It’s not unusual for me to draw criticism for the way that I sell.
Rick’s way or the highway.
Start with “No”.
Don’t blow them up.
About an hour ago, I received this email from a former client.
Hi Rick
So, a recent mailing prompted a few calls from “the dead.” One of them wanted to get started at last, but wants to take a real go slow approach. I could have just blown him off, but I did want to have some fun first:
Here’s some interesting history: I see that the two-year anniversary of our original conversation is in two days. That absolutely blew me away. When I reviewed my notes and the business case we created together at our meeting, the delay represents a staggering amount of money: lost sales, lost productivity, lost opportunities, lost relationships, lost revenue. It sure doesn’t seem that “go slow” is working in your favor. Just saying.
Assuming he ever gets back to me, I’m going to tell him I can’t work with someone with no vision (“what would Rick say”), and blow him off. I know you would have done that already, but I had happy ears for a minute and got stupid. Just wanted to share. Oh, and BTW, we’d discovered together that the ROI on this deal should be around, oh, 1500% – no kidding.
This is the kind of email that I live for. Before we met, my client might have hopped into, ‘Got a live one mode’. They’re right. I might have pushed back harder, but I realize that my clients are watching and expect me to practice what I preach. It still doesn’t mean that they’ll do it exactly the way that I do, but at least they’ll know what I would have done and put their own spin on it. The middle italicized paragraph is their spin. Notice the gentle push back? Notice how they’re ready to start with “cant’ work with someone with no vision”?
Now, that middle paragraph gets an A+ and the attitude in the last paragraph gets an A+, but if I were still coaching this client, I’d be asking, “What do you think your prospect will say when you call them to ask, ‘Do I owe you an apology?'”
Have you integrated your sales and marketing into one seamless process that sells the way your customer wants to buy?
RainMakers & Sales Rock Stars 