Trust, But Verify

During the Cold War, President Ronald Reagan used the slogan "trust, but verify" when describing his policy toward the Soviet Union. And this is the same slogan that sales reps need to keep in mind when qualifying and disqualifying sales opportunities.

Sellers need to adopt a similar standard. Trust is critical when dealing with prospective customers, but blind trust can be expensive. Therefore, a careful verifications process is essential.

Do you know which prospects are genuinely worthy of your time, effort, and resources? It is one of the essential questions in B2B sales. Get it right, and you are hitting your numbers—everybody's happy. Get it wrong, conversation numbers suffer, and you're not hitting your revenue goals.

The prospect's actions are better progress indicators than the prospect's words and promises.

We all know that actions speak louder than words. And sometimes, inaction speaks louder than both of them.

If sellers only focus on the prospect's words and promises, they'll miss what they need to do at each stage of the selling process to move the deal forward and show they are worthy of the seller's time and effort.

For example, prospects need to make themselves available to attend meetings and share information, respond to your requests, introduce you to other decision-makers and stakeholders, participate in demos and presentations, and display that they recognize the value you offer.

To avoid surprises, ask yourself, "What has the prospect?done, and what do they need to?do?next to express they are genuinely committed to becoming a client?"

Healthy skepticism. It's the seller's way to trust but verify.

Healthy skepticism enables sellers to eliminate complacency, guessing, and making false assumptions. It's the catalyst for asking probing questions to uncover the prospect's real intentions, and it's a time management (self-management) tool. Finally, it's the bedrock of the seller's verification mindset to avoid undesirable results.

A healthy dose of skepticism is a far cry from having a pessimistic outlook on life. Pessimists tend to see the worst aspect of things or believe that the worst will happen. Instead, practicing healthy skepticism enables you to have far more productive relationships with buyers because they are built on trust, transparency, and a collaborative win-win outcome.

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