“This is a great article from sales consultant, Dave Rothfeld”
Why do political incumbents get re-elected over 90% of the time? Because once you have the position, it is hard to get unseated. The same thing is true about the relationship between your prospect and their current vendors/providers. It is hard to unseat them. Too often we get used in a selling process by providing free consulting to these already spoken-for prospects (think price comparison offers and market scan reports). Avoid this by identifying earlier on if a prospect is the real deal.
What to do?
Ask these questions to a prospect when you know that the current provider has survived at least one challenge or more to unseat them in the past:
1) What has changed since the last time you considered replacing your current provider that makes it more likely you will change now?
2) What performance threshold would need to be met for you to realistically trade out your current provider?
If there isn’t a clear reason for change or an established threshold, they are not likely to be a prospect from which you can profit. Avoid this by identifying if a prospect is the real deal early on.
“Reprinted with permission from “Creative Sales + Management, Inc.”