When sales are down, a salesperson must begin to take stock of why that is happening. Most sales people start by blaming the company¡¯s policies. ¡°If you¡¯d only offer better specials,¡± or blame the economy, ¡°If only customers had the money,¡± or they blame their boss, ¡°If only I got a better schedule,¡± or they will blame whatever happens to come to mind that day. Never, do they take stock of their own selling \rtechniques.

There are four basic reasons why salespeople don¡¯t make \ra sale.

The customer doesn¡¯t want/need your product or service. \rTherefore they lack the motivation to make the purchase.

Many sales people ignore the fact they don¡¯t want/need the \rproduct and continue to attempt to make the sale.

In this case, the sales person doesn¡¯t adequately qualify the \rbuyer. Not everyone you come into contact with will have a \rneed for what you are selling. But sales people are \rconditioned to try to make a sale no matter what.

Asking good questions and listening carefully to the \ranswers will solve this problem quickly. That will free up the \rsales person to move on to greener pastures.

The customer can¡¯t buy. They don¡¯t have the money.

This problem is similar to the previous reason why sales \raren¡¯t made. The salesperson has not asked the \rappropriate questions to qualify the buyer.

The buyer has the need, but they don¡¯t have the money. You \rcan¡¯t force someone to come up with money. If it is beyond \rtheir budget, face it and try to work within their budget by \rfinding an alternative product or be honest with them about \rwhat it will take to make the purchase. They will appreciate \ryour honesty.

The customer can¡¯t buy. They are not the decision maker.

If you are dealing with someone who is not a decision \rmaker, it is because the sales person has not taken the \rtime to qualify the individual¡¯s role in the purchase. You \rneed to get in front of the decision maker. In my experience, \rno one can make the sale for you.

If you make the presentation to the un-qualified person in \rthe hopes that they will take the information to the decision \rmaker, more times than not, they will not be able to close \rthe sale for you.

The customer doesn¡¯t understand the offering.

You haven¡¯t made your offer clear. Or you haven¡¯t educated \rthem about your product. Perhaps you¡¯ve been selling \rfeatures instead of benefits to them and that makes them \runclear as to how they could use your product.

Or it is a technical product and they are a non-technical \rindividual. You have been speaking in tech-talk and they \rdon¡¯t want to appear ignorant, so rather than asking for \rclarification, they decide not to buy. After all, they don¡¯t know \rhow it will benefit them.

As you can see, in each of the instances, it wasn¡¯t outside \rforces that inhibited the sale, it was the sales person.

To become a SuperStar Salesperson, you need to learn to \revaluate your role in each and every sale. For the most part, \ryou will find that your efforts can and should be improved. \rThe effort is well worth it.

Margo Chevers, author of the book STOP the BS (bad \rservice), has been providing sales and customer service \rseminars and consulting to a diverse cross-section of \rindustries for the past 15 years. For information about \rMargo Chevers¡¯ speaking or training schedule call (800) \r858-0797 or Margo@MargoChevers.com