The Way to Get Rid of a Bomb is to Defuse It
Has this ever happened to you?
A prospective buyer gives all the signs of a sale, but his dog ate the checkbook the night before your closing meeting and can't buy today. Or maybe some other reason sprouts up, inhibiting the sale at the last minute.
How do we avoid these types of objections and play offense instead of defense? Wouldn't it be much more effective if we knew how to "defuse the sales bomb" before it blew up?
Of course, it would, but how do we do it?
Let's pretend we know our prospects are typically sensitive to delivery times, yet our experience helps us finesse through the conversation - it might sound something like this:
You: "Gina, one of the things I've learned about our customers is their sensitivity to lead times. We are located 369 miles away from your facility; is that going to be a deal breaker?"
Gina: "It's not ideal of course, that may pose a problem."
You: "I can see where you're coming from, would you be open to chatting about how we might address this?"
Gina: "Yup"
You: "..thought you might, do you mind taking the lead here?"
Bringing the future into the present is so crucial to controlling our sales process. When we artfully approach potential roadblocks before our counterpart does, we avoid having to play "defense" - it's too exhausting!
This strategy can be dropped into essentially any situation where we might expect an obstacle to arise: affordability, lead time, decision stalls, credibility, etc. When applied effectively, we achieve what every salesperson desire - CLARITY!
Knowing the clear next steps takes all the anxiety out of the process.
Don't worry, I've taken the easy route before - but it always seemed to bite me in the rear later on. I've learned how to empathize with the prospect by sharing third party stories that highlight some of the key obstacles I feel might arise in the future. Both sides will benefit when we suggest to co-design a solution with our customers and clients.
We are obviously sharing our worries up front, but history tells me that this only builds credibility in our prospect's eyes.
I can understand how this may seem counter-intuitive at first - but how can anyone be upset? We are simply using our experience to help them peek around future's corner and defuse anything that might implode the deal.
If the prospect decides our roadblock is too huge to overcome, wouldn't we want to know early on before wasting too much time together?
In Sandler speak, we call all of these make-or-break moments "Wimp Junction." Defined: The position of approaching a forked up situation and the only two options are to ask the tough question that's already in our head OR simply take the easy route and brush by the details...be a professional - take the road that differentiates ourselves.
When we feel something, we must say it!
** My challenge to the readers is to put your empathy to the test and identify at least 3 potential "bombs" that you can see your prospects bringing to the table.
** Then come up with a few questions that will help you finesse your way through these landmines!
