Mind-Reading and Other Spectacular Sales Skills

Tenacity is an admirable quality in any salesperson. If the prospect doesn’t say “Yes” the first time you talk to them, then they might the second or third time, so the tenacious salesperson hangs in there, keeps calling and eventually, their tenacity pays off. Of course it does, otherwise why would they keep trying?

It’s well known, and the despair of Sales Managers the world over, that prospects will usually give you two or three NOs before you get a YES. The despair part kicks in when salespeople let the first NO stop them in their tracks. Why?  Because they don’t know what to say, or they take it personally. It’s a rejection and people don’t like being rejected so rather than risk getting another rejection, they walk away.

The NO, or in other words, the objection, which the prospect has sent your way seems reasonable. They don’t want to buy because what you’ve put on offer is the wrong colour, shape, size, or whatever other dismissal they come up with.  It’s not exactly what they were looking for. How on earth can you counter this?  You can’t know what the customer has in their head so how can you possibly answer their objection? You could take a stab at it, but let’s face it, you’re not a mind-reader. So you rationalise that this lets you off the hook. The prospect has said NO, it sounds like a solid NO and because you can’t read their mind, you walk away from the sale.

There’s something fundamentally wrong with this scenario. Their NO was just a request for more information. Almost all objections are just a customer’s way of saying “You haven’t figured out what I need and so why should I buy from you?” Ask them questions, preferably before they even get to the point of saying NO. If you’re armed with knowledge about what they’re looking to buy, then you have the power to provide it for them.  You can amaze them with your powers of deduction, your mind-reading abilities, if you just ask them the right questions.

Questions that lead them to explain things to you, (open-ended questions) are far better than questions that just require a Yes or No answer (closed questions). Yes or No answers don’t fully engage the prospect in the sale. It’s when they start explaining what they want and more importantly why they want it that you know you’re on your way to doing business.  Most prospects won’t waste their time telling you what they want unless you first show that you’re interested in what they have to say and you look and act like you can solve their problem.

So, in order to enhance your mind-reading abilities; 

Ask plenty of open-ended questions
Listen carefully to the answers, because their answer will determine your next question.
Ask general questions, then funnel them down to more specific questions to hone in on what they really need.
Look forward to the NOs. They just mean the prospect wants to know more.
Get tenacious. Keep asking questions until you’re sure you’re on the same wavelength as the prospect.

Stick to these few pointers and you’ll be well on your way to reading minds in no time.