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You are here: Home / Blog / Do you work for free when you sell?

Do you work for free when you sell?

November 2, 2014 By maurasf

Some salespeople work for free
Do you know when you are working for free?

I recently wrote a column on customers who want you to work for free.  I never fault anyone for asking. I do blame salespeople who get intimidated and do things they don’t want to do and aren’t strategic for their selling.  These sales people are sometimes afraid to tell a customer or prospect no.  Sometimes they don’t know how to or when to move on.  As I wrote in the column, the first step to be prepared to not work for free is to be ready with a response.  The next very important step is to be aware of how these sometimes innocuous requests are really requests for freebies.  Here’s what you should look for if you do not want to work for free when you sell.

1.  Customers who ask for information, samples, or materials who don’t have a decision making process in place.

I have no problem with customers who want to test a product before they buy it.  A small test will show them if the larger implementation will work or if any problems are lurking beneath the surface and need to be addressed before making a much larger purchase.  Providing samples at no charge is a good choice after you ask a very important question.  That question is, “Can you tell me how you’re going to evaluate the test and what you will do with the results?” You should be ready to provide the criteria for the test if the customer doesn’t know what he’s looking for in an evaluation.  Of course, you would charge for the samples if there are no criteria for the test.

2. No deadline for the decision.

I often ask salespeople to identify 3 key questions that they need to ask during that first sales call to determine that they have a viable prospect. One key question is often, “When will you be making the decision to buy?”  It’s bad news for you if the answer is unknown or unclear.  You are going to be working for free because it’s unlikely that you’re going to make a sale.  Without a purchasing deadline it’s like running a race without a finish line.  That’s a very bad idea. Without a purchasing deadline, you remove that prospect from your ‘likely to buy’ list of prospects to a lower probability sale.  You adjust your time so you’re not spending as much time pursuing the sale because it’s unlikely to happen soon.  That’s how you stop working for free.

I would much rather have salespeople working hard on deals that are likely to close.  You don’t make sales when you work for free.

Best wishes for your sales success!

maura schreier-Fleming

 

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Filed Under: Blog, Questioning, Sales Strategy, Selling Tagged With: prospecting, questioning strategy, Sales Strategy

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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."
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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.

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