What is a tire kicker in sales? Definition, identification, and tips to convert

A prospect reached out, they asked all the right questions, you gave them helpful information, and you gave them a price.

The only problem? They didn't convert.

What happened? A tire kicker slid into your inbox.

Nearly every sales pipeline attracts its fair share of tire kickers. But what if your sales team could identify a tire kicker early – before they begin asking questions and raising objections?

Let's explore how to identify tire kickers in your sales process, common tire kicker behavior, and how to identify and manage tire kickers, encouraging your team to focus more time and energy on genuine prospects.

What is a tire kicker?

The term "tire kicker" comes from car dealerships. Automotive sales reps use this term to describe customers who go around the lot checking cars, even going as far as requesting multiple test drives, only to leave without buying anything.

This term is now widely used across sales industries, referring to potential customers who engage in a sales conversation but waste time with endless questions and low purchase intent.

Typically, tire kickers:

• don't align with any of your validated customer personas,
• haven't performed independent research about the solution they need,
• lack the budget necessary for a purchase,
• don't need your product or service urgently, or
• display a combination of these traits.

Sometimes, these prospects become tire kickers because they aren't the decision-makers or because they're just engaging with your team to compare prices. However, while it can seem like all tire kickers are time wasters, in some cases, the right sales tactics and approach has the potential to move a deal forward.

Can tire kickers be serious buyers?

Yes, a tire kicker can indeed become a serious buyer. However, if a prospect starts showing typical tire kicker behavior, most successful salespeople choose to allocate their time to more promising leads.

Genuine tire kickers lack interest in buying, but others might actually be potential customers who are cautious and feel worried about making the wrong decision. Being able to tell the difference between these prospects can save your sales team time and increase your profitability.

So, can you convert tire kickers into customers?

Not every hesitant buyer is a tire kicker, but identifying true prospects in a sea of time-wasters comes with some challenges. Often, it seems like a lost cause trying to convert tire kickers into buyers, but a conversion could be within reach if your team can tell the difference.

The key to challenging conversions is to make the deal a no-brainer for the decision-maker. If your prospect worries about making the wrong decision, they may just need a little help working through their decision paralysis.

Think about what keeps your prospect up at night. Identifying and empathizing with these pain points and showing how your product or service provides the solution can move the deal forward.

Offer your team's professional knowledge about your product or service. Show how you can definitively solve one or multiple problems within their organization.

The goal here is to strategically engage with your prospects.

Address your prospects' concerns directly and leverage your professional knowledge to effectively resolve their issues and close sales deals efficiently.

Remember, even though it's crucial to identify tire kickers early on in your sales funnel, some hesitant buyers will convert if your sales team knows which levers to pull.

How to spot tire kickers during your sales process

Identify the red flags early on and free up your sales team to focus on leads who are genuinely interested in your product or service. Here's how to differentiate tire kickers from your ideal customer:

They don't fit your ideal profile of potential customers

An ideal customer profile (ICP) is a clear, detailed description of the type of customer who would benefit most from your product or service and is most likely to find value in it. You can often analyze existing customers who have a high lifetime value to create an ICP for your brand.

To determine if someone is a tire kicker or a legitimate sales lead, compare potential clients to your ideal buyer's persona. This helps you qualify leads and segment them accordingly to avoid wasting time on ones that aren't a good fit.

Here are some good questions you can ask about potential leads to compare them to your ICPs and qualify them:

• Are you in an industry or area we specifically serve?
• Do you match the demographics we target?
• Can our product or service solve a specific problem you're facing?

If your lead answers "no" to these questions, they probably don't align with your company's ideal buyer's persona.

Your team can use these insights to realistically target more promising prospects in your sales pipeline. Typically, this helps your profit margin improve as your sales team spends more time meeting with decision-makers who truly fit your ideal customer profile.

They don't know what solution they're looking for

Answers are the most accessible they've ever been, and buyers are more well-informed than ever before. Most serious leads perform some research as part of their decision-making process before reaching out to a company, effectively "warming" themselves by identifying the solution to their problems in advance.

Some leads are unprepared for their first interaction with a sales rep. These are often termed 'cold leads.'

Cold leads can still convert, of course. But they need more guidance and usually require more information to fully understand your company and what its offerings can do for them.

If a cold lead seems interested in your company and isn't well-informed about the solutions you offer, you may be dealing with a tire kicker. This could be a sign they're not ready to commit to a purchase.

A caveat that we sometimes see here at Streak is leads who are exploring CRM products because they need help defining their own business processes and workflows. These leads may initially appear like they don't know what solution they're looking for, but our team has a huge opportunity to educate them and help them define their process.

So, even though this isn't a definitive marker of a tire kicker, leads who don't know what solution they're looking for may need more time and information before moving forward in your sales pipeline.

They can't afford what you're selling or want free stuff without commitment

Budget objections are quite common among all sales leads, but this is an especially common practice among tire kickers. Some will even push to try getting the lowest price possible and freebies, despite having no interest in buying.

Typically, these prospects haven't researched what a certain product or service should cost. Or if they have, they're reviewing promotional or introductory prices and not comparing the value they get at each pricing tier. This leads to unrealistic budget expectations.

The best prospects to focus on are those who have both the budget and decision-making power. Engaging with these prospects is more lucrative and less frustrating than trying to sell someone intent on finding the cheapest options.

Tire kickers may not be ready to buy immediately. You're usually better off supplying them with free tools or resources. These can keep them engaged with your brand and potentially encourage a conversion down the line. Even though they're not the perfect fit right now, with the right nurturing, they could become valuable clients in the future.

They spend more time talking about their personal life than your product or service

Establishing a good connection with sales leads can go a long way, but lots of chit-chat and open-ended questions aren't always about building rapport. Tire kickers cross the fine line between friendly conversation and take focus away from discussing business. If a prospect spends excessive time talking about non-business topics, they may lack serious intent to purchase.

A serious potential customer will want to focus on the specifics of your products or services. They ask detailed questions and want to know all about the features, benefits, ROI, and other relevant information.

If the conversion frequently shifts away from these topics, you may have a tire kicker on your hands. There may be more interest in social interaction than a business transaction.

They lack the authority to say yes

Another tell-tale sign that you're dealing with a tire kicker is they don't have the power to make purchasing decisions. Even without the authority to say yes, these individuals might still engage in discussions, request detailed proposals or pricing, and ask numerous open-ended questions.

Streamline your sales process and increase your chances of closing a deal faster by knowing you're talking to the right person from the start. The first step is to determine who makes the final decision regarding this purchase. Early on in the engagement, ask direct questions to keep the conversation productive.

For example, if your prospect tells you they're looking into your products or services on behalf of a company, ask a few questions to learn more about their role.

If their role doesn't involve decision-making authority, ask who has that power in the organization and if it's possible to involve them in discussions going forward. You may want to ask the following questions:

• "Can you tell me about your role in the decision-making process? Who else is involved in making the final decision on purchases?"
• "Would it be possible to schedule a meeting with the primary decision-maker? I'd love to ensure we address all concerns and provide all information relevant to their needs."

Focus your discussions on the people who can move forward with decisions. Ask politely if there's anyone else involved in the decision-making process, as it's beneficial to include them in the discussions as soon as possible.

How can you tell the difference between tire kickers and a potential customer?

Tire kickers often resemble potential customers. They may ask similar questions, have common needs, and operate in the same industries.

The following table highlights the main differentiators between potential customers and tire kickers, so you never push a good lead away and always spot tire kickers early in your pipeline:

Potential customers:

• volunteer clear, detailed information about their pain points
• fit at least one target customer personas
• have a clear idea of what they want or need
• offer feedback or ask insightful questions that show a deep understanding of their issues
• may be referred by other satisfied customers or have already thoroughly researched your company
• understand the costs associated with your products or services
• communicate with other decision-makers
• can define a clear timeline for decision-making and action
• show eagerness to engage in detailed discussions or demonstrations
• remain responsive during follow-up communications

Tire kickers:

• offer only vague information about their needs
• often change the subject when deal specifics are mentioned
• only show interest in samples or free trials
• exhibit inconsistencies in their communication and follow-up efforts
• don't align with any of your target customer personas
• request more information than typical customers without progressing towards a purchase
• haven't researched your offerings and their benefits
• don't have a realistic budget or hold unrealistic expectations
• avoid engaging in decision-making conversations
• hesitate to commit to immediate action or define a timeline

Salespeople typically enter initial sales meetings expecting to speak with a typical customer. However, looking for the signs of a tire kicker early on is crucial to avoid spending too much time and effort on unlikely conversions.

Most of the time, prospects are genuinely interested in making a purchase, especially if the product or service is either a big investment or potentially impactful on their business's profitability. Engage with these motivated leads to increase your sales success and nurture long-term business relationships.

How to extract tire kickers from your sales pipeline

Spending excessive time trying to convert people who aren't ready to commit wastes valuable time. Remove tire kickers from your pipeline and have your team dedicate more energy to converting prospective clients into paying customers. Here's how you'll do it:

Build a qualification process to ensure they fit your ideal customer profile

Your qualification process is an essential sales tool that evaluates prospects before they enter your sales funnel. It involves determining what characteristics and behaviors your ideal customers share and creating a process that efficiently separates out leads who don't match the patterns.

You can start by adding a couple of questions that help you identify ideal customers in a lead generation web form on your website. Using a CRM tool like Streak, you can automatically add qualification data to your pipelines, segment leads based on their answers, and then create and customize your sales funnel for each segment.

Setting clear qualification criteria can also discourage tire-kicking prospects from working their way into your sales cycle.

Establish context by asking the right questions

Focus on the right leads at the right time by asking questions early on in the process - and don't forget to record their answers.

For example, you can prepare a list of questions to identify your ideal customer, and then you can record those questions in your sales pipeline to filter out tire kickers. With these questions in place, you can remove tire kickers from your prospect list and focus on decision-makers who are ready to make a decision.

Here are some questions you can use to establish context:

• What's your budget?
• Where do you work?
• What's your role within your organization?
• What specific challenges are you aiming to solve?
• What solutions are you currently using, and are they meeting your needs?
• Are there any other solutions you're currently looking at?

Ask questions to learn more about your leads, what they hope to accomplish, and why they're genuinely interested in your product or service. You'll have a better understanding of their real intentions and know where prospects are in their customer journey. Then, you can empathize with their needs and ensure your sales efforts are as productive as possible.

Take control of your conversation

Those who lead the conversation have more control over the deal.

Some prospects try dominating the conversation, but it isn't necessary to sit there passively listening. Instead, take control of the conversation and steer it in a direction that aligns with your goals.

Ask relevant questions to understand your prospect's needs. This approach helps you gather essential information and positions you to guide the conversation.

When you take control of the conversation, you can choose when to wrap it up. If the conversation isn't going anywhere, you can always thank them for their time before politely moving on.

This strategy gives you control over your sales, encouraging more focus on conversations more likely to lead to conversions.

Attempt a hard sell, then move on

The hard sell is an invaluable tool for quick tire kicker extraction. Instead of dragging through the process with time wasters, you'll focus on speaking with potential clients who are ready to make decisions and take action.

You're telling the prospect, "Please make a decision so we can proceed accordingly." Here's what you can say:

"You seem to be hesitating moving forward with this deal. If you can [get the budget together, schedule a meeting with the decision-maker, etc.] by next week, we're ready to go ahead. If that's not possible, perhaps now isn't the best time to work together."

"Based on what you've told me, it seems this particular offering might not meet your requirements. But I've looked into some alternatives, and I believe [alternative solutions that could be a better fit for them] might be better for your current requirements."

"Your time is precious, and I want to respect that. Do you think this solution could be in place and working for your team within [time frame of your average sales cycle]?"

Time is a valuable resource, and you should spend it on engagements that have a higher potential for success. Your goal here should be to push the prospect to make a definitive decision fast, even if it doesn't lead to a sale.

Improve your sales process and find serious prospects with Streak

As you can see, there are several concrete tactics you can use to focus your funnel on genuine prospects. Qualifying prospects and taking control of the conversation helps avoid overloading your sales process unnecessarily with time wasters and increases your profitability.

Tire kickers take time away from the prospects who are ready to make a decision, but you can make your process more effective by identifying them early on. Streak offers a customizable CRM inside your Gmail inbox to simplify contact management and remove leads who don't fit your ideal buyer's persona.

Try a 14-day free trial of Streak and see how much time you save qualifying prospects. It takes just 30 seconds to set up, so there’s no hassle. Here’s to nurturing the real decision-makers faster than ever.