During an initial IT sales consultations, you want to take your clients to the next step, like a site survey. Sometimes prospects will jump right on that. But, what if they say, "Ill let you know; Ill get back to you," and thats as far as you get? You shouldn't even get to this reaction. In this article you'll learn how you need to find out how important the project is to your prospects in order to get IT sales.

If the prospects tell you that they want to migrate from DOS-based fax software to 32-bit fax software, that they want to be able to fax to PDAs out in the field or they want to set up VPNs between offices, you need to figure out if this is a distant wish, a possible project, or something they have really committed to. Its important to get a sense of how important this project is to them to get the IT sales.

You can ask them things like:

oIdeally if everything looks good, when would you like to get started? oHow important is the project? oWhen would you like to get started? oWhats holding you back from getting started now? oWhy havent you done this in the past?

This will help give you an idea of where they are in the process of IT sales.

Their Needs May Have Changed

Maybe theyve looked into this in the past and theyve thought it was prohibitively expensive. Or maybe theyve looked into it in the past and theyve determined its impossible. It may be a bigger solution challenge or needs analysis challenge than they anticipated.

If All Else Fails, Ask Direct Questions

If, however, even after figuring out the urgency level, you still are getting the blow off about IT sales, you can ask direct questions without being pushy, like:

o When do you think is a good time for me to follow up with you?
o When do you think youll be in a better position for us to talk about this again?

The Bottom Line about IT Sales

Always keep in a mind that not all nos today are nos tomorrow. The key to understanding which are comes from learning as much as you can about your prospect, their problem, and their urgency.

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