Matt Ryder explains why sales reps lose deals: they let prospects stay vague about what they want. Use the SMART framework early to pin down concrete, measurable goals. When you force prospects to articulate specific results, they can't ignore the deal.
Most sales reps lose deals because they let the prospect stay vague. Now, vague sounds like we want to grow, we want more leads, we want better results. I want to lose weight. Vague has no urgency. You have to drill it down. The best is like the SMART acronym. So specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely. You have to have all those things in order to actually create the urgency and confine the acceptable parameters of the conversation and try and do that early. So if I'm early on in a call and I want to establish— and I'm selling marketing services, I don't go, what are you doing for marketing now? I say, what are you doing to get more leads, to to get better leads, whatever that qualifier is that they want, because their current thing is not going to be changed based on my pitch because I'm going to be replacing you anyway. In the same way, from selling sales training, I don't care what your sales process is, I'm going to change it. Like, what are you doing at the moment to get better, to get faster, to handle objections, to get a better skill set? These are the things that I really care about, and this is what stops things from being vague and really confines the conversation. If you let them stay vague, then their commitment will be vague, and you're going to attach a lot of importance to goals that are non-specific and don't really mean anything to the prospect.
