august2023 - 38

GO SELL SOMETHING
The dangers
of prequalifying
If you go into a sale smiling, prepared, and expecting positive
results, more often than not you will get what you've planned for.
Unfortunately, the opposite is also true.
By Alan Sipe, Contributing Editor
T
here is an old story about a
lonely traveler who comes
to the crest of a hill overlooking
a small village. The traveler asks
an old man sitting by the side of the
road " What are the people like in this
village? " The old man says that this
is a wonderful town, and the people
are great. So, the traveler put on his
happy face and headed into town. A
week later the not-so-lonely traveler,
sees the old man and says, " You were
right. The people are great, and I will
settle down here. "
The next day another traveler sees a
different old man outside the same village
and asks what the people are like
in this town. This old man says this
place is terrible, so be careful. They are
mean and will rob you blind. This traveler
puts his head down, gets a gruff
look on his face, and slinks into town.
Two days later the second traveler is
seen running from the village yelling
that, " Yes, this village is awful. "
Same town, same people, same
opportunity for friendship - except
traveler number one went in smiling,
looking for happiness and friendship
and traveler number two went in
expecting the exact opposite.
Sales calls are no different.
KEEPING AN OPEN MIND
Have you heard about the brand-new
mobile jobber who was visiting their
assigned customer accounts for the first
time? The new mobile jobber was all
fired-up and excited to get selling. They
had the perfect positive mental attitude.
They were making these calls with
their district manager (DM) who was
well aware of and had an opinion about
all the customers in this particular area.
As they made their sales calls on
that first field day the DM would help
the new mobile jobber prepare for each
call with samples, literature, an opinion
of each facility, and sometimes a comment
or two about the individuals in
that shop.
The opinions ranged from, " This
is a great shop with lots of good customers, "
or unfortunately, " This shop
has a negative vibe going on, and we've
never done well here. " And some precall
opinions were really negative like
" This shop has nothing but deadbeats
and payment skippers, so let's be careful
who we sell to here. "
In reality, this DM has set precall
expectations in the new mobile's
mind before they even walked in the
door. This is beyond terrible sales
training and hopefully, this DM will
not be in their position long. The DM
effectively killed off the new mobile's
positive mental attitude little by little
with every negative customer review.
Prequalifying a sales call whether
positively or negatively is setting yourself
up for failure in so many ways.
38 Professional Distributor I August 2023 I VehicleServicePros.com
POSITIVE PREQUALIFICATION
If you walk in the door overconfidently
you risk making mistakes that can cost
you this sale and maybe even the customer
to the competition.
For example, you're heading to see
a customer who you like, and they have
always supported you. You're going to
be presenting something big and walking
in the door, you are sure you have
a lock on this order. In fact, you are so
sure of yourself that you have not totally
thought through the demonstration.
You're not up to snuff with the features
and benefits of the product, you're not
set with the pricing scenarios, and you
haven't really thought through the closing
technique that will fit this situation
and this customer the best.
So, you walk in, less than perfectly
prepared, thinking this is going to be a
successful slam-dunk sale and the event
goes downhill quickly. The prospect is
expecting a first-class presentation
and is disappointed with your casualness
from the start. They are asking you
questions that would have been easy to
answer had you prepared correctly but
instead you fumble around looking
for the answers. These questions and
objections could have been answered
in a professional feature, advantage,
benefit presentation, but now you have
dropped the ball. This customer was
looking forward to making this big
purchase and they had planned to buy
http://www.VehicleServicePros.com
august2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of august2023
