Guess what? Your customer is most likely not thinking what you’re thinking. A couple of months ago, I worked with a sales team on building a prospecting plan. The plan was to focus on old customers, prospects who had never been customers, and other lists of “lousy” prospects. I use the word “lousy,” because that’s what several of the salespeople said to me. Many were even adamant that they were stupid, with a capital “S.”
Video: Don’t Assume You Know What the Customer Believes:
As we built the list, I was told why various customers weren’t good. I heard every story about why they were not worth wasting any energy on to call. The stories were colorful and some of them even funny, but each one ended with the customer believing they would never do business with us again. If I had not already gone through this process a hundred times before, I would have agreed with them and scrapped the project.
Fast forward to today and let’s just say the sales team’s thinking has changed. What they believed turned out to be wrong. Their ideas about old customers has disappeared. This whole scenario included a barrier that blocks too many salespeople. The barrier of thinking that you know what the customer is thinking. The barrier of being predisposed to thinking there is no way the customer would even want to talk with them again.
What was old has now become new! Yes, those old customers that the sales team blew off for being just that- old, are now new customers. Did these customers change? No, I don’t think so! What changed was the salesperson’s belief about what the customer’s thoughts. One salesperson shared with me that a “lousy” customer was pleased to know the salesperson’s company is still in business. The customer assumed because they had not heard from the company in a couple of years, they had gone out of business.
How much business are you leaving on the table because of your mindset? How much business are you leaving on the table because you’re not choosing to set aside bad beliefs? The customers you worked with in the past already know you, so there’s no reason you shouldn’t be reaching out to them again. Make this the week you wipe out bad beliefs about old customers, pick up the phone, and reach out.
The biggest difference between average salespeople and great salespeople is their mindset. It’s the whole reason why I wrote A Mind For Sales. I suggest you order a copy today, dig in, and start wiping out those old mindsets. Purchase here!
Copyright 2020, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter” Sales Motivation Blog. Mark Hunter is the author of High-Profit Prospecting: Powerful Strategies to Find the Best Leads and Drive Breakthrough Sales Result
