Don't Back Down

I played the first 26 of my 103 holes in the charity golf marathon by myself. That gives a salesman a lot of time to think, in addition to trying to figure out where the ball was going (a frightening concept for that long of a day).

I'll tell you more about how the day went later, but I had a thought that was worth sharing here.

Your willingness to have a difficult conversation with a customer is directly related to your belief in yourself as a seller

"The customer is always right" is a myth. While empathy is a good place to start in any tough conversation, you have to be able to tell the truth.

When you're afraid to talk about the facts, you're showing that you're afraid of your customer. That puts you in a tough position. You're not setting boundaries, and you're setting the precedent with your clients that they can get away with things. That's not going to go well in the long run.

Steven Covey said that, on a long enough timeline, any relationship that isn't win-win becomes lose-lose. Kicking the can down the road doesn't save the relationship, it just postpones the inevitable. There's not a lot of integrity in allowing that, and we train our customers how to buy from us. This kind of behavior just makes it harder to sell and succeed down the line.

While we're talking about relationships, aren't empathy and truth keystones of the good ones? When does fear ever play a role?

Don't back down

Most sales reps act this way because they don't believe they can make up for the potential revenue loss if things go sideways. The more sizeable the customer, the more hesitation to have the tough talk.

If you don't believe you can replace that amount of revenue in a timely manner, you'll probably back down and hope it all goes away. But the truth is undefeated, and it eventually comes to light at some point.

That's why these conversations need to be had. They set the tone for how you do business going forward. Real conversations like these actually fortify your relationships instead of breaking them down.

They're usually not easy (though sometimes they are). You might need some help. A manager or a senior leader is a great asset to you for role-playing or even hopping on the call

You could replace them if you needed to, right?

I got carried away with the tough conversations part and almost buried the lede...

The fear around these situations is also tied directly to your sales pipeline. These exchanges go a lot better when you have someone in line right behind them to buy from you.

But I don't want to make this a prospecting piece. It's really about belief.

Even if you don't have much pipe right now, do you believe you can go and create it? Do you believe in the number of opportunities out there for you and your ability to close them?

This is actually the easier of the two issues at hand. Nobody likes the icky feeling of standing up to a customer, even though it needs to be done, but it's a double whammy when you feel like you don't have firm ground to stand on to go and replace them if necessary.

My suggestion is that you work on this part first. Remember why you sell what you sell. Remember the impact it makes and the people it helps. Remind yourself of the value only you can create. Then remember that there's more demand out there than you can imagine. You only need to find it.

I believe in you. Do you?

Until next week,

JB

PS- We set another fundraiser record this year at the golf marathon, raising well over $150,000 in a single day. When I first participated in 2014, I think it was the first time we got over $20K. It's a real credit to the organizers and the volunteers to keep this event and the infrastructure growing. It's also a credit to all of you who have continued to donate and support it over the years. Thank you. ??

There's still time to donate $100 and join our coaching cohort, which starts this Tuesday afternoon.

I'm Jeff Bajorek.?Salespeople look to me to help them overcome mediocrity while selling with integrity. You never sell better than when you?#SellLikeYou.

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