Playing The Sales Game. My Way.

True or false?: “Sales is a difficult game.”
I hear it every day. “The sales game is a tough game.” “It’s almost impossible to make a sale in this economy.” “I’ve read every book on sales – none of them help.”  “You know nobody’s buying…right?”

Wrong! For me, selling is actually quite easy.
A zillion books have been written on this subject. However, an old real estate philosophy sums it up best: “If you want to sell a house, you need a ready, willing and able buyer.” The logic is that if you’ve found a buyer who meets all three of these criteria, you will close the deal most of the time.

My view on what these three terms mean.
READY: A ready buyer is someone for whom the timing is just right to purchase a home. A ready buyer may have just gotten married and wants to create a new household. A ready buyer may be planning to expand the family with a new baby and needs more space. A ready buyer is an Empty Nester – or an older couple who want to downsize to a smaller home.

An example of a buyer who is not ready is perhaps someone looking at homes as a diversion from other obligations. A person in the throes of hosting a big Holiday Season with many guests – is not ready to buy a home. A person who is “just looking” is not ready either. Nor is someone who just lost a loved one. These people have more pressing issues to address, and a home purchase is not a top priority. They may want to. They might be able to afford it. But the timing is off. They’re not ready.

WILLING: A willing buyer is agreeable to buying a particular home for the agreed upon price. “Yes, I am willing to pay $500,000 for that house in Cranbury, NJ.” The term “willing” actually has a lot to do with value. That specific home at that price creates enough value for me that I am willing to buy it. If the price was $600,000 the value drops and I am no longer willing to complete the transaction.

ABLE: An able buyer is one who can afford to purchase and close on the home. A broker might have a ready and willing buyer who can’t get financing and therefore is not able to close.

The trick to making the sales game easy?
Only work with prospects who exhibit all three qualities: Ready, willing and able.  If you have a prospect who has only two of the three qualities, you can use every sales technique in the (zillion) book(s), and you still won’t close the deal. You will, however, waste a lot of time and precious resources.

Why am I so sure?
If you’re a salesperson, think back to a time when you closed a deal very, very quickly - and it seemed easy. Chances are they were ready, willing and able. For sales you lost over the years, think back once again. I know I do – about a "prospect" I called once a week for a year. With every phone call came more excuses. Looking back, this person didn't have all three qualities. I wasted my time, but I learned a valuable lesson.

Ready, willing and able, MCC style.
At MCC Recycling we have our own variation on the ready, willing and able buyer.
I teach my salespeople to look for prospects with the following three qualities:
1. They must have a problem for which we can offer a solution (ready).
2. They must believe that our solution creates enough value to justify the cost (willing).
3. They must be in a position to make purchasing decisions (able).

If my salespeople identify the right contacts within targeted client companies, they will close deals. Lots of deals. And so will you.

I love it when they tell me their sales jobs are easy.