It’s Not The Truth Unless This Happens

I’ve been training a local company here to help their sales team increase their close rates.

We were working on ways to inoculate against their most common objections.

I’m not a fan of old-school objection handling. Objections are like curable diseases and can often be prevented with the right strategy.

One person kept trying to show off his skills by telling me what he said to his clients. He’d tell them about the problems and how they could fix it.

I pretended to be the client and would ask, "buying questions," questions indicating I might be interested in buying. Things like, "Can I get it by X date?" or "What’s the minimum I could do to get started?"

Or I’d raise objections.

He would quickly come back with an answer for everything. "Yes. You can get it by X date." and "You only need to start with Y to get started."

And, he was smooth with his explanations.

Then I gave him a dose of reality.

I asked him, "As a potential client, do you think I believe you?"

"Sure," he said.

"Really?"

He started backpedaling, "They should. It’s the truth. They may still have doubts but it’s the truth."

"As a potential client why should I believe you? When you say what you did you’re defending your position on why they should buy. You’re trying to make a sale."

It’s only the truth when your client believes it’s the truth.

Just because you say it doesn’t mean your client believes you.

The key is to get your client to speak the truth, as I did above with the salesperson.

I couldn’t just shoot out, "As your client, I don’t believe you. Here’s why…"

That would’ve been the exact same response he gave me when I was playing his client.

So I demonstrated what I was teaching. Ask questions that get the client to tell you what they think. Get inside the mind of your customer.

You can’t sell anything until you know what your client wants.

What they think is true.

How they understand their reality.

The exact words they use.

And it takes guts to truly get outside yourself and truly listen, and not try to shortcut the process.

Always remember: Your client might believe whatever you say. But if you get them to say it then it is the truth.

If you believe what I’m saying here then check out How to Get Inside The Mind Of Your Customers.