In sales, the challenges preventing you from succeeding abound. Here are four more of them:
1. Obtaining the necessary investment
Let’s say you are, in fact, different. Suppose you can produce a better outcome for your dream clients. They want that outcome, but they would very much like to have everything they want for what they are paying now — or even less. They want better, faster and cheaper.
Your challenge: to help your dream clients make the investment necessary to produce the results they need. Much of the time, the reason your dream clients aren't producing the results they need is that they aren’t investing enough to get them.
2. Compelling action
One of the most frequent challenges I hear from salespeople is that they "want to be more compelling." What they mean is that they're struggling to get their prospects to act on the solutions they sell. Their prospects drag their feet, don’t return calls and go a long time without making a decision one way or another. But this is the manifestation of the problem, not the root cause.
Your challenge: to control the process so you can move forward smoothly, while also focusing on what your prospects gain (and lose) by not taking action now.
3. Gaining commitments
Around the world, there are sales pipelines full of opportunities that are missing the commitments necessary to move those opportunities forward. These prospects are going without the better results they need, the sales organizations are going without the results that they need, and the salespeople are going without the commissions they need.
Your challenge: to gain the commitments necessary to move your opportunity forward before you leave a sales interaction. You have to know what you need (consult your sales process) and you need effective language to ask for it (consult your playbook).
4. Dealing with difficult personality types
I've written about nightmare clients in the past. If you're a human being — working in sales or elsewhere — you've encountered difficult personalities. You'll need some of these people to move your opportunity forward (and some of them may be your clients).
Your challenge: to find a way to work with difficult people. You need to find a way to work with their personalities (instead of against them) so you can avoid additional conflict.
In sales, you face a myriad of challenges. But that doesn't mean they can't be overcome.
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