Have you ever tried to influence a potential customers buyers decision?
Of course you have. It’s something that all salespeople have tried to do.
But most salespeople fail at it because they make one huge mistake.
In this post I’m going to share what that big mistake is and how to fix so stay tuned.
POINT OF NO RETURN
Salespeople often try and influence their buyers without taking into consideration that their buyers know exactly what they are up to.
Your buyers know that you’re trying to influence them to say “yes”. They’re not stupid.
The issue is that if the buyer avoids saying yes for long enough and you keep pushing them towards it, they will reach a point of no return where the conversation will fall apart.
Let me show you what I mean.
As you try and influence your buyer and they keep avoiding saying yes, they keep going up the graph until they reach the point of no return.
At this point they have too much ego on the line to look weak by changing their mind and so they’ll never agree to do business with you.
Once a buyer gets past the “point of no return” they think “sod it, I don’t need your stinking service. I’m not going to buy it just to spite you”.
I’m sure you’ve been there too right? Has there ever been a time that you’ve missed out on something just to stop someone else winning because they’ve annoyed you?
So how do we solve the “point of no return” problem? To solve the problem, we do the unexpected.
GO FOR “NO”
To relieve the pressure that we’re putting on the buyer as we’re trying to influence them to a “yes” decision, we’re going to do the opposite and push them towards saying “no”.
I know this seems counter intuitive but stick with me.
Because when a buyer says “no”, immediately they feel in control, they drop their guard and it enables the buyer to drop emotion from the conversation and get logical with you.
When a buyer feels in control, their guard is down and they’re acting logically, it’s far easier to get deals done with them.
So we’re going to take one step backwards in the influence game by pushing for a “no” which will allow us to then take 5 steps forward.
Make sense?
Now what does this look like in practice I hear you cry?
It’s simple. After you’ve tried to get the buyer to say “yes” and they refuse, all you have to do is ask the question –
“What about this doesn’t work for you?”
This question allows the buyer to stop, drop their guard, feel in control and then share where you’re going wrong with your sales process. That’s right, the buyer will coach you on what you need to do to get the deal completed.
Cool right?
EXAMPLE: WHAT ABOUT THIS…
I used this technique of asking “what about this doesn’t work for you?” to progress a sales call just a couple of days ago.
I was on the phone with a corporate buyer who is looking to purchase 150 seats in our sales training program over at Salesman.org. This is a nice little deal for me and so I was keen to make it happen.
But after 15 minutes on a sales call where I could feel that the buyer was constantly pushing back and doing everything he could to avoid getting the contracts signed that day, I took a step back and asked –
“Hey Armit, you reached out to me because you wanted to train your team, what about the contracts that I’ve sent over doesn’t work for you?”
His response?
“It all looks great Will. I can’t sign the contract until next week though… is that OK?”
Wow!
He was pushing back on the entire call because he felt embarrassed that he couldn’t sign the contracts there and then. All he had to do was tell me that… but because I was pushing forward and trying to influence him to say “yes”, I hadn’t give him the opportunity to explain the issue.
So there we have it. If you’re getting nowhere with a buyer and you think they’re getting to the point of “no return” where they’ll avoid saying “yes” just to spite you, then ask them the question “what about this doesn’t work for you”.
Then sit back and really listen to the buyers answer. Their answer might be the difference between getting the deal done and them never picking up the phone to you again.
