Have you ever had this happen to you?

You have a great relationship with your prospect. They love you. They love your solution. It’s been one of the smoothest and easiest sales processes you’ve had so far.

Everything looks good. Then, you oddly don’t hear back from your prospect.

Uh-oh. Something’s wrong…

You reach out to them a few times but don’t hear back. Finally, you get an e-mail saying the deal fell through.

What happened?

You don’t know. But one reason that deals like this don’t happen is because you didn’t understand everyone involved in the decision-making process.

Because, it’s rare that your prospect ever makes the decision alone. Usually, they have at least a couple other people they have to impress also. And they may have to convince their employees that they have a great solution too.

So how do you sell to the whole team, rather than just your prospect?

Let me show you some steps below:

1. Ask Your Prospect Straight Out Who’s Involved in the Process

Often, openness and honesty works well. Just ask your prospect outright how they’ll make a decision. They’ll tell you who’s involved.

Ask them what role their employees play in this. Do they get to offer their feedback on the decision?

2. Figure Out How Much Influence Your Prospect Has

Now, here’s where you can’t be as straightforward because you’re not likely to get honest answers. Not that your prospect is a dishonest person. Far from it.

But who wants to admit they’re the low guy on the totem pole without any respect in the office?

So just ask them what their relationship is with others involved in the decision. Just a simple,”So, how’s your relationship with the VP of Finance?” will do. You’ll quickly get a strong sense of how powerful your prospect is, or is not, at their company.

3. If It’s Clear Your Prospect Doesn’t Have the Influence to Pull the Deal Off…

You can try asking them to have a joint conference call with more powerful decision makers.You may be able to build a relationship with them and convince them of your value.

However, that’s kind of a last-ditch effort. In most cases, if you sense you can’t make the sale, you’re right. Politely bow out of the relationship, and tell your prospect you’re not the right fit for them.

That’s actually a win-win. Likely, your prospect won’t be able to make a decision happen anyway. So that saves them some time.

And you won’t win the sale, so that means you can move on to other leads more likely to close.

Sales is All about Asking Questions, not Talking

Salespeople are known for their talking. That’s certainly important to building the relationship with your prospect.

But just as important is asking the right questions so you can assess the situation. And hopefully, these tips help you walk through yet another sticky sales situation that happens all the time.

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