Call it out:
There are lots of barriers between you and the confidence of your prospect. It either starts in your mind or hers. She things you’re too expensive, you think your product line is too narrow, you get the point. Whatever it is, doubt is going to kill your deal if you don’t diffuse it. And the earlier you diffuse the better.
But when you call it out, it disarms them. If it’s real, you’ve already taken away the ammo they could use against you. If it’s not real, you have a chance to defend yourself. But you can’t defend yourself against an enemy if you you’re not sure that it exists, so don’t be afraid to ask.
One quick disclaimer: Once you call it out, move on immediately. If you dwell too long, you’ll come across as obsessed with your own weakness, and that will cost you more confidence than you can afford.
I’ll give you two examples. The first in one-on-one selling, the second is for advertising.
Here’s a sales piece I recently created to diffuse all the excuses I hear at decision time. It’s called the “I have to think about it checklist”.
Here’s the set up; we have identified the prospect’s budget, and picked a day that I will present a proposal. I present this list BEFORE we confirm the time in which I present the proposal. It goes as follows:
“I’ll Have to Think About it” Checklist
Please review each of the following statements and make sure we address any of these issues before our next meeting.
• “I never make decisions on the spot”
• “I still need you to find out about (blank) for me”
• “I still have to talk this over with (blank)”
• “I have to shop around a little to make sure I’m getting a fair price”
• “This is a lot of information… I need time to take it all in and digest”
• “We’re putting this whole radio idea on the backburner”
• “I need to listen to the station first”
• “This is more money than I wanted to spend and other things are a higher priority”
• “I have to figure out how to rearrange some things in our budget”
• “I really just needed your rates to negotiate with my current vendor”
• “By the way, did you know I have an ad agency?”
I expect a “yes” or “no” answer to my proposal at our next meeting. If anything might keep us from reaching a “yes” or “no”, please discuss that with me prior to the meeting.
This strategy is new, but it has already made me money. I suggest adapting it to fit your sales system, pasting in the most common excuses you hear from your prospects.
FYI: Everything you read on this web site is my intellectual property. So if you plan to use it, you would be wise to credit me on the piece.
Now for the advertising example. This is a while back that was immediately successful. Another disclaimer: I was a very bad boy and broke some of my own rules in this spot (ie. short term promotions). Naturally, the short-term part of it came back to bite me. I advise strongly against such a strategy.
The part of this ad I’m proud of is the positioning strategy: I had a client with good prices, but an ugly showroom. To avoid disappointing customers with its appearance, we ran the following:
At Michael’s furniture we have gorgeous products for your home, but our building is just plain ugly. This is Mattress Mike, owner of Michael’s Furniture. Our awkward showroom is the eye sore of Van Nuys. Even the furniture gets embarrased. But our ugly showroom is the reason we offer the world’s finest furniture at the lowest prices! So come to Michael’s in Van Nuys this week for our Labor Day Tent sale and get a free 5×8 area rug with any purchase… a $200 value. Part of the proceeds will be given to Jerry’s Kids. Visit Michaelsfurniture.net or call 818.904.9414.
Bottom Line: Identify anything stands between you and the confidence of your prospect. Get it all on the table now, and it probably won’t get you later.