You ask your customer about their timeframe to purchase and they say “as soon as possible.” Or, “sooner than later.” Beware, these responses are sales killers! If you just accept this kind of generic response without further qualifying what your customer really meant by saying, “ASAP,” you are in for a rough road ahead. On the surface, their response sounds great. But on the flip side, that response is so vague that no one really knows what it specifically means. This my selling friends is the part that might kill your sale, or may result in not getting it when you think you are going to get it. Let me share a story with you…
Several years ago, I met with a big customer down in Rhode Island. I talked with the customer on a few occasions about their timeframe and we agreed that a purchase would be made by the end of the year. After many meetings with the client, and after working our tails off on addressing every follow up item and piece of information that they asked for, we found ourselves in the month of December holding what I thought was our last meeting before they purchased. At the end of the meeting, I brought up timeframe again. I point-blank asked if we could get this contract signed in December before year-end (as discussed). The customer looked me in the eye and responded with, “we need this as soon as possible.” I instantly became delighted with this response and I accepted it… without further qualifying.
I made the terrible mistake of not further qualifying what he meant. Meaning, I should have asked him specifically what he had in mind when he said “we need this as soon as possible.” Instead, I got “happy ears” and excited. I figured that we had three more weeks in the month to get things finalized and that I was in good shape with the deal coming in before year-end. WRONG!
Guess what happened? The deal was closed nine months later (in September), yes, you read this right! And the worst part, I lost! They went with my competitor. OUCH!!!!!!!!! Now this was a painful experience that bothered me for years. I never made this mistake again.
So what would be the correct way of handling this if we could turn back time and have a second chance? Here is what I would have done and what you should do when you get the “sooner than later,” or “ASAP” response: As soon as the customer responded with, “we need this as soon as possible,” I should have paused and responded with: “Wow, this is great news! Let me just ask a question so that I am on the same page with you. When you say, “as soon as possible,” do you mean right now, or like this afternoon? I am not asking a loaded question or anything. It’s just if my boss asked me for something as soon as possible, I would probably drop what I was working on and do what he is asking me right now.” Now pause and let the customer respond. You see what we did here? We took it a step further and you sought clarity by further qualifying versus just getting all excited and accepting his initial response. Now that we have done this, the customer would have elaborated on what he was envisioning playing out when he said “as soon as possible.” Or he would have hesitated and crumbled because they didn’t know the answer or, they had more research to do, or a hundred other things. Which you can then further qualify so that you can demystify things with your customer and know where you really stand!
Next time you hear, “as soon as possible,” or “ASAP,” or “sooner than later,” red flags should go up! Remember this story and further qualify to understand what they specifically mean.
-Happy Selling!