Have you ever wanted to correct a prospective buyer during a sales call? We all have. The impulse can be especially strong when the stakes are high. For instance:
• We see the potential downside of a purchase decision (or non-decision) that a prospective buyer is about to finalize.
• We want to share, in a compelling way, how we’ve helped others overcome a misconception or misunderstanding whose consequences a prospective buyer may not yet grasp.
• We don’t feel comfortable doing something the prospective buyer wants us to do.
In situations like these, we can usually see a clear gap between what the buyer perceives, assumes, or wants … and what we honestly feel is best. But we hesitate to name that disconnect directly. Why? Because we don’t want to come off as antagonistic, arrogant, or inflexible.
Put more bluntly: We don’t want to come off as “sales-y.”
The solution is simple: a well-chosen, authentically delivered third-party story, delivered with empathy, poise, and an open mind. Consider a common scenario. How do we usually respond when the prospective buyer asks us to do something that we just don’t feel comfortable doing? For example, slashing our list price? All too often, we cave. We succumb to the desire to be liked. We imagine being liked will get us closer to winning the right deal.
Deep down, we know we should say something. Instead, we stay silent — and sometimes we capitulate. In that instant, our gut is telling us something important — and we ignore it. As a result, we get pressured into doing something that doesn’t really help either side. Ignoring the consequences of cutting our organization’s margins, after all, can make a long-term business relationship harder to sustain. And sometimes, even after dropping the price, we don’t even get the deal. It goes to an existing vendor.
By choosing not to express ourselves, we become a pawn in someone else’s game. A great way to keep that from happening is to address the issue our gut is warning us about by shifting into storyteller mode. We could say something like this:
“Anita, I appreciate what you’re asking, but I have a bit of a problem with that. You see, about a month ago, I was in a similar situation with another organization, and they asked me to reduce the price. I went back to my company and fought hard to get them a lower price, and I brought that price back to them. Unfortunately, what they did with that price was go to their existing supplier and use my price as a lever to get them to lower their price. I never wound up getting the order, and I was left with a lot of issues I had to deal with internally. Am I in the same situation here?”
Several responses could follow a powerful true story like this. We might get a chuckle and a shrug — and a deeper conversation about why the contact is asking for a discount. We might get an acknowledgement that getting a better price from the incumbent vendor was in fact the path the buyer was trying to go down, in which case we have a decision to make.
The point is, by sharing a story like this, we often open doors to the buyer’s real thinking. Suddenly, the buyer says, “Here’s the thing…” (That phrase is often a sign that we’ve established equal business stature — a core objective of any sales discussion.) That’s an indicator that things are getting real, which is the threshold we want to cross.
Let’s continue the example. We might choose to reinforce our connection with this buyer by sharing a second story:
“You know, in the auto industry, the biggest reason for mistrust is not believing what is being said. Some dealerships have taken a different approach. They eliminate the usual pricing games and present their best price first — no padding, no artificial discounting later. Customer satisfaction at these dealerships has improved dramatically as a result. So, Anita, this is why we made the strategic decision to do exactly the same thing in our quote. We gave you our very best price up front. It’s a fair quote that allows us to deliver the back-end support required for this project to succeed. Now, I see this as a long-term relationship. Therefore, I always want us to put our best foot forward, so neither of us has to wonder whether the other is holding something back.”
When executed properly, this tactic is powerful. Be candid, tell the truth, use the right tonality, and use storytelling to move the conversation forward by saying what you really feel — gently and safely.
Third-party stories make it much easier to raise and explore important issues as peers with our buyers. Any salesperson’s success is based on the ability to build strong relationships. Strong relationships are built on trust — and trust is built on honest communication.
You have a right to express your feelings appropriately and professionally during a sales call. Effective storytelling is one of the best ways to exercise that right.
