Handling A Collapsed Sale, Eight Powerful Strategies

Posted on April 1, 2008 - Filed Under Business

When you sell on commission, either in whole or in part, you will run into your fair share of collapsed sales. Whether rookie or seasoned sales pro, these collapses can cause enormous mental anguish and even cause problems in ongoing performance without the tools to emotionally handle the situation. The emotional pressure of seeing commissions slip away has ended countless careers. Here are eight effective strategies for coping with and even benefiting from the experience.

First: It’s essential to recognize that collapsed sales are part of the selling experience. They do not just happen to you. In fact if you are not experiencing collapsed sales you probably are not writing enough business.

Deals fall apart for a variety of reasons. Some of which include:

1- The customer is not able to qualify financially. (the number one cause)

2- There is buyer’s remorse and the customer cancels.

3- A third party intervenes after the sale to create doubt in the customer’s mind.

4- A conditional subject can not be removed by one or the other party.

5- A lower price emerges elsewhere before delivery takes place.

There are more, but these are sufficient to work with here.

Second: When a sale unravels, evaluate the cause. This step is overlooked by many salespeople. For instance, if the customer is not able to qualify financially, the cause of the collapse does not rest with you unless you have oversold. If you have made that mistake, learn from it. Just remember that you are not personally responsible for the prospect’s credit rating.

Buyer’s remorse is something master sales people rarely encounter because they work to build the perception of value to a point well above the price being sought. This also helps keep third party intervention to a minimum.

“Subject to … ” or conditional sales collapse at a much higher rate than do unconditional sales or sales subject only to credit approval. Work to remove the conditions prior to finalizing the contract. “Subject to’ deals are easier to close but unravel much more often.

Try to schedule completion at the earliest possible date. This reduces the risk of price becoming an issue after the fact.

Third: Avoid mentally spending a commission before it is actually earned at completion. Commissions are actually earned at completion, not at signup. Don’t take mental ownership of the money prematurely. That way, you will not lose something if everything fails to stay together.

Fourth: Avoid looking for ways to assign ‘blame’. Responsibility and blame are two very different things. You can only be responsible for your own actions. I urge you to do that. You might hope others will take responsibility for their action too, but you can’t demand that they do or even expect it from them. Blaming someone is an expression of negative energy that will drag you down emotionally. The feelings you will experience will not serve you in any positive way. If you want to experience true job satisfaction and inner peace, steer clear of blaming anyone, including yourself.

Fifth: Ultimately, you must learn to let it go. If you have done everything in your personal power to salvage a collapsing sale, understand that you have to let it go emotionally if it can not be saved. This is not easily done by most salespeople but it is a necessary tool understood by all the sales masters who consistently earn the most money, regardless of the industry they sell in.

Six: Avoid the war stories.

Many people are legendary for the telling of their war stories where they regurgitate all the things that did not go their way. This spreading of negativity serves only to lower the collective energy of everyone. People who tell war stories are usually wallowing in self pity or looking for sympathy. Remember the old expression that informed you, misery loves company. War stories, if you tell them, simply dredge up the past where nothing can change and you get to relive unpleasant feelings all over again. War stories, if you hear them, will allow the teller to lower your energy level. He or she gets to feel a bit better and you get to feel a lot worse. Avoid war stories always!

Seven: Learn to salvage something. Try to get referrals. When a deal collapses, chances are, that many times your customer will feel as badly and perhaps even worse than you do. He or she might be feeling guilty, especially if it is a credit issue. You can still have your customer get you paid if you can call upon that customer to provide you with some referrals. Do not be afraid to ask. If you have good rapport, the customer will usually come through for you.

Eight: Don’t burn the lead. Sometimes after a sale falls apart, salespeople might be tempted to voice their displeasure with the customer. There is nothing to be gained in doing that. Again it is spreading negativity and will cost all chance of future business or referral from that person. I can’t count the times over my selling and management career where I’ve seen customers return to buy after a previous attempt had collapsed. Allow yourself the opportunity to get paid at some future date. After all, getting paid is good, isn’t it?

Jim Masson is the author of the sales training book “Getting Paid is Good!! Timeless Essentials of Professional Selling … and more.”

For complete, powerful and very affordable computer based Mastery sales training for those wishing to learn how to sell at mastery, go to http//www.salestraininghere.com/ Discover the comprehensive nature of this training which crosses over into daily living as well. We don’t promote any sales tricks, deception techniques or unethical practices. We actively promote selling integrity.

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Tags: career, collapsed sale, commissions, getting paid, Sales, sales training, sell, strategies, tools

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