Blog Entry

You’ve carefully cultivated a tough prospect from the very first point of contact. After weeks or even months of deliberation and hand-wringing, they’re finally showing signs of being ready to sign their name on the dotted line. Now, you just need one final push to get them to make a commitment.

Dealing with a reluctant buyer can be frustrating for busy VARs who often don’t have the luxury of dedicating all the time it may take to convince hesitant prospects to take the next step. But if you let any impatience or frustration peek through, you could alienate your antsy buyer and end up wasting all the time you’ve invested.

With a bit of finesse and a lot of deep breathing, you can help convince your nervous buyer to overcome their hesitation and finally, finally finalize the deal. Use these simple guidelines to help ease your reluctant prospect toward the finish line.

Aim for a low-key, low-pressure approach.  If you sense that a prospect is a bit nervous, rein in your powers of persuasion and adopt a friendly, laid-back attitude. Position yourself as a consultant and an advocate, rather than a salesperson. A hard-sell approach is usually not advisable for hesitant clients.

Probe for objections and points of resistance.  In the natural course of your conversations and back-and-forth discussions, see if you can identify the obstacles or concerns that may be feeding your client’s hesitation. It’s important to try to carry out your investigation in a very subtle way—this isn’t the Spanish Inquisition!

Juggle your schedule to allow for a more time-intensive approach.  If you know your reluctant client is going to require a bit of extra hand-holding to make it to the finish line, try to move things around to accommodate their needs. It’s never fun to allocate more time than you’d like to one particular deal, but in some cases, there’s just no way around it.

Offer a free trial, a shortened contract, or another lower-risk option.  Hesitant buyers often have risk-averse personalities. See if you can figure out the part of the deal that’s keeping them up nights and try to modify it a bit so it will feel less threatening to them.

Know when to cut your losses.  Most hesitant buyers can be prodded across the finish line with a little extra help and assurance. However, it’s important to be able to tell the difference between a genuinely interested buyer who has a few concerns and a “Looky Loo” who has no real intention of ever committing to a deal. If you start to suspect the latter, it may be best to firmly but diplomatically press for a binding commitment, either way.

What’s your favorite way to ease hesitant buyers toward the finish line? Share your secret techniques in the comments.