Two or three years ago, almost every CEO, company president or business owner I talked to wanted to talk about their employees, productivity, motivation, growing the business or other daily problems and issues unique to their individual business. 

Today most business people want to talk about prospecting, sales and closing the deal.  How to get more business.  Which translates into the fact that for most business is down.   CEOs, company presidents and business owners don’t know what to do in the ever changing business climate.  They are concerned about their long term business survival. 

So let’s talk about sales.

Selling is about educating the potential customer or client.  Being in the right place at the right time.  Consistently improving your sales presentation.  Having an aggressive selling style that is not obnoxious or offensive. 

You really need to be prepared when you get to the end of your presentation and your prospect says “no”.  This is where the true sales professional rises to the occasion and continues rather than stops the business discussion by directly addressing what the prospect is objecting to and why the prospect is not saying “yes”. 

If you accept a “no” answer from the prospect chances are someone else will get the business. 

You need to dig deeper, recycle through your sales presentation steps and really find out what is on your prospects mind. 

Consider asking yourself these basic selling questions:

- What didn’t you tell your prospect? 
- What questions does your prospect have? 
- Is it a trust issue? Which can be a key factor in the current economy or the “trust economy“. 
- What is it that is keeping your prospect from saying “yes”? 
- What have you not yet uncovered?
- When during the presentation did the prospect indicate a “yes”?
- When during the presentation did the prospect indicate a “no” or any sign of a question?
- Did you continually look for and get signs of agreement throughout your presentation?
- Did you involve the prospect directly during the presentation or did you do all of the talking?

An answer you will often get from almost every sales person in the world is it’s about price. 

Although that may be true price is only one of many factors involved in closing the deal.  Most people don’t buy just on price.

Getting your prospect to say “yes” begins from the time you first say “hello” and introduce yourself and your company. 

It’s about determining your prospect’s need for your product or service. 

It’s about keeping the conversation going and continuing to develop that need so the prospect is convinced that your company has what they need now. 

More than ever every prospect and sales call is vitally important to your company especially in this difficult economy. 

Listen to what your prospect is saying and listen to what they are not saying.  With every presentation you make you need to improve your presentation by including potential objections that relate to your prospect’s individual needs and circumstance in the presentation.   This removes the doubt in your prospects mind when you complete the presentation and go for the close.

Remember:  Anything other than a “yes” is a “no” when asking for the sale.

If you have done everything you can do and still can’t get the prospect to say “yes”, move onto the next prospect.  Clear your mind of the rejection you have just experienced.  Start over again with a mindset towards success.

Note: There is a big difference in dealing with personal relationships with people and business relationships with sales.  In personal relationships with people when someone says “no”, respect their answer and accept it.  In business, when selling to someone and they say “no” this particular “no” means you haven’t convinced them.  You haven’t completely sold them for whatever reason.  You need to uncover the reasons for this response then tell the prospect more in order to get them to say “yes”.

Because sales and profits are on the mind of all CEOs, company presidents and business owners these days, I plan to talk more about these topics in the coming weeks on my blog.  Sign up to receive blog posts right in your email box so you don’t miss any of the great business conversation and content that will help you move your business forward in what may be the most challenging and interesting business economy of our lifetime.