FEAR CAUSES PROCRASTINATION
Peter Collins
Mentor ~ Coach ~ Acclaimed Author ~ Sales Strategist ~ Closing Specialist - High End Sales Trainer
(An extract from the Peter Collins Article Archive of over 3,000 Articles gathered from over 40 years of Sales Research).
FEAR CAUSES PROCRASTINATION
This is not just the number one reason for call reluctance, but also the number one indication that a problem is developing. Procrastination draws to it non-essential tasks. The more time these tasks take, the more productive time can be spent avoiding facing the client. In so many situations, procrastination results in missed opportunities, lost sales, and a chance for competitors to take over and sell the seller a number of reasons why they have decided not to buy. Yet invariably buy from a competitor a little while later – even if they buy an inferior product. That’s fact – see page ….. The Thesaurus provides these definitives to procrastination - hesitating, dawdling, delaying, loitering, waiting and lagging.
Dr Michael E. Bernard, author of "Procrastinate Later", tells us
"Do not be afraid of something that might not work out, but be confident of your ability to succeed. And if you approach your work replaying past experiences that were not successful, and your dialogue is filled with negative stuff such as "I'll never be able to do this; I'm hopeless at this; this is too hard, I shouldn't have to do it; this is unbearable", then what will be your chances when the going gets tough?"
Famous American philosopher Elbert Hubbard, put it a little better when he said "The greatest mistake you can make is to be afraid of making one." But perhaps the best solution to procrastination I have ever heard came from long-time friend and former Managing Director of mine, John Auciello. John ran Australia's largest direct sales in-home sales company.
"The best way I know to overcome procrastination is to book as many presentation calls as you can a day, every day - you will become too busy to think of anything else ... In no time your confidence level will rise and rebuild your enthusiasm in yourself and your product - it's your enthusiasm that gives you results. And if you're making money, you don't procrastinate."
On the other hand, salespeople that don’t do their job as effectively as they might, can also cause their prospects to procrastinate, simply because they were not as able to satisfy their prospects questions, or perhaps even those buying signals that were so vital to the sale being made.
When doing some additional research for this sector, I cam across these comments by Paulette Halpern. Although she has not been previously known to me, I like what she has to say about procrastination:
“A definition of procrastination is: Procrastination is a type of behaviour which is characterized by deferment of actions or tasks to a later time.
I look at sales people as 'change agents'. Their goal is to facilitate a prospect making a choice to use or buy something which they do not have (or are using) today. With anything there needs to be a good reason (problem to be resolved, or fear of a problem that prospect wants to avoid) for the change to happen or nothing will occur.
An important part of a sales person role is to make sure, what the buying reasons are, how important they 'really are' and if they truly are that important, to get a commitment up that if we find a solution that is fit, they will ACT. If we don't learn enough about the WHY behind the WHAT they 'seem to be interested in' we can't blame anyone buy ourselves, if the prospect procrastinates, and then often just 'disappears' without even saying "No.”
From a prospect’s point of view, delaying a buying decision can make good sense. Yet, in the majority of circumstances, the minute the seller creates a situation where the buyer in encouraged to procrastinate, and even allowed to avoiding making a worthwhile buying a decision is unacceptable behaviour on the part of the seller and the company they represent. All the seller has now done is made it difficult for other salespeople that follow, simply because the prospect was given the chance to accumulate more knowledge.
Over the years I too was invited to “explain and present” my products or services to those that had now invited two or three other competitors before me and were not making a decision until they had a “look” at a further three or four more. I later learned in a number of these instances the prospects didn’t purchase anything and stayed with what they already had. Yet, had the first salesperson did what the prospect expected of them, a sale most probably would have ensued.
It’s a crying shame situations like this are allowed to develop. Any professional salesperson knows the more information the client gathers, the more confused they tend to become as they become side-tracked from their original focus. More information, in a prospect’s hands, is generally not a good thing. The more they gather, the more they need to decipher and in a short space of time it can become too much.
#SalesTips, #Fear, #Procrastination, #ProfessionalSelling, #Success, #SalesSuccess, #CreateLastingSales, #Selling, #Sales, #ClosingSales, #PeterCollins, #PeterCollinsProfitMaker, #ProfitMakerSales, #ProfitMakerSales.com
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This Article is by Peter Collins - In a sales career spanning more than 50 years, Peter Collins has focused on helping and bringing out the best in others - whether it involves training or mentoring salespeople, managers, business consulting to SME’s. Since the 1970’s Peter has built a reputation as a Nationally and Internationally Published author, and of the 140 books he has written over the past 50 years, Peter has 70 Business Books to his credit, (but he is mainly known for one book based on the Audio Tape series of the same name, Over 50 Ways of Closing the Sale). Peter also has written 30 Christian books. One of Peter's books, sold almost 2 million copies in the late 1970's and is still selling well through second hand online marketers worldwide. In his personal life, Peter has been sought after as an encourager and motivator that has given of his time and talents freely despite his busy schedule. Subsequently, he has assisted churches, pastors, community and charity groups, as well as individuals through his teaching, training, development and on-going mentoring.
? Copyright Peter Collins, Profit Maker Sales, Sydney, Australia, 2002, 2007, 2011, 2015, 2017, 2019, all rights reserved.
Peter can be contacted through his website – profitmakersales.com
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