Stop drilling! You struck oil!

David Sandler said, "never get between your prospect and where you want them to go." He meant that traditionally trained salespeople tend to get between their prospect and the close like an overeager nightclub patron attempting to attract a member of the opposite sex.

Depending on how your salespeople are wired they miss out on striking oil in one of two ways.

Presentation Wiring

Salespeople who are wired for presentations believe that until they've reached the end of their PowerPoint deck their prospect won't be ready to buy.

Because these salespeople are "I-focused" instead of "prospect-focused" they aren't watching their prospect for clues that they are ready to buy so they "sell past the close," or to carry our analogy forward they keep drilling even after oil is gushing out of their well.

One of Sandler's foundational concepts is "you don't have to finish the presentation to close." Put another way, "sell today and educate tomorrow."

Coach your presentation wired salespeople to watch their prospect for buying signals and have the prospect guide their presentation by asking "where would you like to start?" then following that up with "why there?" and your salesperson will learn more and earn more.

Process Wiring

Salespeople who are process wired typically come from a technical background. Their process wiring trips them up when they have a prospect who comes to them ready to buy because the salesperson didn't walk their prospect through each step of their process so they take a "hot" prospect to "cold" by pulling their prospect back to "step 1" of their five step sales process when their prospect was already at step 4.5. Essentially they've pulled the drill out of the well when they had a hole pre-drilled to just above the oil reservoir.

Coach your process wired salespeople on Sandler's rule, "the bottom line of professional selling is going to the bank." While it is critical to take time to ask a hot prospect a few questions to ensure what they think they are buying and what they will actually get are the same thing, delaying or losing a sales opportunity because your salesperson feels compelled to start at step 1 won't grow your business or their wallet.

No matter how your salespeople are wired, coach them to be prospect-focused and they'll close more, more often.

Until next time... go lead.