What reasons frustrate you the most when a client says "no" to a purchase?
I'm sitting in the office after a day on the phone and I'm trying to count successes. There were some, but the client reasons for a "no" have me curious.
It’s sad, but it’s going to happen any day. Its a part and parcel of our life. Focus how you can make the management happy by the YESSSS.
If you get a no, you probably haven't discovered the customers true needs or wants - or you aren't effective in managing or anticipating the right objections. Every interaction will be different and no one should ever achieve 100% conversion in sales (as this means they're either misleading/bullying, not prioritising the customer or their on inbound only). I personally have talked customers out of purchasing as the product or service wasn't truly what they needed. This has benefited 10 fold longer term, as they will return to me when they want something specific I can offer. Plus, my word of mouth referrals from these lost sales are an amazing lead source - you can't buy that advertising or advocacy. If they know I won't push a product for self gain - trust is now guaranteed and any future recommendations are accepted with no objections or doubt. Embrace the NO's and ask questions to uncover why and understand the root causes of where you went wrong or lost them. The self development is also extremely beneficial.
Well, I know this can vary based on your industry. I know with mine (website design, graphic design, and marketing), the most frustrating reason for a "no" is when the client goes with someone else who is "a lot cheeper". Or if they end up saying, "oh we decided to build our own website". It's frustrating because a large percentage of our clients will have a horror story about how they went with "someone cheeper" to design or market something for them and they learned to regret that and because we know we could help their business, but they don't want to invest in it.
Look the point of the question wasn't the frustration nor lack of success. (My bad) I'm just curious about the reasons we in sales get.
If getting a "no" is going to bother someone they probably should not be in sales. To a great extent sales is a numbers game. Usually you will get a certain percentage of yeses and a certain percentages of no's and the more you present the more yeses you will get. When I first got involved with sales my number was consistently 20%. I concentrated on managing my time effectively to get more face time and managed to increase my sales by doing that. I have had times when I had the right product and the right presentation and was able to close virtually 100% of my sales. That does make me think that finding the right way to present your proposition can make a big difference.
People often lie about the reason they are saying no. Sometimes they will give you the reason. Uncovering the true reason gives you a chance to convert a no to a yes. I can recall decades ago reading a book called "The sale begins when the customer says no". The premise of the book was that until a customer has said no you have not sold anything, you are just an order taker. True selling begins once the customer says no. The book talked about ways to uncover the real reason. My experience is that the customer won't always tell you but if you listen carefully to what he says and really think about it you will uncover the reason. Selling often isn't so much about talking as it is about listening, really listening.
There are usually a number of reasons for a 'No' and the most common are because either they just don't need what you are offering right now, they don't understand what you are selling, they have chosen another supplier, they just didn't like the sound of your voice, or the way you dress (yep that is a reason people choose not to buy).
If you get a no, most likely they don't trust you. Work on building trust with your prospect, and you'll start to get more yes's
No reason at all would be the most frustration one - which is common enough. The rest are mostly honest and factual, which forms excellent feedback for improvement.
I probably get 5 calls on an average day with someone trying to sell me something. My rate of saying no is probably more than 99 percent.Most of the time when I say no it is because I just really don't want their services. Often to be polite I will give them time to tell me what they have to offer but I know before they open their mouths that I am not going to be a buyer. I am either happy with the services I have or don't see that the benefits they offer are really a benefit to me. Once in a long while I just don't like the person but that is very rare.Of course the ones that call and try to imply they are a current supplier but are not are always a quick turn down. They are saying no because you did not present your offer in a way that they felt it solved a need of theirs or because you did not create a compelling value proposition for them.