Thursday, July 7, 2011

What did you learn from the sale you lost? Sales consultant Mark Hunter encourages you to ask yourself the following questions:

-- Was I able to get the customer to state their key needs and desired benefits?

-- Why specifically did the customer choose not to buy from me? How do I know that?

-- What were two things I know the customer appreciated about me?

-- What did the customer ask and how did I answer? What can I learn from the questions?

-- What were all of the customer's objections and how did I respond to them?

-- Did the customer clearly understand my value proposition? How do I know that?

-- What closing technique did I try? How specifically did the customer respond to it?

-- What did the customer agree with me on? How can I leverage this for future sales?

-- What is my next step with this prospect/customer?

The beautiful thing about this entire process is you come away with two major outcomes.

First, you find out things you can do differently to help you with other customers.

Second, you deepen your relationship with the customer you weren't able to close, setting yourself up to potentially close with them next time around.