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You are here: Home / Blog / When is it time to stop selling?

When is it time to stop selling?

August 1, 2021 By maurasf

time to stop selling

Picture this. You’re a senior executive looking for your next job. You’ve been interviewing with several excellent companies. Then one of them offers you a job. The money looks good. The company has the right pedigree. The job is interesting. What’s the problem? You’re wondering if you should say “yes” to this particular offer. Should you continue to interview? Would a better offer come in the future? When is it time to stop? Knowing when to stop selling is a hidden dilemma for salespeople, too. Don’t let this dilemma get you off course in your selling.

It’s harder than you think to stop selling.

Knowing when to stop calling on a prospect is a challenge. Think about your own prospecting process. You probably have a list of customers to whom you are trying to sell. You are looking for customers in a particular industry, stage of growth, size of staff, or other specific criteria. Your prospects need to meet these criteria in order for them to be on your prospecting list. You’ve been calling on them for months without a sale. Have you even considered when you should stop?

The sales process is a lot like the investing process in terms of knowing when to stop. Individual and professional investors alike struggle with selling stocks. Berkeley finance professor Terrance Odean found that investors are at least 50% more likely to sell their winners than their losers. Letting go is hard to do.

Here’s how to know when to stop selling.

There is a process that will help you let go. Often people forget what they were first looking for and what were their major criteria. They overrun the target because they didn’t know they got there. If you’re selling without results, reexamine your prospect’s criteria for making your list of prospects. Are they really a fit? If not, let go.

Remember that perfection is not part of the sales process. Just like a job choice, selling isn’t a perfect process. You’ll never get 100 percent of what you want. In a job, that means there’s no perfect job. In sales, there are no perfect prospects. Is your prospect only 20 percent of what you’re looking for or 90 percent of what you’re looking for? Let go of the former. Do something different with the latter.

Get help if you need it.

You may need help to make these decisions. That is a role for an outsider who is not prejudiced by all the details or emotionally involved in the outcome. Bouncing ideas off someone you trust is needed now. Job seekers often have an objective peer or friend to talk with. That person can give an unvarnished opinion to give you confidence to go for the new job, if that’s what you need. For salespeople, another successful sales professional could be your advisor and help you review your list of prospects to see who needs to be removed.

It is reported that Warren Buffet, the billionaire investor, once said, “Life is like a snowball. The important thing is finding wet snow and a really long hill.” He certainly knew how to start a good snowball. In sales, starting with good prospects is as important as that wet snow. But in sales, you also had better know when to stop pursuing the low yield customers.

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Filed Under: Blog, Sales Strategy Tagged With: when to stop selling

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About the principal

Would you take auto mechanics classes when you buy a car? Maura did because she wanted to be able to work on her car. She takes that same approach to selling. She can show you how to get below the surface of selling to learn why and how different strategies work. She will show you which skills to implement that will shorten your sales cycle and increase your sales. She was Mobil Oil's first female Lubrication Engineer in the United States and one of Chevron's top 5 salespeople in the country. She knows what works for sales.

"I would recommend your work to other sales organizations who want to get better results from improved selling strategies."
Jamey Rootes
President
Houston Texans

Sales Expert at Allbusiness.com

Selling is the easiest job in the world. Just ask anyone who is not in sales. Read Maura’s ideas on “more brain…less mouth” selling to make your selling easier and more successful.

Maura’s Allbusiness blog posts

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