So . . . you are just too busy huh?
Tim Connor
Has
selling really changed in the past several years? Are people just too busy
today to have a conversation with someone who can help them increase their
business? You would be amazed how many times I hear on the phone from
prospects, “I’m just too busy to discuss this.”
So I follow up with, “Are you too busy to discuss how I can bring you
more customers?” or “Are you too busy if I can show you how you can solve a major
business challenge today?” Whatever – the point is - are people really to busy
or stressed to consider options that will benefit them or are they just turned
off by anyone, no everyone, trying to sell them something?
I
have heard from hundreds of clients over the years things like, “Thank you for
sticking with it.” “Thanks for all your
effort to sell us.” Etc. But I have
often asked, “What if I hadn’t stuck with it, you would have never known the
benefits you have enjoyed.” They all
agree. So why are people so quick to
shut salespeople off or down and just say anything to get rid of them? Is it fear of having their issues brought to
the surface? Is it a concern that they
know what their problems are, but want to stay in denial? Or is it something more simple?
Well
I can tell you, that after spending over 40 years of my life selling that
sometimes it’s more complicated, but most often it’s just a lame excuse used to
avoid discussing their challenges with a stranger.
Let
me ask you – if you had a serious business or personal challenge or problem and
someone came to you with a practical and acceptable solution from your point of
view, would you give them a chance to share it with you or at least just listen
respectively? I’m sure most of you would
say yes. Well, that’s not my experience.
Do
people fail to listen to practical solutions out of ego or is there something
else going on?
Here’s
what I think the answer is and this is true more today than it was ten or
twenty years ago. Back in the good old
days, I never had problems getting to business owners or CEO’s or President’s
of large organizations. Why is
that? Was I better than others who were
selling? Nope. Was I smarter than other salespeople? Not in the least. Did I work harder than other sales
professionals? No. So why was it easier
then? For starters there were fewer
options or choices customers had to solve their problems than are available
today. Secondly, relationships were
easier to establish and maintain than they are today and I believe this is all
due to people’s heavy reliance on technology.
And thirdly, there were fewer distractions – again technology.
Back
in the good old days (and I’m using this term very loosely) people didn’t spend
in excess of 80-100 hours a month at or on a plug-in or battery powered device. So, you say, this is good, it makes things
easier? Well, I’m not sure I would
totally agree with you.
I
have also found that people are not as respectful or friendly, in general when
it comes to dealing with strangers. Yes,
there will always be rude and friendly people no matter what but I’ll tell you
in the past two weeks I have had no fewer than a dozen people just hang up on
me as soon as I started my conversation with them or within the first minute.
Now
please keep in mind, I’m not a pushy aggressive sales type and I always try and
inject humor into the conversation early but this just doesn’t work the way it
did years ago – again why?
Let
me summarize with a few personal thoughts.
One
– Stress is at an all-time high for most people today.
Two
– People are more easily distracted today than at any time in history.
Three
– People are far too cluttered with too many options due to the tremendous
amount of easily obtained information available today.
Four
– Free or cheap seems to be the common mantra for a lot of folks today.
And
five – Everyone wants it brief; give me your elevator speech, please just
summarize your message in a few words, keep it brief, etc.
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