Just because you can sell, doesn’t mean you should. There are times when it’s better to walk away from the close. Knowing when to do so is a key element to selling with integrity.
There are plenty of times when selling is NOT a good idea.
1. The person is obviously not ready for your services.
2. They have previously had other services providers they’ve worked with that all “failed” them. Pay attention to patterns on the part of your prospective client. If no one has been able to help them, what makes you think you will be the “golden” consultant?
3. They don’t respect your time, expertise or experience.
4. They ask for unrealistic outcomes and guarantees.
Thank you Kathleen, I couldn’t agree more. I just recently turned down a perfect project from an imperfect client when I realized that we were not going to work well together on it. Turning away those dollars is one of the hardest things I’ve done, but I’m still convinced I did the right thing. It really is true that you need to find clients who are a perfect fit, and then everything else, including the dollars, follows.
Thanks for your comments Toolie. It’s so true that it can be , hard to walk away yet, inevitably, in hindsight, we see it was the right thing to do.