Cut Sales Risk to Close Deals

Sales risk can be a major obstacle to closing. Learn how to put your buyer’s mind at ease.

Sales expert Jill Konrath explains in a video that minimizing sales risk is important to the client, but salespeople rarely “understand just how much a factor that is.” To prove her point, Konrath relates a personal example when she “had a prospect from a big company who loved [her] proposal,” but ended up losing the account because “if a Mack truck hit [her], their entire sales training program would fall apart.”

To get a handle on sales risk, Konrath recommends “creating a list of all the potential things that your prospects could perceive as risky.” After that, determine the best ways to address those issues and include that in your pitch. Add in any other stumbling blocks that have come up in the past and determine the best solutions to those concerns, too. “Transparency is crucial in minimizing decision risk,” Konrath says, so be prepared to discuss every facet of what you’re pitching — warts and all.