Frequently in our Business Development process, we encounter Prospects that decide not to buy from us. If we do not understand how and why people buy or do not have a process to disqualify unqualified opportunities early, we tend to rationalize why the person did not buy from us. Fundamentally there are four reasons why a prospect will not purchase a solution to their problem from us:
- There is no pain. The Prospect does not have a real or perceived problem that needs to be solved. There is no motivation, no call to action on their part to pursue a solution.
- There is no solution match. Your presented solution does not adequately address the problems uncovered or the Prospect does not believe your solution will solve their problem.
- There is no crisis or motivation to solve the problem. The impact of the situation on your Prospect is not critical enough to provide the motivation or urgency to buy a solution immediately.
- There is no trust. This is the most important reason. You have not established a relationship where in your Prospect believes that your purpose is truly ahead of your goal of making the sale. Your purpose as a BD Professional is to help them figure out what they need and then assist them in finding a solution that addresses the need, whether or not they purchase it from you.
Look back at the situations where your prospect did not buy from you. You will find that one of these four, or a combination of these reasons resulted in their decision to buy a solution from somebody else.
We often hear, you missed one reason… “There is no money!” This may be true on limited occasions, however we would attest that if you find a real problem and find the person most impacted by the problem and get them motivated to solve the problem… they will find the money. More often than not the “We have no money/ budget” reason is just an easier way for the Prospect to articulate one of the four reasons above.
To be effective in Business Development, it is essential that you know “how and why people buy!” You must also use a proven Customer Engagement Process. One that assist you:
- Developing trust and respect with your prospect,
- Uncovers their real problems,
- Solicits their input on the solution, and only then
- Provide them the best solution to solve their problems.