Sales Blog: Are Indecisive Prospects Killing Your Sales?

Nothing kicks you in the stomach like these words. You know it’s a ploy. The prospect’s blocking, putting up a barrier, throwing you back.Indecisive prospects. Who hasn’t dealt with them?  Everything seems to move along during your sales call, and a prospect nods positive with everything you have to say. And just when you think he or she will be a breeze to close, you hear, “Let me think about.”

But it’s OK. You might respond with, “I understand. Would you mind sharing with me what you might have to think about?” But even that may not move your prospect to come clear about what’s holding him or her back from committing.  

Your best bet may be to agree and then get the prospect to agree to a clearly defined next step—to OK a next appointment to explain the thinking behind the ruse to delay a decision.

Just so you know-- buyers delay buying decisions for any number of reasons. Some are price shoppers who want to squeeze out the best price. Some are value shoppers who want to get the proverbial best bang for the buck. Still others may be comparison shoppers who need to check out all the options. And others may be pure research junkies who are reluctant to buy until they’ve researched things to death before buying.

But whatever a prospect’s buying style, keep this in mind: Prospects behave indecisively for two, key reasons:

First: Your behaviors are likely indecisive. Stop focusing on what to do about prospect indecisiveness. You can’t change that. But you can change your less-than-decisive behaviors to decisiveness ones.

You’re prospects mirror neurons will pick up, however unconsciously, on your behaviors. If you behave indecisively, your prospect will likely mirror your indecisive behavior.

Second:  A buyer’s indecisiveness is a sure signal that you haven’t created enough urgency for him or her to buy. This means you haven’t gotten to, or made the most of, the buyer’s pain. The less urgent the pain, the less urgent the will be to buy. The greater the pain made explicit, the greater the urgency to buy.

Here’s the take away: Prospect indecisiveness to buy isn’t the problem. You can’t control that. Your indecisive behavior is. You can control that.