Sales teams at events do not have it easy. There is nothing worse than spending days and weeks on meetings only to find that your prospect has no intention to buy the product or service.
Chances are that the prospect has subtly indicated that they are not interested several times over, but you have probably not picked up on these tell-signs. In this blog, we take a look at five warning signs that could mean that your deal is not going to close.
Too many sales objections
There is a fine line between prospects raising genuine concerns and distancing themselves from the sale. The first sign that prospects are not interested is when they raise too many objections. They often express their feeling quite openly when it comes to buying the product but when concerns turn irrelevant, it is time to call it quits. Essentially, you can read the change of attitude from prospects when they raise objections despite explaining to them explicitly how they can profit from your solution.
Related: 5 things you should be doing to maximize sales at events
A weak use case
Now, this is something that sales professionals come across quite often. Picture this – a sales representative spends days and weeks preparing a pitch and finally gets his/her prospective customer to sit through a presentation only to find out that they are not going to be using the product sufficiently because the product does not directly align with their business strategy. This makes research extremely important. Being aware of how big the organization is and understanding the scope of the product/service can tell you a lot about how likely you are to close the deal and whether you can further penetrate the account at a later point in time.
Related: Smarketing: How internal alignment helps you close better
Mentioning the competition
This is a more obvious tell sign than the rest on this list. Imagine sitting through a meeting and genuinely trying to make a pitch when all the prospect can talk about is your competitor’s pricing or delivery. This can be quite frustrating because your prospect is drawing parallels without completely understanding the product or its value. You could gauge their response by separating what you bring to the table from the competition but if they bring up the competition every chance they get, the odds of them breaking through their bias are quite slim.
No influence and no definite answer
In many cases, higher management assigns low-level employees with the responsibility of doing research and getting back to them with a solution that fits their business as well as their budget. So in many cases, the prospects that you meet at the event are only there for research and in some cases, refuse to introduce you to other stakeholders. Moreover, they end the conversation with “reach out to us in six months” or “we’ll get back to you in a month or so.” This can be quite discouraging especially when you know that these prospects are a good fit but are not sales ready.
The stall
More often than not, it becomes obvious from the get-go that your prospect is just not interested in what you have to offer. If you find it especially difficult to get an appointment after your initial pitch and your prospects keep canceling or rescheduling, it could indicate that your prospect is stalling. And the more they stall, the longer the deal stays in the pipeline and, in turn, the lesser the likelihood of it closing.
Sales representatives attending events should know that anything can happen while working on deals. Sometimes deals show encouraging signs of going through, but last-minute hiccups can cause prospects to back out. Nothing is done till the deal is signed. Notice these patterns the next time you are working with prospects and let us know what you think in the comments section below.
Like this blog? Reach out to us to know how you can double the number of confirmed meetings and build a steady sales pipeline at events. Click on the button below to schedule a quick demo!
