Everyone has had at least one bad experience with a salesperson. Maybe it was the old "bait and switch," perhaps a case of over-promising and under-delivering. Maybe for you it was a "hard-sell" closing technique, done to you when you didn't have much choice. Whatever the situation, most of us have had a good reason to have a bad taste in our mouth about salespeople.
Because that is the case, prospects are understandably wary when they deal with salespeople. They want to stay in control, keep the salesperson off-balance, so they don't have to worry about the salesperson taking advantage of them. They want to put the salesperson on a "need-to-know" basis, so that they can manipulate and maneuver to get the best deal.
Since we train and coach salespeople, we often get questions from them about how to handle prospects who are afraid to lose control. It is frustrating when you don't know all of the details of a deal, yet the prospect demands a detailed proposal with your best pricing. These kinds of prospects will then compare the proposals from several suppliers (which we call a "beauty contest") and threaten each with losing the deal if they don't sharpen their pencils and lower the price, give favorable terms, etc. Others will even show your proposal to your competitor as leverage to force them to give in to the prospect's demands.
You should ask yourself if you even want this prospect as a client, because if they are control freaks now, just imagine what they will try to get away with if they are a paying customer! The problem is that in this tough economic climate, we don't always have the luxury of being picky about our clients, so sometimes we need to find ways to win the deal without giving in to the prospect's demands. There are two great tools to use to keep control of the deal without alienating the prospect:
The first tool is called reversing. Reversing is a way to get the prospect to make the next move so that you can decide a course of action after hearing their situation in context. An example would be when the prospect asks for a proposal with your absolute best pricing. Your response might be "I can do that. Before I do, it might be helpful to let you know that we are never the low-cost provider. Is that going to be a problem in this case?" If the prospect responds with "yes", then you can decide either to bid it and hope there might still be some profit margin, or to respectfully decline to bid. Either way, you are in control, because you decide which tact to take. If the prospect responds to your reverse with "no, there are multiple factors besides price", then further questioning about decision criteria and their relative priorities will garner the information you need to be in control.
The second tool is called the Up-Front Contract, or UFC. The UFC is designed to lay out a logical and detailed plan of action for the prospect, and gain their agreement that it is a fair and mutually beneficial way to get them what they need to make an informed decision. An example might be something like, "Paul, why don't we get together for an hour or so and answer each others' questions, so that when the meeting is over, you will have a much better feel for whether we might be a fit for your situation. Sound fair?"
If the prospect agrees that it is fair, he doesn't feel like you are trying to pull one over on him. Yet, you are firmly in control. As long as you are laying it out logically and fairly, your plan of action will often be the one the prospect will take.
Reversing and Up-Front Contracts will keep you in control, without sacrificing the rapport you are working so hard to build with your prospects!
Al Simon is president of Simon, Inc., an authorized licensee of the Sandler Sales Institute. He can be reached at www.SimonSaysSell.net.
