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Managing Expectations is a Key to Success in Sales (and Life)
blog.jbarrows.com
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Me: Thanks for your time and insight today. I’m looking forward to the next steps. I had a quick question for you. As we go through this process if it’s pretty evident to you at some point that we’re not a great fit for what you’re looking for, are you ok with telling me no? ““No” is the second best answer in sales. No response at all or “maybes” are the worst.” 3. Be Sure to Set Priorities and a Reasonable Timeline
It usually goes something like this: “Me: What’s the best way to communicate with you moving forward? Email, text, cell?” With this approach, if they don’t respond in 7 days then I can remind them what we agreed to on day 8. That is being direct without being rude.
This is the worst. You go through the whole sales process with someone and when they don’t want to tell you “no,” they avoid you or just keep stringing you along because “you’re telling me there’s a chance!?” The way I try to set expectations with people and avoid this without being rude is to ask them early in the sales process if they are ok telling me “no.” I ask this question at the end of an initial qualification call and it usually goes something like this: “Me: Thanks for your time and insight today. I’m looking forward to the next steps. I had a quick question for you. As we go through this process if it’s pretty evident to you at some point that we’re not a great fit for what you’re looking for, are you ok with telling me no?” This sounds like a stupid question with an obvious answer but I still ask it because I want to set the expectation with them that I am 100% ok with them telling me no. “No” is the second best answer in sales. No response at all or “maybes” are the worst.
This is the worst. You go through the whole sales process with someone and when they don’t want to tell you “no,” they avoid you or just keep stringing you along because “you’re telling me there’s a chance!?” The way I try to set expectations with people and avoid this without being rude is to ask them early in the sales process if they are ok telling me “no.” I ask this question at the end of an initial qualification call and it usually goes something like this: “Me: Thanks for your time and insight today. I’m looking forward to the next steps. I had a quick question for you. As we go through this process if it’s pretty evident to you at some point that we’re not a great fit for what you’re looking for, are you ok with telling me no?” This sounds like a stupid question with an obvious answer but I still ask it because I want to set the expectation with them that I am 100% ok with them telling me no. “No” is the second best answer in sales. No response at all or “maybes” are the worst.
Me: What’s the best way to communicate with you moving forward? Email, text, cell? Client: Email. Me: Great. As we go through this process together I promise you if you need something from me I’ll get back to you within 24 hours. What should I expect from you? 24 hours, 48 hours, 1 week? Me: The reason I ask is because I don’t want to be the annoying sales guy. If you tell me a week is a reasonable amount of time to expect a response from you then I will wait a week. “With this approach, if they don’t respond in 7 days then I can remind them what we agreed to on day 8. That is being direct without being rude.” 2. Avoid a “Maybe” or No Response From Your Prospects
3. Be Sure to Set Priorities and a Reasonable Timeline “If they end up going dark on you or missing a deadline, then you can just send them the summary e-mail that they confirmed and ask for time on their calendar to reset expectations.” Hopefully, those examples contextualize what I mean about how important expectation setting is and being direct without being rude. These approaches take some time getting used to if you’re not doing them already. Give some of them a try and let me know how they work out.
It usually goes something like this: “Me: Great. As we go through this process together I promise you if you need something from me I’ll get back to you within 24 hours. What should I expect from you? 24 hours, 48 hours, 1 week?” With this approach, if they don’t respond in 7 days then I can remind them what we agreed to on day 8. That is being direct without being rude.