The Sales Archaeologist

We all remember the story of Goldilocks and how she found herself with three choices – which one did she pick? The one that was just right. Would you have done anything differently in her shoes? We all like things to be just right don't we?

Prospects, clients and partners are no different. They will always pick the choice that feels “just right”. Not too big, not too small but the one that they determine to be the best fit. Although this rule holds true when they are considering a company as a whole - we need to look at this from a personal level before we ever get to the point where we analyze what we sell because after all,  people will buy us first.

Some sales people are too weak; they don’t push or prod the client, they don’t ask strong questions, they shy away from money conversations or they fail to position themselves as a trusted adviser. The prospects of course sense the weakness and they perceive this not as weak selling but something far worse – lack of belief, no conviction, no integrity or even dishonesty.

On the other hand there are those sales people that are too aggressive, too caustic and too pushy. These folks sometimes enjoy rejecting and pushing the client away more than they enjoy closing new business. Some sales trainers are to blame for promoting a “reject the prospect and they will come back” philosophy and although this might work in some B to C environments or when selling to small companies the savvy CEO or C level executive is unlikely to appreciate this, in fact they will simply see it as rude or they may even recognize it as an old sales tactic that has been used before. The Harvard Business Review had this interesting post about balancing relationships with the ability to challenge customers and prospects. Chris Mott recently discussed this in a post about sales posturing.

So work with this Goal in mind. How do I get to “just right” status? What needs to change in order for me or for my people to start connecting on that level? If you are a CEO and your company is suffering from attrition – customers leaving after the sale. Then you probably want to conduct a  sales force evaluation and get an understanding of why your people are not posturing themselves correctly. Where are they failing – too soft or too hard?

If you are a sales person look at your results - be honest and recognize the times when you have backed away from uncomfortable questions or tension on a sales call. On the other had do you often find yourself needing to apologize or justify and explain yourself? If prospects and customers usually "take what you say the wrong way" - then maybe you need to add some tact and some patience to your technique.