You have more competition to make a sale than you think. You probably know your competitors can take business from you. There are others in business who can prevent you from making the sale. I call these people members of the Sales Prevention Department. They are different people depending on your particular selling situation. Do you know who are in your Sales Prevention Department?
Who Is in the Sales Prevention Department?
I always dreaded the Legal Department when I was in the Oil Business. Any contract or document that came under their purview was almost certain to get a no for a reply. Members of this department could tell you any number of ways why your deal could not work. Unfortunately, when asked how to make it doable, the answers were often slow to come or unacceptable for business. Hence, the Legal Department was my Sales Prevention Department.
Any part of your sales cycle that includes input from another department or organization that can stop your sale is your Sales Prevention Department.
How can you identify your Sales Prevention Department?
Some sales professionals who are comfortable with risk are not asking questions to others who can shut down their sales process. That’s one way to avoid them. Sometimes not even asking questions brings these sales preventers into your business. You can identify these people before they interfere with your selling.
Whose interests misalign with your interests? You can understand why the Legal Department wants no deviations from contracts. Any change opens up a possible problem for them. They are interested in avoiding lawsuits. I’m interested in making a sale by meeting customer needs.
Are there any departments in a prospect’s business who are threatened by your products or services? Software manufacturers are often threatened by internal IT departments who think they can develop their own software internally. The IT department could develop the software, but often it’s more expensive than buying a software product off the shelf. It’s also unproven.
How can you overcome Sales Prevention?
Consider the Sales Prevention Department like any other customer concern. You can demonstrate to the Legal Department why that customer is not a risk. Perhaps they have a superior credit rating and stellar reputation in the market. Find an ally in your organization whose views align with yours to overcome another department with different objectives. Purchasing can be your friend when you can prove the performance of your product compared to an unknown product’s performance.
Sometimes selling can be unpredictable with events that are beyond your control. Identifying and addressing your Sales Prevention Department can make your selling less unpredictable and also more successful.