the planning is twice as long as the doing. For every hour you spend in front of customers, there is two hours of preparation. This formula holds true in nearly every professional endeavor, whether it is teaching, engineering, designing, marketing, production or sales.

 

One means of spending less time in the planning, qualifying, locating the decision-makers and setting up appointments, is to employ the services of a telesales outsourcing company. Many of the qualifying steps can be accomplished by the specialists from such a firm, freeing the salespeople to spend more time in the face-to-face contact with the pre-qualified prospects. The time spent will be more productive because the leads are provided by people who make a career of locating and screening prospective customers for a product or service.