Have you ever been talked out of a sale? Or even worse talked a prospect out of one?
This story was related by a colleague, whom we’ll call Fred.
He wanted to artificially turf his back yard. The salesperson was excellent. Explained the whole process. Fred was happy. Knew the price. Was ready to give the go ahead and told him so. Until these fateful words from the salesperson.
“Would you like to get a better price?” “Huh? What do you mean?”
“If we could make the product cheaper would you be interested in that? “What do you mean?” If you sign right now and pay a deposit I’ll give you a 10 percent discount.”
Then followed dare I say it a car dealer’s tactic where the salesperson phoned their sales manager and put Fred on to try and convince him to sign there and then. Fred told me it felt very orchestrated, like a multi-level marketing meeting!
So how would you feel if someone did this to you? What would you do?
Fred recounted two feelings. He got “emotional”, and felt confused and suspicious. You mean the price wasn’t your best one initially? It got his guard up and left a bad taste in this mouth. It felt as if the product needed justification and the deal needed to be sweetened.
Fred instantly went from enthusiastically ready to buy to immediately backing off. Said he wasn’t ready to make the decision and that was that.
So what are the lessons?
There are a couple.
First have a sales process which respects your buyer’s intelligence. Always remember. The first sale is always to yourself. Be very clear on your own value proposition and be secure in the belief you’re providing value for money. Then you don’t have to resort to cheap, car salesman tactics of scarcity to seal the deal.
And when a prospect is ready to buy stop talking. Tell them what the next steps are, sign the deal and everyone’s happy.
Could this be happening to you? Would you even know? What could it be costing you if it did?
If you’d like to discuss this give me a call.
Till next time, this is Rashid Kotwal.
