A few months ago, I offered five ways to grow without cold calling.
And in that blog post, I briefly wrote about the pitfalls of trying to close a sale simply due to a month's end quota.
What many business owners don't understand is that pressure selling -- just to meet a date-based goal -- does more harm than anything else.
This entire post comes down to this: there's a difference between being assertive, being in control, and closing the sale -- and being a pressure seller.
Here's why:
1. No longer their decision
When you've identified a prospect, it's normal to have sales conversion expectations.But there's a problem when the solitary sale becomes the one and only objective. When you can't see the long-term potential of a relationship, you only see a prospect as a number on your radar.
So you're a pest. You're calling the prospect, emailing, dropping-by for no reason, with one objective -- trying to close the sale.
Instead of it being their decision, they're reluctantly caving in because you're annoying. Nobody wants to do repeat business with that guy.
2. Creates friction
In that same post, I noted how the best salespeople are resources -- they're trusted advisors -- not commodities.When you nag your prospect, they stop enjoying working with you. The transaction is no longer their idea and your prospect suddenly begins to resent you for it.
Even if you think you're doing your client a service by sending "friendly" reminders, followed by an email, followed by a voice mail, followed by a text, followed by a tweet, followed by [insert your own method here], if you're doing it that regularly, you're annoying.
That's not the best strategy for repeat business.
3. Destroys value
When you're selling based on a quota or date, chances are, you're going to discount yourself.
The thought is if your client won't buy at one price, they'll cave-in and buy if you lower your rate.
But when you discount yourself arbitrarily, you destroy any value in future transactions.
The next time you're trying to sell, your client's going to expect to receive that same discount. And why wouldn't they? That's what you trained them to expect.
Talk back
What do you think? Have you found pressure selling to work for you?_________________________________________________________________
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