Have you ever noticed how much easier people find it to talk about other people’s problems? Human behavior sometimes prompts us to avoid conflict or tension because they tend to be uncomfortable.
I want you to think about the parts of your sales process that tend to be uncomfortable. Does it happen when you’re uncovering pain? When you’re discussing budget? When you get to the moment of making the decision?
These are pivotal parts of your process and definitely shouldn’t be avoided. In order to make them smoother, sometimes it’s beneficial to put them in third party terms.
For example, if you have a prospect who is struggling with price or creating a budget, it can be much more comfortable to share what other people have done in their shoes. It might sound like this:
“You know, John, I was just talking to a client the other day who was working to figure out where he was going to pull money from to create his professional development budget. He ultimately decided that his team needed this workshop enough to pull some of their technical training funds over. I’m not sure if something like that would make sense here…”
What about when conversations get awkward because someone is sharing uncomfortable information with you? Perhaps they need your service or product because of a situation they wish was different. For example:
“Jane, I think a lot of people struggle with this exact same thing. I was just having a conversation last week with a business owner who is downsizing as well. It was difficult for him to make the decisions he knew he needed to; ultimately, he decided that he needed to move forward for the health of his company. This can be an emotional process.”
Third party stories provide people a productive conversation with several important elements:
- Social proof (you are not alone)
- Credibility (I have helped other people overcome similar issues)
- A relief of tension (steering the conversation away from head-to-head)
If you’d like some help incorporating authentic third-party stories into your process, reach out and I’d love to help.
