Stephan Schiffman's 101 SUCCESSFUL SALES STRATEGIES by Stephan Schiffman;

Author:Stephan Schiffman;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: epub, ebook
Publisher: Stephan Schiffman
Published: 2005-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

Strategy #54

Know When to Say, “I Didn't Anticipate That”

Some days you might feel this way: “I just had the worst meeting of my life. I had no idea what to say when the prospect shot me down. What can I do in a situation like that?”

The most successful salespeople work from the principle that all responses are anticipated. What does that mean? It means that, as professionals, we've had enough conversations with enough people over the years to develop a reliable sense of what's likely to happen next during an exchange with a prospect or customer. Put more bluntly, experienced salespeople don't get taken by surprise all that often. If that's a fact of sales life — and it is — we can actually use this principle to our advantage in turning around the negative responses we hear.

Consider the following scenario. Alan, a young sales representative in the telecommunications industry, meets with Bill, a middle-aged MIS director at a Fortune 100 company. At the end of the first meeting, Alan says to the prospect, “I think this meeting went well. Why don't we set a meeting for next Tuesday at three o'clock so I can show you a plan of how we might be able to work together?” And then the roof seems to fall in.

“Alan,” Bill says, “why don't we do it this way. If you want to, you can go ahead and e-mail your information to me, and I'll call you back if I'm interested.”

What should Alan do? Suppose Alan were to try to explain why he wanted to meet again? How would that go over? More than likely, Bill — the senior person in the conversation — would get annoyed. He might even suggest that Alan do a little more homework about his industry before attempting to continue the conversation. But consider another approach, one that emphasizes Alan's experience in the world of sales, levels the playing field, and points the relationship in a positive direction.

Suppose that, when Bill puts up a roadblock by saying something like, “Go ahead and e-mail the information to me instead,” Alan looks a little startled. There's a brief pause. Then Alan says, “Gee, I really didn't anticipate that you would say that.”

What happens next? Ninety-five times out of a hundred, if Alan says that and stops talking, Bill will ask a neutral question — like, “Really, why not?” Suddenly, the playing field is level!

Alan can now say, “Well, frankly, our conversation was going so well, I really expected a different outcome. Usually, at this stage of the conversation, people say they want to meet with me again. Just out of curiosity … why wouldn't you want to meet with me again?”

By saying, “I didn't anticipate that,” and then asking for guidance in this way, you'll usually get much better information about exactly where you stand with the prospect. And that's what you want: the right information.

For instance, in this scenario, Bill might say, “Well, the truth is, Alan, we have to

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