Why Making Assumptions About Potential Customers Is Not Helping You Sell

Too many salespeople love making assumptions about potential customers who they have never spoken with. I've been there myself many times.?

"But they will probably say no."?????????????????????????????????????????????

"They are probably using a better product."??????????????????????????????????????????????

"Their company is too big and complex to manage change."???????????????????????????????

"They already have in-house solutions and won't be open to discussing any other (put your solution here.)??????????????????????????????????????????????????????

"Their procurement people are known to be a nightmare."????????????????????????????

"It looks like a men's/women's club. Probably not open to talking with a woman/man."

Of course we need to qualify well, be realistic and get our customer persona right. But the above conversations are a self-protection mentality. One that will never give us any revenue or business growth.

If we truly believe that our product/service can make an impact in someone's day, life, career, relationship, stress levels, income, etc, then it’s our responsibility to educate as many people about it.?

It's up to them to say yes, maybe, or no.

So rather than make assumptions, why not enter a conversation by being curious? Make the conversation about what you can learn, and teach, rather than an outcome. During this conversation, we can learn so much. They might tell us about the decision making process in a company of their size, what struggles they are currently facing and what goals they may have. Whether we sell or not, this information is vital, as it helps us build on our customer persona. This information will help us enter more conversations with better insights about similar industries and job roles. Also, this allows us to create awareness about how we can help, as well as build a bit of a relationship. Perhaps things might change down the road. Who knows, this specific decision maker might make a move to a different organisation that's in a mess, and needs our products or services.?

I know that this has been my experience many times. This is the usual scenario; a decision maker wants my sales training, but didn't have the budget, or had their own generalist L&D internal sales training, or simply there were too many other people that were resistant to making a purchase. Once this person moved to a different organisation, within the first 3 months, I was contacted to discuss sales training at their new company.?

But what if I never had those conversations because of the assumptions I was making. I would have never landed several of the gigs that I did later on down the road.?

What assumptions are you normally telling yourself before picking up the phone to call a lead or potential customer? Be sure to be aware of that story, change it, and you may see so many opportunities opening up for you.

Are you a sales leader looking to boost your sales team's performance and enhance their sales techniques? Schedule a quick 15-minute chat to explore how we can support you in achieving your goals. No strings attached, just a friendly chat to see how we can collaborate and help you drive sales success.?