How to Create a Sense of Urgency
“How Do You Create Urgency to Get Prospects Off the Fence and Get Them to Buy Now?”
Sales people often try to create a sense of urgency at the end of the sales process. This causes a lot of stress and anxiety (mostly for the sales person) as they try to hit their end of month sales numbers.
The best way I was ever taught on how to create a sense of urgency was to in essence, have the prospect “set their own hair on fire”. Meaning, get them wanting to do the deal without delay.
Creating a True Sense of Urgency
Here’s what you’ll need to accomplish as you go step-by-step through your sales process for that to happen:
1) Recognize a Problem. If the sales process you are currently following (the sales questions you ask, when you ask them, how you ask them, why you ask them) isn’t getting both you and the prospect to see a problem, your prospect isn’t going to be very motivated to solve it.
2) Decision Making Authority. More than half of the sales deals I’m called to look at and advise on how to move it forward have an unauthorized person down as the decision maker. The sales rep failed to properly qualify the prospect as to their real role and authority in the decision making process.
3) Incentives. Or lack there of. If you are afraid of your own asking price, and left yourself with nothing else to offer, you won’t have any bargaining chips to make a deal happen.
If you have A) Problem Recognition between you and the prospect; B) You are speaking with someone that has real authority to say “yes or no” and C) Have left yourself a few incentive options in the bag… Say this to your prospect to see if you can get them to move sooner, rather than later:
Salesperson:
“Mr. prospect, if I had something else to offer to earn your business, if it was good enough, could we do business now?”
Prospect:
Depends… What are you offering?
Salesperson:
“I’d be happy to share it with you, but before I do, if the incentive is good enough, and you decide if it’s good enough, but if it is, can we do business now?”
If Your Prospect Says YES:
Sell your incentive and close the deal. Your incentive could be something extra (free upgrade, an extra seat / license, get 13 months of service for the price of 12 etc… Get creative) It’s always better to offer something in addition to, rather than lowering price.
If Your Prospect Says NO:
And you’ve properly confirmed they really are the decision maker, they like your solution and they can afford your solution but still won’t buy even with an incentive, you’re still in good shape because now you will be positioned to find out what is really holding them back. You may not get the deal when YOU want it, but at least you will uncover what the real stumbling block is without offering an incentive that wouldn’t work.
Last thing you want to do is offer an incentive when they aren’t in a position to close because they will want that incentive later on when they are able to move forward and you just short changed yourself for nothing.
– Michael Pedone
Michael Pedone teaches inside sales teams how to pick up the phone and close business. He is the CEO/FOUNDER of SalesBuzz.com – An online sales training company.
TIRED OF MAKING 100-DIALS A DAY?
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- Eliminate “No, Thanks”, “Not Interested” & “We’re All Set” Responses
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