Salespeople Kill Credibility When They Push the Future on Their Prospects

No "now" doesn't mean no "forever" in sales; however, our sellers kill their credibility and rapport with their prospects when they push the future on their prospects.

When our sellers say things like, "how about I call you in 60 days" or "I'll give you a call in May," they are devolving from potential trusted adviser to the pushy, aggressive salesperson their prospect feared they were when they first started talking.

Our seller can stay in control of the future of their conversation with their prospect, and maintain their credibility, by appearing to give up control. In practise that might look like:

• Seller - appreciate you telling me you're going with a different service. I've found that "no" now doesn't mean "no" forever. Would it make sense for us to ever talk again in the future? I'm not expecting you to say "next week." :)
• Prospect - yeah, sure. You can call me in six months.
• Seller - happy to do that. Why six months?
• Prospect - we'll have had enough time to evaluate if the service we selected is working.
• Seller - makes sense. I have a rule that I send a meeting invite for all future calls so the next time we speak isn't a cold call. How's that sound to you?
• Prospect - sure. Talk to you in six months.

-Scene-

Certainly that's a simple version of how that conversation could go. In that scene we're presuming that our seller built enough rapport through the sales process to make that conversation that easy. If that conversation isn't so straightforward (e.g. the prospect says, "we'll call you if we're ever looking again") that might mean our seller didn't bond with their prospect, which is a coaching opportunity.

This type of conversation doesn't come naturally to sellers so we need to practise it with them so their default talk track sounds like the second scene instead of the pushy, aggressive phrases at the beginning of this newsletter..

Until next time... go lead