📄 Why selling is not binary

In business, your job is to help a buyer advance, get better and solve problems.

Your job is not to ‘close a sale’.

Sometimes people buy from you, sometimes they don't, and that's up to them.

It really depends on what that person needs and wants, and it depends on the timing of your encounter.

Maybe their best choice is to not buy today, but tomorrow or next week.

Because even if someone has the money to work with you, it also needs to fit into their plans and projects.

And, they need to have a problem that they want solved with urgency.

But even if they do have the money, and they have the urgency, that still doesn't mean that right now is the right time for them.

Consider:

Whether you sell a product or service, in most cases a client will also need to dedicate a certain amount of time to the project - and that already starts before buying:

Even the decision to work with you or not requires an investment, in terms of the time and mental resources it takes to meet with you, think about the purchase, talk about it with their peeps... that's a lot more than you might realise. (also see: Are you selling them a problem?)

And maybe they just don't have the time for that right now.

This is why selling isn’t binary - it’s not a ‘sale/no sale’ scenario.

Because if you see it that way you’ll shut things down when your buyer tells you 'no'.

Instead, consider it a ‘sale, or something else' situation.

Where ‘something else’ is an outcome that you both benefit from - and, an outcome that keeps you in touch.

This change in attitude does magic for the relationships and conversations you have, because it takes the pressure off the situation.

Instead of the binary approach where 'no sale' means disappointment, you get to continue the relationship, and the conversation...

Until such time that the buyer is actually ready to buy.

What do you say, time to keep some of those conversations going?

Then let's pick a deal, and see what needs to happen to move it forward.