Sales people are from Mars, Customers are from Venus: 3 tips on how to talk so salespeople will listen

In our professional lives, one of the most challenging and perplexing relationships we often have, is with sales people. In my 2 decades long career, I’ve been a sales person, worked alongside sales people, and have worked with literally thousands of prospects/customers. And of course, whether I was buying a vehicle, house, home renovation or various other goods and services, I’ve been a customer, facing a sales person as well. 

There often seems to be a disconnect between (potential) customers and sales people, regardless of which side of the table you are on. While there are countless sales gurus that hock this years flavour of “sales Kool-Aid", nobody really gets any coaching on how to be more effective as a customer. Having sat on both sides of the table, the following are my tips on how you, the customer can work with a sales person in the most effective way possible. 

1) Communication is the hallmark of any good relationship. Sales people aren’t mind readers. Our prospects (someone who is not yet in a position to buy what we are selling) and customers (someone who has already purchased our product/services) are for the most part, a mystery to us. We likely know some superficial things about you and your organization/industry, but a lot of that may be based on assumptions, hearsay, and outdated info. While you should never share confidential info about your company or self that may compromise either party, I do recommend that you share some insight on relevant facts such as the level of commitment your organization has to making a purchase, timelines, and what your requirements from a new product/service look like. Like most relationships, you get back what you put into it.

2) Honesty is the best policy: I believe firmly that in business, both parties should always act in good faith. Let’s take for example, a sales person has reached out to you (or perhaps you reached out to them while gathering information about their products/services). 

Once contact has been made either way, sales people tend to presume that 1) interest is there and that the prospect isn’t wasting the salespersons time or their own, 2) they are speaking to the right person 3) there is potential for a purchase to be made. Seems reasonable, right? 

But here’s where it gets interesting...sales cycles are dynamic, living, entities. Players change, priorities and situations change, as do timelines and requirements and budgets. When this happens, I think it’s useful to share that with sales people, for a number of reasons: 1) perhaps they can share some insight or information that may help with some roadblocks you have, or they can seek approval internally for alternative pricing/special circumstances that may make the solution fit your organization better, or perhaps most importantly, 2) they can course correct for how often they contact you, if at all. Noone likes to be hounded by salespeople. Believe it or not, it’s our least favorite part of the job as well. But there isn’t a single sales course or sales manager that will ever tell you to NOT call a prospect (at least until the deal has been designated as dead). Our jobs depend on it. So, if you no longer have any say in this decision, or the board has decided to hold off on the project, or pricing isn’t competitive or it’s been determined that the solution isn’t a fit for your organization, let the sales person know. It’s the best and sometimes only way, to put an end to those unwanted weekly or monthly “followup” calls and emails. 

3) Respect their time as you hope others respect yours. If your company has a sales department, take a walk over and watch for about an hour. They all more or less look like this: 

When a sales rep has an interaction with a prospect, the details of it, next steps etc. are logged into a CRM (customer relationship management system). Managers have visibility to it, probability and value of the opportunity are logged, time and resources spent on the opportunity are accounted for as well, and reports are run so the business can forecast sales revenues for the quarter/fiscal year. If you’re reading this, you’re probably logged in to one (or many) of those systems too.

And that’s why simply “ghosting” a sales rep isn’t a good idea. The sales reps management team sniffs the potential revenue from your interaction and makes the sales rep accountable for that. They can’t simply forget about you because you didn’t pick up the phone a few times or didn’t respond to their voicemails/email. Even if that sales rep moves on, their replacement will likely re-engage contacting you again. Just like in the Terminator movies, they will keep coming and new ones will take their place :)

For this reason, as both a customer and a sales rep, I’m a big fan of sales debriefing calls/emails. They’re a great opportunity for clear and direct closure for both parties.

A debrief should cover 1) decisions and direction taken 2) next steps 3) what was liked about the solution 4) gaps, where it fell short 5) appropriate timelines for followups, if applicable. The value in this is, as a vendor, I have a clear and reportable story for our management team which justifies the time and resources spent on the opportunity as well as ensuring that all actions were taken that could have been done to win the business. It also means, the sales person can move on without fear that they walked away from a potential deal. It goes without saying, that the sales person must act professionally and view the debrief as an information gathering exercise alone, and not take any of the feedback personally, or badger the prospect. If you feel that this has happened, you have every right to pass that info on to the sales reps manager, as that sort of behaviour is a disservice to us all. But I think as customers we worry about that sort of awkward reaction far, far more than it likely ever happens. Salespeople usually need to quickly move on to other pastures. I know I always appreciated getting closure from an opportunity that wasnt moving.

I hope you found this valuable, please feel free to comment or ask questions! 

Lars Opalinski