I felt the need to intervene. “Can I ask a question?”
“Sure,” said the prospect.
“If you like the quote, what is the prospect of you placing an order in the next few weeks?”
“Oh, none at all,” he said. “The boss just wants to get an estimate. If it’s within reason, he’ll put it on the budget and do it sometime next year.”
“So,” I said, “you really don’t need a detailed proposal at this point, do you?”
“Not really. I just need a ballpark to give to the boss.”
I turned to the sales person. “What’s a ball park price?”
“$3500,” he said.
The prospect thanked us, and we were on our way.
Let’s consider what happened.
The sales person had never been trained in the basic sales competencies of asking good questions and qualifying the opportunity. Instead, he considered himself to be “a problem solver.” He looked for a problem and intended to solve it by creating a detailed quote. Of course, the prospect didn’t want or need that
quote.
If I had not intervened, the sales person would have gone back to the office, and spent several hours preparing the quote. He would have faxed it to the customer and considered himself to have done a fine job. At the end of the day, he would have thought of himself as a competent sales person, having put in a good day’s effort. His
manager would have seen the quote, added it to the list of potential business, and also considered it to be a good job, well done.
The truth was, of course, that the sales person didn’t have a clue. While he thought he was doing a good job, he totally misread and mishandled the situation...[Read More]
