Written by: Ken Kupchik
Working in sales involves juggling multiple competing priorities at the same time, all the time. You have to prospect to keep your pipeline full while closing the hottest prospects, moving others through the sales process, and handling any and all other issues that might come up. All while keeping up with any administrative and managerial-inspired tasks (That is unless you have an
AI-Powered CRM that does all the data entry for you…)It’s a job that will usually keep your hands full.But one of the toughest things to deal with in sales is when a deal that you’ve been working on for a while, or at least one that’s been promising starts falling apart. This can happen for a multitude of reasons, many of which might not be your fault at all. In any case, when this happens, make sure you don’t give up too easily and actually make some attempts to get things back on track.
Here are five ways to save a deal that’s falling apart:
1. Identify the real reason
The challenge with deals that start to go south is that oftentimes you don’t really understand the reason why. This is because prospects are often loathe to be honest or simply won’t communicate with you to explain what’s really going on. When this happens, it’s on you to identify what’s really going on. It could be something as simple as another decision-maker balking at the deal, or a competitor offering your prospects a more attractive deal. You need to
figure out what the problem is if you want to have any chance of solving it.
2. Resell the benefits
When a deal hits the skids, you will likely need to resell it if you want any hope of getting it back on track. The prospect needs to understand the benefits of moving forward and the drawbacks of not. But if you’re going to resell it, make sure you re Because if there are doubts, you’ll need to work twice as hard to overcome them as you had to when you originally sold the deal.Related:
How I Closed a Client That Wanted Nothing to Do with Me 3. Connect with other stakeholders
If a deal is falling apart, you’ll need a full court press strategy if you want to get back to closing. This can only happen if you
have other decision makers on your side (assuming there is more than one). Of course, you need to play it smart, because you can’t go around a decision maker’s back without possible repercussions. But be as proactive and diplomatic as you possible can and get others within an organization on your side and you might be able to save it. This is also another reason why you should always work with as many decision makers from the beginning of the sales process as possible.
4. Second-voice
Even though you might be an amazing salesperson who
builds rapport better than anyone you’ve ever met, if a deal is falling apart, one of the best things you can do is get someone else from your office involved. Of course, you need to be careful to avoid confusion and make sure the person second-voicing the deal for you is competent and aware of all of the details of the situation, but having another person take a shot not only gives the opportunity for someone who might be able to articulate or relate to the prospect give it a try, it also shows that your company is taking the prospect’s business seriously
5. Incentivize the offer
While you should never be in a hurry to drop the price or to give stuff away for free to customers, this is one situation where it might be useful. Discounting to save a deal is not necessarily a bad thing, as long as the deal if worth it. Save this for last, because you don’t want to come off as desperate if things are just a little bit rocky. But if you see that you really are about to lose the deal completely, then
make your prospect an offer that he or she can’t refuse.
