If you listen to the people who say “never,” you’ll miss some great opportunities.
Recently, I read an article about the “never-do’s” of selling. These are things that salespeople should never, ever, ever do in the process of making customer contact. I read through them, and I realized something: At one time or another, I’ve done them all. Seriously. And in many cases, the result was a bouncing baby new sale.
Why is that? Well, it’s simple. I don’t think that there are many “never’s” in selling; at least not when bodily functions are left out of the equation. Count me as a “never” in what I call the Big Three: Illegal, Immoral, or Unethical. But the article wasn’t talking about the Big Three or bodily functions; instead, the article was ruling out certain strategic and tactical moves in selling as always being “wrong.” The problem is that what is “wrong” in one situation, based on risk vs. reward, might be our only alternative in another. Here’s an example:
Sales author Jill Konrath said, “Never go behind your prospect’s back,” and related the following story:
“When I started my sales career at Xerox, I was a sponge. I studied everything I could in hopes of shortening my learning curve. I’ll never forget the day I read that it was crucial for salespeople to spend their time with executives, not their lower-level minions.
I immediately knew I was in deep trouble with my hottest prospect because my contact, Tinsey, was simply an administrative assistant. I got right on the phone, called her boss and set up a meeting for the following week.
Guess who came to escort me up to meet with Mr. Big on the day of my appointment! Tinsey, of course. She asked sharply why I was there. When I sheepishly told her the purpose of my call, she blew up at me big time. I was mortified.
The next thing I remember is waking up on the lobby floor. I’d passed out. After insuring that I was in fact okay, Tinsey suggested I leave and never return. I never did.
What did I learn? Never, ever go behind a prospect’s back. Please note, I’m not saying you have to only work with the first person you contact.”
Now, to my way of thinking, there are several problems with her logic here. In her example, I’d suggest that there were multiple mistakes. Calling on the admin assistant? She agrees that this was a mistake. And, she should have tried to work with the assistant to make the meeting with the boss happen. However, there’s something very important here. The assistant’s boss took the meeting. That means that the boss certainly saw value in seeing her. Had she not panicked and passed out, she might have found out what that value was. Perhaps the boss didn’t want the admin exercising the level of power that she was; Konrath will never know. In this case, the risk of going around her contact was very high, but the reward was potentially higher – we’ll never know because she didn’t complete her mission due to being intimidated by an admin assistant.
On the other hand, here’s a question I get all the time: “Troy, I have (some sort of a mid-level contact) at prospect company X. This person won’t buy from me, and won’t facilitate a meeting with his boss. I think if I could get his boss’ attention, he’d see the value in what I’m selling. But I don’t want to burn my contact by going behind his back. What should I do?”
In this case, the risk of ‘burning’ the current contact is low; the current contact isn’t buying anyway. So, in this case, I’d go ahead and approach the boss. This is one of the ‘nevers’ that I’ve violated many times in my career, with about 50/50 results – but the reward of the 50% of the bosses that bought from me certainly outweighed the 50% of the ‘burned’ contacts that weren’t buying from me.
Here’s another one – years ago, I was accompanying a copier salesperson in a sales call on a large law firm in Kansas City. The managing partner was giving this kid NOTHING. I mean, we’re talking grunts. Negative grunts. Finally, I could tell the kid was about to pack it in when an ambulance went by. The kid looked up at the contact and said with a smile, “Do you need to go get that?” The MP clouded up and then started laughing. He said, “Kid, that took some stones to say, but it’s the funniest thing I’ve heard all day!” That completely turned the call around. We walked out with a proposal opportunity that turned into a sale two weeks later. “Never insult or joke about your contact’s profession?” Maybe – but in this case, the kid had NOTHING to work with. Low risk, high reward.
Never talk politics or religion with a customer? Been there, done that. How about “never ask a customer out on a date?” In my young and single days, I did that too (I did wait for the sale to be made first – that’s when I was selling cars). I wouldn’t recommend YOU doing that – but the point is that I calculated the risks vs. the rewards, and acted accordingly.
Really, it doesn’t matter what you’re selling or who you’ll sell it to. You’re going to come upon a situation where you’ll be tempted to violate one of the “nevers.” ( Again, I’m leaving out bodily functions and the Big Three – those really are nevers.) When you are tempted, ask yourself these questions:
- What is the risk? Essentially, you risk losing whatever you have by violating a “never.” What do you really have?
- Who else – besides you – gets hurt if you lose what you have? (If the risk isn’t just you, it’s more serious)
- What is the reward? Is the reward worth the risk?
If you figure this carefully, you’ll find instances where the reward more than justifies the risk. When that happens, my advice? Go ahead and take your shot. Even when you lose, you’ll learn, and selling is about continuous education.
