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Written by Hamish Knox; President of Sandler in Calgary, Canada
Creating accountable, sales focused organizations in Calgary
Mike Tyson said, “everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”
Salespeople who get punched in the mouth (e.g. when their prospect brings previously unmentioned people to a meeting or when a prospect says, “looks good, we’ll get back to you”) tend to either defend, which is a losing strategy, or dump features-and-benefits (case studies and testimonials) on their prospect hoping that they will land a lucky strike that will give them the “win.”
This doesn’t mean that they are bad salespeople just that they are stuck in a script or to their plan. Any deviation from that script means they retreat to the comfort provided by their product training instead of listening to their prospect and asking questions to discover if this prospect is a good fit to work with them.
Next time you get punched in the mouth by a prospect remember follow this game plan to give you time to clear your head and regain control of the meeting
- Ask a clarifying question – in the “extra people in a meeting” example that could sound like, “thanks for inviting your colleagues. Curious what they hoped to accomplish with us to make this a good use of their time.”
- Shut up – like a fighter who attempts to clear their head by charging forward and attacking, salespeople who get punched in the mouth attempt to clear their head by talking. Ask your clarifying question and shut up. Count backwards from 15 in your head if you need to occupy your mind to prevent you from filling empty space.
- Use their data against them – while attempting to uncover a prospect’s budget, a client of mine heard on of the prospect’s party mention that they had looked into a similar project recently and had received a “really good quote” for the work. My client asked what “really good quote” meant to them in round numbers and established that their prospect was comfortable with an investment higher than what my client planned to quote.
Remember that when a bit of information, be it a budget number or deadline for implementation, comes out of your prospect’s mouth it is real. When that same data comes out of your mouth you’re a pushy salesperson. - Make a bold statement to prompt action – if your prospect continues to punch you in the mouth a bold statement like, “my sense is you’ve decided to never do business with us” or “feels like you’ve already made a decision” prompt your prospect to act because they only have two choices. Either they say, “yes” or they say, “no” both of which are wonderful responses because you can pivot off either with something like, “tell me more” or “help me understand why.”
Key to using bold statements with your prospects is having “walk away” posture. That is you give your prospect the impression that you are agnostic to their answer. You’re okay with walking away just as much as you are okay doing business.
Getting punched in the mouth sucks. Practise a prospect punching you in the mouth with your colleagues and manager so when they happen with a prospect you’re prepared to keep your head straight.
Until next time… go sell something.
Crash A Class
Evaluating Employee Performance
Do you ever feel like performance evaluations are a “check the box” exercise? Are you seeking ways to support your employees beyond your evaluation meeting?
Join Hamish on Thursday, June 7 from 8:30-10:30am at Sandler’s Sales Leadership session on performance evaluations.
You’ll leave with new mindsets and techniques and have a chance to observe a role play that puts concepts into practise.
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