There’s nothing worse for a salesperson than going through the motions with a prospect only to have them change their minds at the last minute. It’s a whole lot of wasted time and effort. You may curse them and you may put it down to bad luck, but there’s much more to it than this.
The reason your prospect didn’t buy what you’re selling is likely because of something you did; otherwise, they would have immediately told you they weren’t interested. This guide is going to show you some of the main reasons why prospects can pull out of a sale at the last minute.
You Didn’t Take Their Needs into Account
Not taking into account the customer’s pain points is the biggest sin of them all. Old salespeople would talk to you about why you should buy their product. It didn’t matter that you didn’t want the product because they were convinced you absolutely had to buy it. Hard sales tactics like this used to have a positive return, but those days are long gone.
Now you have to take into account the needs of others. If your sales pitch is not primarily about what this product can do to resolve the challenges they are facing, you won’t close the sale. You need to know why the lead was even looking at your product in the first place.
You Targeted the Wrong Niche
Look at the average B2B business and the chances are their database is completely useless because the leads are from customers who are only vaguely related to your niche. You need to be laser-targeting the customers you pass on to the sales team.
Your marketing team may be concentrating entirely on the number of leads they are generating, but in reality, this doesn’t matter. All that matters is your bottom line and the number of leads you are converting into customers. If you targeted the wrong people from the beginning, you are always going to be fighting a losing battle.
The Lead Went Cold
Another major problem is that many businesses are working through their lead database oldest first. It makes logical sense, when you think about it. The oldest leads are those that need to be addressed before they expire entirely, but today leads are going to expire like milk.
Unless you address a lead within a day or so of first making contact, the chances are they are going to forget about you. Set a cut-off point and then address the newest leads first. Contact them as they come in because you have to remember that the average person is receiving a mountain of propositions every single day.
The Product Sucks
Sometimes you can have the perfect sales pitch delivered by the most convincing salesperson and someone still doesn’t buy because the product isn’t that good. It may be a depressing thought, but if few people are buying what you’re selling you may have to consider the fact that what you’re selling just isn’t that attractive.
But how do you find out about if this is the issue?
Look at your online reputation and what people are saying about you. Set up a Google Alerts notification for both your company name and your product name. If you’re getting poor reviews, this is a sign that people aren’t interested in what you’re selling anymore.
Word of mouth marketing is the most powerful form of marketing in the world today. If people are saying bad things, potential customers are going to turn away before you even get a chance to explain yourself.
Not Trying Hard Enough
On average, it can take up to 12 touches with your brand before someone will actually decide to buy something. Many old-fashioned salespeople give up after one or two attempts. This is where a lot of people are leaving money on the table, and it will come back to bite them later on. A whole 44% of salespeople give up after a single call.
If you have only spent a few occasions with your prospect it may be tempting to give up, but don’t because they may simply need more time to think about it. Or they may not be the person in charge of making purchases, such as in the case of B2B sales. Be persistent.
So Did You Figure Out Why Your Prospect Did Not Buy?
There are many reasons why you may not be making sales, but these are the main ones. What are you going to do to turn it all around?
AJ Agrawal
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Hello AJ…!
Thanks for sharing this post about the 5 Reasons Why Your Prospect Did Not Buy What You Are Selling. This awesome article has inspired me a lot which you have shared in this post. As I inform you that this awesome post helps me in my work because, recently; I have joined my new job in IT Sector and this awesome post inspired me a lot.
In my next comment, I will inform you everything clearly that how can your blog help me, what I had learned from your blog.
Thanks a lot once again…..!
Hi. Just one word for you. It’s an outstanding post. I have followed almost all of your posts and it’s really one of the most informative ones. Actually I have visited so many sites which are writing about Prospect Did Not Buy What You Are Selling but never found anything like this.Thanks for this article.
Hello AJ
As we are on business, and business involves risk, we have experienced both the good and bad time in business. Figuring out the reason of failure would be best idea to stand back again. So, the ideas you have shared here are worth reading. Thanks.
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This post is very nicely written and the content inside is very well described. This wonderful and awesome article has inspired me a lot which you have shared in this post. As I told you that this awesome post helps me in my work. In my next comment, I will told you everything clearly that how can your blog help me, what I had learned from your blog. Thanks a lot for sharing this wonderful and useful post.
I absolutely agree. We should target a specific niche related our business and it should be presented in a way that the customers are well enough to get it. And you wrote these things very simple way here.
Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for sharing this post about the 5 Reasons Why Your Prospect Did Not Buy What You Are Selling. I do agree with you that understanding the customer needs is very important and we should not impose our decisions to the buyer.
Thanks a lot for this wonderful post.
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Directing your traffic to leads that will follow through with your product is something you want to research when advertising your website.
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This is a very helpful article. At least, marketers out there who happened to read your post will be aware of those reasons why their prospects are not buying what they are selling. Every individual has their own taste. It depends on your strategy on you will attract them to your product. Excellent post indeed! 🙂
Here You wrote about the very important topic. its really great to understand that how can i sale my niche to buyer. Thanks for sharing.
Its definitely working. Thanks again.
Your content proves to be so helpful, some times I have peak business and some time I never have but I stay calm and keep my cool as you mentioned.
To Win the Hearts of Consumers you should:
1.Lead with your values, so that customers understand what you stand for
2.Tap into emotion
3.Tell a Great Story (Be exciting)
4.Be aspirational (Become a goal for your potential clients) When every potential customer dream to become an everyday customer.
You can read some more interesting facts here http://vafromeurope.com/case-study-social-media-virtual-assistant/
Very informative blog putting in simple and easily understandable language. Thanks for giving one more useful blog that provide me so much information.
This post is very insightful and definitely explains a lot about the way customers and people in sales interact. It’s really important to fully consider the customer’s needs and interests. People will be more receptive if take time to understand what they want! Great post! Thanks for sharing!
Great Job AJ !! I agree with your every point. Very helpful Post for those who ae running their own business. I feel satisfied myself to read this article. thanks for this great information. would love to read your future Posts.
Hello! I will give you good advice. If you sell and no effects, take a break, relax. When You are tires You will not achieve results.
AJ,I agree with what you saying,These days there are many confuses and improper route .We have to be careful with our way.Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
As the leading marketing manager ! All of these above mentioned info that you have described is perfect for me. You simply have make it possible for me to understand the concept about the major pitfalls in marketing.
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I had similar problems. For me the problem was the product itself. Quality was ok, but from name and description people were expecting a little different product. I know this because I asked my clients about it some time after product purchase. Anyway, I fixed that with editing both product and sales page.
The most important part is that you can always change something – product, customer service or any other point you have described. Only with some action you can make things better.
Sales pitch is important and we have to fully describe in our sales pitch what our products do to resolve their problems. A poor sales pitch leads to no sale or conversion which destroy any business. BDW great post Thanks
Thanks AJ Agrawal !!!
Niche is really very important. This article is really helpful for my business. Thanks for sharing.
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I have had a website for more than a year now getting only 3000 average views a month but they are all the correct niche because they are signing up for the newsletter I offer but very few if any are buying every month and I cant say the product sucks because it is loved by many and not a seasonal product I am stuck.
Hello Thabang,
We must always keep in mind the actual average conversion rates. Many do not realize how low they are. If you run an ad on AdWords (or most anywhere else), the average click-through-rate is about 1-2%. So you need 100 impressions to get 1-2 people to your site.
Then the average conversion rate is 1-2%. What that means is you only see 1 or 2 sales from each 100 visitors. If you have average conversions, 3000 views would generate about 30-60 sales. BUT, that is not likely because your visitors are not coming from a search where they were ready to buy.
Your visitors may have no buying intention at all, so they may not buy no matter what you do. That is why search traffic is so much more valuable. Is it obvious to your visitors what you are offering? Does your content regularly answer the questions buyers are asking?
Without knowing what the product is, I cannot offer any more insight.
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Thats great we cant purchase any without knowing the quality and quantity of the product. Quality is matter more on the product. Thank you so much for this article.
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Good list, if you’re in sales you’ve probably experienced each of these. All too often you want to blame it on the lead but to be truly great at sales you have to accept each failure as a lesson.
This post will help the internet people for building up
new web site or even a weblog from start to end.
Definitely AJ, these are scary problems to make, especially getting into the wrong niche, but more important is the product. thanks for blog.
As Steave Jobs say : “Marketing is about values. It’s a complicated and noisy world, and we’re not going to get a chance to get people to remember much about us. No company is. So we have to be really clear about what we want them to know about us.” the best prospect is a prospect that help cusotmers to understand why they need your product.
Thank you for this article Agrawal .
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Great post, here is my point of view-
Not having a buyer’s persona could be another reason, you will not get any leads if you start targeting everyone in room. Buyer’s persona help to target only people who matters to business and help in getting more leads.
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Definitely AJ, these are scary problems to make, especially getting into the wrong niche, but more important is the product.
Great article. Knowing the market and your product are essentials to make sure you know where your business is going. Thumb up for this article!
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This is a golden principle of any business to retain its old clients and it is the symbol of the growth of any business. If you are making new clients and losing old clients then its not a growth.Its actually a decline in your biz…..
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Its a golden principle of every business to retain their all clients forever and it is the sign of the growth of any business. If u r losing the old clients and making the new clients then u r on the same condition.
Nice article….
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Hi Aj,
Very nice article, I agree that going with the same niche always works and I really enjoyed reading the post.
thanks for sharing.
Hi AJ, You could also add a point to this article stating “Lack of Proper Research about the product”.
Often, marketers do not do a deep research about the product and fail at the end. One should buy the product herself, use it, analyze it, have a good research about the audience and competitors and then get go with it.
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Absolutely right! I agree with you without knowing about our products or services we can’t be sure that we are able to sell that things.
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Hello,
I must say that all the points you have shared are real and practical. Analysing the market and target prospects are very important and also building relationship is very important.
Thank You.
Hey agrawal,
Really, great and informative article, keep it up, I’m agree with you, we should make good relationship with old clients.
Hi AJ and Gail. I believe that follow up is the most important thing to being successful in my business. Most of my customers are people who have been introduced to the product I sell by other distributors. When they don’t follow up, either with new prospects or existing customers, the customer goes online and hopefully finds me. Then I make sure that I stay in touch with them. This approach has been working well for me for several years.
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Really it’s a good article very useful thank you very much to provide me that information this article is very helpful AJ and thanks for sharing with us.
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I agree, sometimes prospects don’t buy what you are selling because your product sucks or your company has a bad reputation. In this case, make them change their perception about your brand.
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Superb Knowledge, I have learned it something new. Basically, I am regular visitor on this site and I have visited on this site and learned something new. Thanks, A lot for shared.
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This could greatly help sales people and marketers who often have no idea on what went wrong..Thanks for sharing.
Yes, I do agree with you that understanding the customer needs is very important and we should not impose our decisions to the buyer.
Well this article is very helpful AJ and thanks for sharing with us.
nice share! “If you have only spent a few occasions with your prospect it may be tempting to give up, but don’t because they may simply need more time to think about it. “you are inspiring me
Great job in putting in simple and easy to understand language which is unique skill.
Thank you for laying this out so clearly..! 🙂
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That’s a good stuff for understanding the actual point, about what you are talking about. Really it’s a good article.
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Taking into account, prospect and other such things are really effective for the mind set to run on proper track. And abiding by the last point, hard work does pay off.
Hi Agarwal,
Nice article overall but I can’t get what you mean to say on the “Lead went cold point” . But you expressed good through this article about buying your own products.
Thanks again for the article
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Hi Virjeet,
What he means is that you really need to follow up with leads immediately or they won’t remember you.
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Once again a good Post from AJ Agrawal. In my experience we forgot to renewal the old customers who had good experience with us. We should keep the relationships with our old clients. Contacts provides the best returns.