Saying “No” To Buyers

Normally, as the seller, we are getting told “no” in sales, rather than the other way around.  When salespeople become desperate to hit their numbers, they start to do crazy things.  They start telling lies to the buyer, they exaggerate the scope of the solution, they savagely discount the price, they overpromise on the follow-up, they agree to horrendous delivery dates, they become visibly agitated during the sales call.  All bad. 

When we meet the client, our brain has to get into a specific gear.  That means we are focused on how can we contribute to build the client’s business?  What can we do that will grow the buyer’s revenues, cut costs or expand market share? That mental gear is entirely different to  questions such as  “how will I make my monthly sales quota?”, “how will I stop being fired?”, etc.  The latter are solely focused on you and not the buyer and this impacts what comes out of your mouth.

If we are doing a proper job of prospecting we will always have alternatives.  When the pipeline is too thin, desperation sets in.  The existing clients get worked over, to try and squeeze blood from a stone, because there are no other options.  It is easy to talk to an existing client than go and find a new one, which is so why salespeople hate prospecting – it is hard and tough work.  Nevertheless, prospecting and building pipeline are the keys to positioning ourselves as sellers.

When we have a strong pipeline, we are not dependent on any one sale.  When we are doing the questioning phase of the sale’s call we start to understand what the client needs.  We may realise that what we have isn’t really a fit.  When we don’t have pipeline, we start to think how we can make it fit anyway. This is desperate thinking and ultimately very damaging to our trust, brand and reorder possibilities.  We are thinking single order, rather than the start of many orders. 

We may know that to take on this project is going to put a lot of pressure on the back office or the supply chain within our organisation.  We have to keep in mind the opportunity cost that this deal represents, not just the income it will generate. We are impinging on other better quality work to do this deal. If the pricing for doing it was at a premium, it might be justifiable but that is usually quite rare.  Or if the scale of the work is considerable and sustained over a long period of time, it might be viable. In fact, usually, a bad deal more often than not comes with other ugly lumpy bits attached to it that are not very attractive.

We are better to say “no”.  When deals come that are outside of our usual scope and therefore require a lot of work, the price needs to be high, to warrant doing it.  If it is not, then get back to being busy building pipeline and let that deal flow to a competitor, who is either better suited to handle it or more stupid than we are. It hurts to give business away to a competitor, but that is the better choice than damaging your own operation.

A deal came to me though LinkedIn and the buyer was a substantial company in Singapore, with a strong brand name.  The details of what they wanted to do in Japan though, had potential grief written all over it for me.  It was somewhat related to what we do, but just that bit off to the side, where we would have to do a lot of work to make the project work.  The money mentioned was so, so and really didn’t cover the extra work that would be needed.  I introduced the deal to a “frenemy” rival company and asked if they were interested. They said yes and so I connected them with the seller. 

I heard later, that they got hammered on the pricing, when they came to deal with the lower level operations people inside the company.  A typical Singaporean business play where they are very tough on pricing, often known as the “squeeze all the juice out of the deal for the buyer” play.  The “frenemy” took the pricing offered, rather than saying no or demanding more money and got smashed. It turned out to be a huge amount of work, sucked up a lot of their time and burned some of their contacts.  This is exactly what I thought it would do to me too. I was glad I missed that bullet. Saying “no” was a very, very good choice on my part.  It was also a one off deal, so there was no hope of repeat business.  This made it less attractive, because I couldn’t see any return on the investment of time and effort.

I didn't take it because I had pipeline, alternatives, other potential business.  Say “no” to a bad or marginal deal and keep working on building pipeline to find better deals.  You will spend the same amount of time, but the rewards are vastly different.

Three Keys For Sales Success

Know, like and trust are critical components for success in business.   The “know” bit hopefully is being taken care of by your marketing efforts and your personal brand.  What about the like and trust elements?  If the buyer doesn’t like us, then the chances of getting a sale becomes so much more difficult.  What makes you likable?  If they don’t trust us, then the business won’t advance. How do they know we are trustworthy?

This whole frame of reference is especially important in the case of creating a new client.  Most Japanese salespeople love their clients. That is to say, they love their existing clients.  They are not so keen to do the work to go out there and create a new client.  It may be the case that at your scale you don’t need any new clients, so bully for you.  For the rest of us we need them.  Old clients drop out and must be replaced.  We also want to grow our business, so we need more from the clients we already have and we need to add new clients to do that.

If we are calling on a new client there are a lot of difficulties involved around being liked and trusted.  They do not know us.  We have a very small window in which to connect with them in the right manner. How we look, how we carry ourselves and what we say, become make or break equations.

Everyone is super busy today, so when we meet them they have a lot on their mind about what has happened so far in the day and what must happen later in the day.  We have to break through all that internal noise. We might bring some useful information on the market or the industry.  We might start with a question to get them talking.

We have to be careful with small talk though. If they have a really impressive office and it has a special feature, do you think you are the first person they have met who has commented on it?  After the first week of moving in they have heard the same comments from everyone who has visited them.  We need to ask a question that relates the impact of the new office to their business. We might say, “This is a beautiful office.  I am sure everyone is very proud to work in this environment.  Have you noticed a change in staff morale since you made the move?”.  This gets them talking about their business and that is what we want.  Get the focus off us and on to them.  We need to become excellent listeners.  This combination of them talking and we are passionate listeners builds likeability.  It also allows us to gauge what type of personality style they have and their preferred communication preference.

During this phase we need to tell them about what we do and gain their permission to ask questions. In a Japanese context, almost all Japanese salespeople are scared to ask questions of the buyer, which is why they get stuck giving their pitch and then having it torn to shreds by the buyer. Asking for permission is not hard, if you know what you are doing.  “Dale Carnegie is a global corporate training organisation specializing in soft skills training.  An example would be XYZ, where we have been helping their engineers with their presentation impact skills.  They have noticed a big improvement when they put these engineers in front of the clients compared to before.  Maybe we could do the same for you.  I am not sure, but in order for me to understand if that would be possible, would you mind if I asked a few questions?”.

Once you have permission now you can start to uncover what the clients needs.  The way we ask the questions communicates to the buyer that we have their best interests at heart and that we are trying to find the perfect match between what we have and what they need.  To do this, the questions have to be well designed.  “What do you do?”, isn’t one of them.  We have done our homework prior to the meeting.  A better question would be, “Your global president has set down a growth target of 12%.  Does that number get spread equally across every market or does Japan have a higher number?”. What a great question.  Hopefully it is a higher number, because we are here to help them reach it.

By asking excellent questions we uncover what they need and then we have made a decision.  We know if we can help them or not and if we can’t we leave.  We don’t try and jam the round peg into the square hole.  We go find someone we can help.  They appreciate the honesty. 

If we can help them, then the solution we provide will be perfect for what they need.  They will understand that we have heard them and we have found the match between their need and our solutions.  This builds trust.  We have our aim front and center, which is to become a key partner for them to grow their business. We communicate this in the way we operate and by what we say.

So to be liked we need to be well planned with the first impression with a new client.  We need to say things that make them feel good about us.  We need to ask questions in order to understand what they need.  When we deliver the solution they see that this works for what they need.  This builds the trust.  There is no shortcut in this process and the idea is to focus on their best interests as our starting point.  Do that and they will feel they can trust you.

How To Deal With The Dog Days Of Sales

Nothing goes in a straight line in sales, does it.  That order we received gets canceled, suddenly, inexplicably and mercilessly. The client disappears from the face of the earth and despite initial interest, is now permanently incommunicado. Appointments are not coming your way, as we learn that everyone is too busy, not interested, already have it, the brother-in-law is the supplier, etc.  Meetings go badly, as the buyer demands our pitch, then opens up the 12 gauge shotgun and proceeds to blow it to shreds, with all the things which are thought to be wrong with it.  Depressing.

This series of disasters, coming on top of each other, one after another, eats into our self-belief and confidence.  We doubt whether we can actually sell anything anymore.  The pipeline is high and dry, there are scanty meetings planned and time weighs heavily upon our shoulders.  The boss is a maniac, beating down on us with heavy expectations and threats of elimination.  The money isn’t flowing and our spouse isn’t understanding about the lack of dough.

“Whatever was workin before sure ain’t workin now”.  What do we do to climb out of this funk?  We need to look at our original strategy.  Perhaps we had too much at stake concentrated with too few clients, so that as they dropped out, the cupboard became bare.  We may have neglected to keep prospecting as we were servicing our orders. 

We need to get busy and stop focusing on what we can’t do and switch mental gears to what we can do. Get out a large sheet of paper. Make a column of existing and previous clients on the left, noting the industry in the adjoining column on the right. Taking the list of clients, start calling them and ask for referrals. 

Don’t say something useless like, “Do you know anyone who would be interested in our widget?” The answer will be “no” because you have now confronted them with the entire world and they can’t think of anyone.  Narrow it down to a group of people whose faces they can see in their mind’s eye.  For example, “Thinking about your fellow chamber of commerce members, would there be some in that group who are having similar issues to what you have had and who similarly would benefit from finding a solution?”.  This is easier for them to come up with possible candidates.  Ask them to introduce you by connecting you both on email, so you can follow up with them. 

Back to our strategic planning.  Continuing with our chart, in the next column, again to the right, start listing up lookalikes.  These are companies in the same industry who are not already clients.  We have some degree of experience with one company in the industry and all of their problems. The chances are high that other companies in the same industry are also suffering from similar problems. This gives us better insight to suggest reasons why we should have a face to face meeting.  Start calling them. 

You will hit the ubiquitous gatekeepers, whose only joy in life is ditching pesky salespeople trying to talk to the boss.  Call before 9.00am, when the boss is likely to be there and the lowly gatekeeper won’t be there.  Call just after 1.00pm, when the gatekeeper is at lunch and the boss will be back, and call after 6.00pm when the gatekeeper has tootled off home.  The chances of talking to someone a bit more senior, who will better get the value of the call goes up.

Grab another big sheet of paper.  In the first column start listing up ideal clients you would like to target.  In the adjoining column on the right list up any contacts you have, who can introduce you to decision makers in that company. Start calling them.  Be prepared for tonnes of rejection in Japan, because this country is not geared up for dealing with unknown companies and individuals. 

Nevertheless, work on crafting a great credibility statement.  It should start with a brief statement of what your company does, then immediately transition into an example of where you have done something wonderful for another client, including concrete, verifiable numbers or percentages, and suggest maybe you could do the same for this company. 

Immediately state however, that you are not sure if that was possible, but that it would be worthwhile to have a conversation to find out and segue into whether this week or next week would be better to get together.  It might sound like this, “My name is Greg Story from Dale Carnegie Training, we are global soft skills training experts, with a long history of over 100 years in operation.  Recently we did sales training for XYZ company and they registered a 30% increase in sales as a result.  Maybe we could do the same thing for your company, I am not sure.  In order to find out if that is possible, would you be available this week or is next week better, for us to get together?”

Are these strategies guaranteed to strike success.  Of course, not.  However, by getting into action, good things start to happen.  The chances of getting meetings with clients goes up dramatically.  These meetings could lead to fruitful discussions where the client learns what you do and how you might be able to help them. The point is to stop whining and start winning by calling clients.

"Your Price Is Too High" - Your Reply Is?

When your client hits you with 'your price is too high" what do you say? Are you flustered, wondering how to reply?  Is your brain freaking out, as you flash possible answers through your mind.  Or are you straight off the blocks and into an argument with the buyer?  Are you telling them why it is not too high and why they are wrong, wrong, wrong? By the way, how is that working out for you so far?

Rule number one is don't be stupid. That means don’t argue with the buyer. Because the “your price is too high” comment immediately triggers a chemical reaction in our brain, we have to short circuit what is going on and regain control.  To do that we need to have a circuit breaker, like we have in our houses if there is an electricity overload.  We have this so that we don’t burn down our house.  Same with sales, we don’t want to burn down the deal. 

We insert a cushion. This is a non-descript sentence that neither inflames the disagreement with the buyer nor agrees with what they are saying.  It would sound like this, “yes, budgeting is important in all businesses”.  In the few seconds it takes us to say that sentence we don’t allow ourselves to kick off an argument with the buyer about why their comment is totally flawed, incorrect, ludicrous and ridiculous.  It gives us enough breathing time to remember how a professional handles objections from clients.  After they tell us our price is too high, we very softly ask “why do you say that?”.

This pushing back process is like reading a newspaper. We see a controversial headline splashed across the front page. It grabs our attention. But to really understand what the headline is saying, we need to read the accompanying article. That is where the detail is and we need to know it before we know how to answer their objection.   Our combativeness with the headline is pointless.  We need to know is their pushback just plain wrong, because they don’t have the correct facts?  Or wrong because they have misinterpreted something we have said?  Or is it correct?  Our price may in fact be too high for the current value it brings to their business in their mind.

We have no idea of how to answer “your price is too high”, until we have more information.  Here is the professional’s next step, after we have discovered the reason behind their statement – we keep digging for other issues. We park the first one and move into asking, “apart from X are there any other concerns you have?”.  Objections are also a bit mysterious because the client may not be giving us their primary concern upfront. There may be a hidden objection we don't know about and we merrily go about answering the first objection and wonder why they didn't buy. There was a bigger problem, but they didn't share it and we didn't ask. Always ask.

After they give you the second objection, ask if there are any other concerns. Keep doing this around three to four times maximum. “Are X, Y and Z then your major concerns or is there another?”  We have to dig these out before we even attempt to answer any objections from the buyer.  Once we have them out then ask for some guidance on which of the three or four is the most problematic for them.  “You have mentioned X,Y and Z as issues for you.  Of these three which one do you feel is the most pressing?”   It is very important to stop speaking at this point.  Don’t add anything or qualify anything.  The question leaves a certain amount of tension in the air, but let it hang there, don’t relieve the tension by saying anything further.  If you have another person with you, tell them before the meeting that when you ask a question and it creates tension with the buyer to sit there and shut up.  Don’t release the tension. 

We need to hear from them, so that we can concentrate our efforts answering their key concern. Once we know what that concern is, then we bring all our weight to bear on the value we provide with our rationale, statistics, data, testimonials, evidence, proof, etc. to show why the price is just fine and dandy.

Usually, once we have answered the ley concern the minor concerns drop away.  If we have done all of this and they still don’t want to proceed, then it means there is still a hidden issue we need to surface, so we can deal with it.

If we haven’t done a good job of building the trust, the client may be reluctant to tell what they are really thinking.  This reinforces the importance of the sales cycle to build trust first, ask brilliant questions to uncover needs, tailor the solution to exactly the key points they have raised before we ask for the order.