Who’s taking responsibility?

Surely your inability to close the deal can’t all be the buyer’s fault.

With all the laws on the books these days, you’d think they’d have one smart one for taking responsibility.

Wouldn’t it be cool if politicians weren’t allowed to blame anybody else, and had to take full responsibility for their own actions and results?

Well, the same is true in sales.

I’m pretty sick of salespeople still telling me, ‘the guy said he wasn’t interested’ or ‘the guy is happy with his present supplier’ or ‘the guy won’t set an appointment with me’ and, my all-time favourite, ‘the guy wouldn’t return my call’.

All those excuses seem kind of lame don’t they? Wait … are they lame, or are they excuses for poor salesmanship, poor preparation, lack of ability to transfer a passionate message, lack of belief in your own product or company, lack of perceived value, inability to differentiate yourself from your competitor, and most important, lack of proof?

Whether you’re in politics or sales, the burden is the same – take responsibility for all that happens. And if it’s not happening in the best way possible, take responsibility to make it happen in a better way.

Let’s take a look at the real reasons someone won’t return your call to help you understand the difference between blaming and taking responsibility.

1. The message you left had no value.

2. The customer has no intention of buying from you and just doesn’t want to tell you.

3. The customer is not ready to buy yet and was too busy with their stuff to deal with you and your stuff.

4. The customer does not consider you a value provider, and is out there looking for one.

5. The customer does not perceive you as being genuine.

6. You are unaware of the customer’s motive to buy, and as a result have a hard time perceiving what their urgency is. Better stated: you don’t know why or when they intend to purchase.

7. The customer is still shopping.

8. You failed to connect emotionally or intellectually with the customer, and they would rather not do business with you.

9. You failed to offer enough proof to eliminate risk and create peace of mind.

9.5 The customer has decided to buy from someone else and feels no sense of obligation to inform you of their decision.

Those are accurate descriptions of some of the real reasons why. ‘The guy would not return my call’ is not a problem, it’s a symptom. Why the guy would not return my call is the issue. If I can find out why, and correct it, then more if not all of my calls will begin to be returned.

Three new ways of thinking

• I’m going to uncover my customer’s intentions and motives for purchase.

• I’m going to share with him or her how they produce more and profit more after purchase.

• I’m going to bring in several of our existing customers who will do video testimonials to corroborate my claims.

For the past 100 years, salespeople and sales trainers have conveniently called reasons for not buying or not communicating ‘objections’, thereby shifting the blame to the customer.

In reality, here are no objections.

There are barriers. There are symptoms. There are circumstances. But there are no objections. And all of those barriers, symptoms, and circumstances would disappear if the salesperson takes responsibility, studies the outcome, and implements a better way.