The Sales Pro Insider Building Performance Profits and People

You know the saying, ‘I learned everything I ever needed to know in kindergarten?’ One of the kindergarten lessons on fire safety can be very effective in working through customer complaints and objections.

Yesterday a speaker shared a joke about two men who were chatting about their lives over drinks. 

The first man said, “Whenever my wife and I have a disagreement, she gets all historical on me.”

Man 2 said, “Don’t you mean she gets hysterical on you?’

“No,” said Man 1, “She gets historical.  She brings up everything that I have ever done wrong since we first met.”

I know – a cheesy joke.  Yet, how true is this when you have a customer who is unhappy?  Do they come to you with hysterics?  Or do they get all historical and bring up EVERYTHING they have ever been unhappy or dissatisfied about?

What to do in either case?  Follow one of our ‘kindergarten lessons.’  Stop, drop and roll! 

These 3 steps are used as the technique for when you are ‘on fire’ physically?  Ever felt  ‘under fire’ with a customer complaint or objection?  Well, we can use the same technique in those situations! 

Stop.  Stop talking.  Pause and listen.

Drop.  Your ego and defenses.  You won’t get very far if you also become hysterical or historical.

Roll.  Roll forward in a discussion that is open and focused on resolution.  How? 

1. First, assure them of your intent to help resolve the objection, question or complaint.
2. Then ask them an open question to draw out more information.  At first you might get more hysterics or history.  That is okay. 
3. Listen, paraphrase and ask another question if necessary. 
4. Restate that you want to help them and ask if they will explore possibilities with you.  (You’ve just changed the situation into a collaborative problem-solving opportunity.)
5. Work with them to share ideas, examples, ask for feedback and their ideas.
6. Agree on a course of action.

I think for myself the first part of stopping is the toughest. I want to jump right to telling them why they are wrong…and I make it worse.  Instead when I take that breath and stop.  I actually move forward more easily.  And very importantly, I help my customer stop the hysterics or the history lesson to resolve the issue. 

Something to think about isn’t it?  What do you think?

Filed Under: Negotiation, collaborative selling, sales tips

Over 22 years ago as a bride-to-be, I registered for wedding gifts (I know you are thinking I don’t look that old…I married young ).  One of the items I spent a lot of time selecting was our silverware.  I was so happy when we got 24 settings!  (When you are from a large Italian family, you need bulk everything.)  This silverware has served us well.  But I was ready for a change.

During our huge kitchen remodel a few years ago I replaced most daily-use items. Since then I have intermittently purchased new silverware – but none of it ever “felt” right in my hands.  It was too light, or the tongs were too short, etc.  I returned these samples after a thorough in-home review.  And kept using the old.  So, you can imagine my delight when I found the PERFECT silverware a few weeks ago.  It passed my test and my husband’s test so we started the process of removing the old and replacing with the new!

A moment of domestic bliss, right?  Let me emphasize the word moment…  We have three teenagers, and they did NOT see the need to make this change.  They didn’t like the feel of the new forks, thought the spoons wouldn’t hold enough ice cream, and on and on and on.  Wow!  Who knew they cared this much about anything domestic?? We listened to them, empathised with them and let them know we were still making the change.

What I didn’t realize is that they had decided THEY weren’t changing and they had taken some of the old silverware (which I was keeping for the move-out-of-the house process soon to come) and stashed it in the kitchen for their own use!  What?  It was that important to them?  As a good mom, I promptly removed those pieces and hid it all again.

For days, there was a lot of moaning and groaning every time they ate using silverware (a lot of “teen” food doesn’t need silverware they tell me – eating out of the box seems to be okay if I am not around.)  Last night was our first dinner where I did not hear one complaint.  Nearly two weeks for them to accept the change!

What does this have to do with sales?  Think about what you are selling…and the objections you hear…how many of those objections are because your prospect is comfortable with what they are now doing or using?  The objection might come out as price, timing, etc. but if you dig deeper you may find that the biggest obstacle is they don’t want to change! They are comfortable.  So what do you do?  In sales we don’t have two weeks to help move  through their discomfort. 

A couple of tips on working through an objection:

1. Ask more questions before responding with new information.  Hiding the silverware and forcing the change did not gain buy-in.  If I had taken the time to clarify what they were uncomfortable with, how we could transition to the new easier, what the downside to making the change was, etc. it might have gone more smoothly.
2. Listen to what they are saying.  Clarify further by digging deeper into the real reasons they are objecting.  It might not be a logical reason – it might be very emotion-based!
3. When responding, tie the benefits important to THEM into your response.  Make it about them, not about you.

Now, my approach to hiding the “old” won’t work in business.  But, often, taking the time to help them sort through their discomfort will remove the objection…or at least put it into a perspective where together you can work through it. 

What objection have you recently faced that was based on discomfort/change issues?

Filed Under: Negotiation, collaborative selling, sales tips

When we work with  objections from prospects and customers, the message we send has so much more to do with the context, tone and genuineness than the words we use.  In sales we need to build relationships and create trust.  But is telling people to “trust me” the most effective way?  I think not.

What do you think when someone says “trust me”?  Does it add to your trust or detract from it? 

We are in the midst of a major swimming pool reconstruction in our back yard.  The process of hiring a contractor for a project we didn’t want to undertake right now was kind of fun.  As a sales expert, I really appreciate getting to BE the customer!  Being the recipient of a good sales call focused on us is always enjoyable.  This wasn’t what we experienced with many of the contractors and I have more tips from that selection process to share with you at a later time.   This post is about what happened after we selected the contractor.

To  shorten a long story, we selected a reputable contractor whom my husband said “I don’t know what it is about him, but I think he knows his stuff and I trust him.”  So we checked references and signed on the dotted line to get this project going.  The short 12 weeks of  Wisconsin summer are fast approaching…

The project was in full motion – about 50% of the way there – when the contractor suggested a controversial approach to something.  I objected to his recommendation – I couldn’t understand how the filter system will work if we remove the piece of equipment he suggested. 

His response?  “Trust me!”

I objected again, he said “Trust me!” 

I told him that at this point in the project I have no choice but the trust will come after I see that what he recommends is working. 

His response?  “Well I wouldn’t be here if you didn’t trust me already.”

What do you think of his approach?  Yes, we did trust him when we made the initial decision. But in the process of implementation, there was more opportunity to build trust.  None of his “trust me”s helped.  I am still skeptical and he didn’t provide the information I needed to trust the recommendation.  I have lost some trust in him along the way.

In your sales, once you’ve had a decision made and are in the process of delivering/implementing,  how do you respond when you are questioned about your approach?  Do you try to understand what is really going on?  Or just give a response that you hope makes it all go away?

The sale and providing value does not end with the decision to purchase.  Our long-term sales success depends on how we continue to listen and respond.

A better appraoch for our pool situation would have been:  

Objection:  “Are you sure that is going to not be a problem later?”

Response:  “What are you concerned might happen?”  And then listen, empathize and give the appropriate information/details to justify it.

Trust me…this works. 

Filed Under: Negotiation, sales tips