No decision outcomes are frustrating and costly for salespeople. They happen when prospects fail to commit to a clear next step or a final purchase after a long sales cycle. In this article, you'll learn what are the common causes of no decision outcomes and how to prevent them in inside sales.
One of the main reasons why prospects don't make a decision is because they don't feel a strong enough pain or need for your solution. They may be satisfied with the status quo, have other priorities, or not see the value of your offer. To avoid this, you need to create urgency in your sales conversations. You can do this by asking probing questions, uncovering their challenges and goals, quantifying the impact of their problems, and showing them how your solution can help them achieve their desired outcomes faster and easier.
Without urgency, your prospects will make a decision on their timeline. You can throw anything their way (deeper discounts, additional features, exciting customer reviews, etc.), but until they connect your product/service with a need they have that is recent, they will be at a standstill. Qualification at the beginning is huge, and this can measured in a few ways. Some questions I pose are "Why did you decide to meet with me?", "What sparked your interest in our product?", "What improvements do you want to see in your company/process?", "How has this impacted the business (qualitative and quantitative)?", etc. These can generate real conversations with your POC and humanize the meeting.
People buy based on emotion and use the data to rationalize their purchase. Establish urgency early in your conversations by creating an emotional connection to your product or service. Use feeling words instead of thought words in your qualification conversation. Questions and statements need to be reminders of their pain and compel them to want to be rid of it. Here are some examples: "Tell me about your frustrations with your current process or product?" "How do you feel this harms your and the dept/company's overall performance?" "What kind of relief will everyone experience once you've resolved this issue?"
Another common cause of no decision outcomes is when you're talking to the wrong person. You may be dealing with someone who doesn't have the power or the budget to approve your proposal, or who needs to consult with other stakeholders before making a decision. To prevent this, you need to identify and engage the decision makers early in the sales process. You can do this by asking qualifying questions, mapping out the decision-making process, building rapport and trust with the influencers and gatekeepers, and providing them with relevant information and value propositions.
We have all been there, you are with someone who has been tasked to look into services but have little to no power. It's not easy, but you need to identify who needs to be involved and how you can help empower your champion. This will take a lot of pushing and taking your POC out of their comfort zone. I ask questions like "Are you leading this initiative?", "Who needs to be involved?", "How can I help you have these conversations internally?", "What will be important to them during the decision-making process?". I try to make myself a part of their standing leadership meeting or board meeting to provide my company the best shot of closing a deal.
Ensuring you are talking to the right person or persons involved in making a decision is a delicate subject. Position your questions in a complimentary manner. This ensures that you aren't implying your POC lacks authority, and actually encourages them to invite others. I like to use a few statements to set the table for the question to involve others. Saying things like, "Decisions like this have a broad reach." or "If you're like many people I work with, I'm sure that you solicit input from other people in your organization." Then I ease in the question like this, "During these conversations, more questions than answers usually arise, so how would you feel about inviting me to join that dialog to provide answers at the moment?"
A third reason why prospects don't make a decision is because they don't see how your solution is different or better than your competitors. They may be comparing multiple options, looking for the best deal, or not convinced of your unique selling proposition. To avoid this, you need to differentiate yourself and your solution in your sales pitch. You can do this by researching your prospects and your competitors, highlighting your strengths and benefits, addressing their objections and concerns, and creating a compelling offer that matches their needs and expectations.
When the conversations focus on price, this should alert you that you haven't differentiated your product/service from the crowd. You've become commoditized and lack specific value. To avoid this in your early conversations, focus your questions on the specific issues, the desired outcome, and what success in the acquisition feels like to the prospect. You don't have to have the best product. You only have to have the product best suited to fix your prospect's problems. The product/service that is perceived to be best suited to solve the prospect's specific problem is the one that will win the deal. Focus on the specific features that your product has that are suited to resolving that problem, and you will stand above the competition.
Differentiation is important, and it can help make the decision-making process easier on your POC. If I can re-surface the initial priorities of their initiative and map them to our solution, I have given myself a better shot at the deal. Questions I ask are "How do we stack up to what you have seen?", "Who accomplishes your objectives better?", "How can I make my product the vendor of choice?". Their responses to these will dictate how you proceed. We don't want to bash competitors, we want to focus on what we do best, how it's different and why it should be their choice.
A final cause of no decision outcomes is when you don't follow up effectively with your prospects. You may be sending generic or irrelevant messages, waiting too long to reach out, or not providing enough value or urgency in your communication. To prevent this, you need to follow up strategically and consistently with your prospects. You can do this by setting clear next steps and deadlines, sending personalized and value-added messages, using multiple channels and formats, and creating a sense of scarcity and exclusivity in your offer.
By understanding and addressing these common causes of no decision outcomes, you can increase your chances of closing more deals and reducing your sales cycle in inside sales.
Follow-up is one of the most powerful tools in a sales professional's arsenal. It needs to be tailored, timely and provide value. Before calling/emailing any account, I dig into the meeting notes to find why they were talking to me, what was important to them, pain points and what their next steps were. If it's not time for next steps, provide value where you can and content that relates directly to them. Keep your emails brief but still provide value to ensure you have the best chance of them reading your message. The idea is you stay at the fore-front, but are respectful of their process. Every company should have thought leadership and provide content for it's sales team to use as a resource.
The goal is to connect regularly enough to keep the process moving without being an annoyance. However, there are those times when it is necessary to be in more contact than others. To avoid being perceived as pesky or annoying, be thoughtful. This technique shouldn't be abused; however, it will buy you a pass for extra contact when needed. Review your conversation notes. Then reach out to your contact and open the conversation: "I keep thinking about what you said or asked regarding this and want to clarify a couple of things." You can easily transition from this into, "While I've got you, where are we on...?" No one likes to be bothered, but most people like to be thought about and have someone working on their behalf.