Overcoming Hope in Sales

One of the worst things a salesperson experiences is a prospect who keeps saying “maybe,” or who puts off making that yes/no decision. A stalled sale is a like a vampire, slowly sucking our life’s blood as we continue to hope that because the prospect hasn’t said no, there’s still that possibility of yes. This is not the sacred terrain of the green salesperson either; all of us fall into that trap. For example, I had a prospect I was really excited to have as a customer. I imagined the successes out of our combined efforts and the future lay shiny ahead. This company had a sexy product, a dynamic team, and the resources to push into a growth area with considerable promise. They were right in our sweet spot. I wanted them as a client. And then he stopped returning my phone calls or emails. Aaaargh!!!!

The way to overcome this obstacle is to give up all hope. (How cycnical.)

You can’t have a conversation with someone who won’t be in communication. And because sales is a dynamic conversation that leads to a change or an action, it’s vital to keep the conversation alive. The sad truth is, though, conversations fade. We forget them. They’re fun and exciting in the moment but even as jazzed as we can feel after a sales call that went well, we move on and that conversation goes to the background of our mind, for both the salesperson and the prospect.

Sociologists observed in numerous experiments in the past few decades that people remember the information we gain from a person we trust, but we forget the person who gave us the information. Likewise, when we don’t trust someone or don’t find them credible, we remember the person and NOT the information.

This is an interesting dynamic when you apply it to sales. While a salesperson works hard to get their information across to the prospect, and if they’re successful at creating credibility and trust, the prospect will forget them. What the prospect will remember, in the short term, is the information they discussed.

Keeping the conversation alive is no small thing because the salesperson is working two opposing dynamics in order to give up hope. That’s the art of sales.