How much revenue would you generate if you could close all the cases that you started this year? What good would you do with the extra money you would make?

 Breathing new life into stalled sales opportunities will make the difference. Here is a way to do it so you can get the business issued before year end.

Identify your stalled opportunities

  -  List and rank the stalls in order of your chances to close them. (e.g. high chance of closing to no chance of closing.)
  -  Prioritize opportunities based on the length of time it might take to get underwriting approval or investment dollars transferred.  

Identify when the stall occurred 

Troubleshooting Connect to Discovery conversation
The stall may have occurred when you tried to schedule a Discovery/Fact-finding meeting at the conclusion of your Connect conversation.

The prospect may have said, “I think we’ll stick with what we’re doing for now”, or “we’ll let you know when were ready to do something”.

Troubleshooting Failure to Gather Sensitive data
Perhaps it occurred during Discovery when you mentioned the need to review tax returns or investment statements.  Prospect, “Just show me what you have and I’ll compare to what I’ve got”.

Did the stall occur when you asked for a follow-up meeting?  Prospect, “Send me some information and I’ll let you know if I’d like to meet again”.

Troubleshooting Failure to Close the Sale

Many stalls occur when the prospect is asked to buy.  You may have heard, “I’ll need to think about it”, or “thanks for the great presentation, we’ll let you know what we decide”.

Determine the cause

Taking responsibility for stalls with qualified prospects empowers you to reboot the opportunity by taking corrective action. Answering the following questions will help you discover the cause of the stall. 

No interest – Was your transition to the topic ineffective?

  -  Did the prospect approach you or did you approach the prospect?
  -  What reason(s) did the prospect have for initiating the conversation if they approached you?
  -  Were the prospect’s reasons for initially talking to you related to the stalled opportunity or a different need?

Solution: Recall or gather more information and use transition to reopen your conversation.

No Trust – Did you do a poor job of relationship building by not listening enough or by rushing the process? 

• • Is the prospect currently a member?
  • If they own Thrivent solutions, did they buy them from you or someone else?
  • If they don’t own Thrivent solutions, was the client referred to you or do you have a prior relationship with them?

Solution: Take more time to listen and get to know one another.

No Need – Did your fact finding fail to uncover the real problem and motives?  

• • Did the prospect mention concerns or problems that could be solved by your solution?
  • If you mentioned a concern of people in similar circumstances what did the prospect say or do to confirm it was a concern of theirs?
  • Did the prospect express any negative opinions or attitudes of indifference regarding your process or potential product solutions?

Solution: Try again by asking more thought provoking and intimate questions related to the outcomes the prospect wants and the emotional reasons for their importance.

No Help – Is the prospect missing relevant information that would help to validate how your solution solves their problem? 

• • What did the prospect say to express their understanding of how your process or products will help them achieve important outcomes? 
  • Did the prospect tell you why they would buy your product and how it would solve their problem?
  • Did the prospect express any unresolved doubts regarding the usefulness of following your recommendations?

Solution: Support attitudes of agreement throughout your conversations. Use the closing summary to validate how having a new conversation will help the prospect solve their problem.

No Hurry – Are you probing deeply enough to understand and help the prospect connect emotionally with the benefits of taking action now? 

• • Is the prospect aware of unintended consequences such as increased cost or unavailability, if he or she continues to stall?
  • Did the prospect mention any other priorities that might be causing them to stall taking action?
  • If the decision included multiple decision makers, did you include them in your conversations?

Solution: Probe more deeply to better understand the prospect’s point of view.  Follow the CAPS™ Closing model to help the prospect validate and justify following your recommendation when you ask them to take action.  

Finding answers to these questions will help you determine the reason(s) for the stall.  They bring to light missing information you need to successfully reboot the opportunity. They will also help you avoid future stalls.

Prepare to re-engage the prospect in conversation

An attitude of servant leadership will help you prepare emotionally to re-engage the prospect.  One way to do this is to complete this sentence. “I will be helping this prospect... 

For example, if the stall is related to life insurance for a family with children the list might look like this.   “I will be helping this prospect:

• • Provide loved ones a home without house payments,
  • Money to write checks for college tuition when it’s due, and
  • Investments to guarantee adequate income for their spouse for as long as he or she lives”.

When thinking about each stalled opportunity, can you list outcomes you heard the prospect express as being important? 

If so, use what you heard as the basis for reopening your conversation. 

If not, you will benefit by making a list of probing questions to better understand motivations and outcomes important to the prospect.

Initiate new conversation

Increase your odds for success by following the CAPS™ Transition model.  Begin your transition using one of the prospect’s expressed concerns and conclude with an outcome that’s important to him or her.  This makes it’s easy for them to agree to reopen the conversation with you now.

If you are not sure what caused the stall, you may want to prepare a second transition in case your first one misses the mark.

Preparing probing questions in advance positions you to better understand your prospect’s point of view.  Answering your questions helps the prospect think about and decide what’s in their best interest. Their answers help you learn the information they need to validate and justify the purchase of your solution.

Do you have an associate or joint work partner you can brainstorm with to help you find answer to these questions or to practice your approach? 

Conclusion

You still have time to serve hesitant prospects before the end of the year.  If you don’t help them solve their problems, who will?
Rebooting and breathing new life into stalled opportunities saves you time because you can do it in less time than it takes to find a new prospect.

1. Identify your stalled opportunities
2. Identify when the stall occurred
3. Determine the cause
4. Prepare to reengage
5. Initiate new conversation

Guiding stalled opportunities to productive outcomes is one of the many ways you help members connect faith and finances for good.