Expectations
You Get What You Expect
HAVE YOU EVER BEEN a victim of chase mode? This is where the prospect is not returning your phone call after a first meeting or review of a proposal? Have you ever had a sales meeting with a prospect who isn’t engaging in the conversation, and you felt like you were talking to yourself? Have you ever showed up to a meeting, expecting the decision makers to be there, but the only people showing up were non–decision makers? How about clients who are constantly dissatisfied with your services because they aren’t doing what is needed in order to execute and hit deadlines?
Salespeople get upset with prospects and customers because of the above selling scenarios. There’s no need to get upset with your prospects or customers. There is a need, however, to take a look at yourself and determine how good you are at setting and managing expectations for a successful business relationship. You get what you expect—and there is a good chance you didn’t set expectations for dealing with decision making and client satisfaction or eliminating chase mode and one-sided sales conversations.
The ability to effectively manage expectations—both our own and our prospects and clients’—is an integral part of any sales professional’s success. It’s a skill that must be incorporated throughout the entire sales process. Clear expectations define how you and your prospects and customers will do business. Managing expectations includes agreeing to how you will treat each other during a meeting, the roles and responsibilities of each person involved, and the next steps each person will take to achieve mutual goals.
Most salespeople have been taught to have a clear purpose or objective for a meeting. What they have not been taught is how to set expectations for a collaborative conversation. Many salespeople go into meetings as a subordinate rather than as a qualified peer. The result is the frustrating selling scenarios mentioned in the first paragraph of this chapter.
Expectation management is especially important at the start of a business relationship. You get what you expect—and top salespeople expect to be treated with respect and as a peer. How you set and manage expectations at this point often determines whether you will be treated as a valued partner or just a vendor.
Vendor relationships are those in which the prospect or customer really doesn’t care about you or the relationship, but cares only about price. When you meet with this type of person, he isn’t willing to engage in a conversation and gives short, guarded answers to questions, refusing to participate in a consultative meeting. As a client, he is often the type that, each year, will newly bid the work you have been doing for them over the past year, even after you have delivered excellent quality and service. He believes in win-lose negotiations and is a high-maintenance client who has little respect for the profession of sales.
Partners, on the other hand, respect a salesperson’s expertise and are willing to pay for value. Customers and prospects who believe in partnerships treat salespeople with respect. They are willing to participate in a dialogue and are open about sharing concerns and goals. They don’t play games and believe that a win-win philosophy for both parties is necessary to conduct long-term, profitable business.
Good salespeople excel at setting and managing expectations for what they need to conduct business. While there are hard selling skills necessary to set and manage expectations, we find that soft skills such as assertiveness, reality testing, problem solving, empathy, and self-regard are equally important in initiating and maintaining a partnership rather than a vendor relationship. Let’s take a look at the soft skills needed to create peer-to-peer conversations rather than superficial sales dialogues.
Effective salespeople are good at disqualifying prospects from the outset who treat them like vendors. They quickly send these time-wasters to their competitor and invest their energy in prospects and clients who believe in partnering. They are masters at setting up a collaborative relationship from the moment they contact a prospect to set a first appointment.
Managing expectations sounds easy until emotions get in the way. Too many salespeople get excited and are just happy to get the appointment. They say things like, “Virginia, I know how busy you are. I will just need twenty minutes of your time to go over our products and services.” Reread that sentence and note the poor expectations being set by the salesperson. He sounds apologetic even asking for a meeting. The statement is not setting the expectation for a peer-to-peer conversation. Asking for “just twenty minutes” is certainly not setting the tone for a consultative sales meeting. It is setting the expectation for a product dump meeting and a vendor relationship.
Salespeople good at managing expectations are assertive and possess good self-regard, comfortably stating what they need. They value their time and know from experience that if a prospect is not willing to invest time in discussing challenges, he’s not a likely customer. They set expectations for a dialogue, not a monologue; they aim for a partner meeting rather than a vendor meeting.
They might set appointments this way:
“Virginia, I think there are some things my company might be able to help you with. In order for us to explore whether we have some solutions for your company, we will need about an hour to discuss your challenges and goals. I don’t want to assume to know how these challenges are affecting your business, so I will be asking a number of questions to better understand your specific situation. Will that work for you?”
Notice the difference in how this salesperson set and managed expectations in comparison to the first example. Expectations were set about the time needed to diagnose challenges. The salesperson let the prospect clearly know that the meeting was going to be a dialogue, not a one-way monologue and sales pitch.
In addition to setting the time parameters of the meeting, effective and assertive salespeople also ensure that their prospects understand who they expect to attend the meeting.
We’ve heard more than one war story from sales reps who set up a meeting with the understanding that a key decision maker in the company needed to attend, only to arrive and find out the key decision maker is unable to make the meeting. The salesperson is left in that uncomfortable and unprofitable place of meeting a non–decision maker who could say no but not say yes.
These nonproductive meetings can be avoided if you are specific and clear about your expectations for who needs to attend the meeting. This type of conversation also qualifies how serious your prospect is about solving an issue or challenge. Decision makers show up to meetings when they are committed to changing or improving.
So far, we have been talking about creating a mindset in a prospect that allows for a successful first encounter. We’ve been focusing on managing the client’s point of view. But what about your own mindset? Managing your own expectations about a meeting is an equally important part of a successful business relationship.
Too many salespeople go into a sales meeting with the wrong intention: to close business. They throw out trial closes such as, “Wouldn’t you agree?” or “If we could, would you want to?” If you are trying to set up a partnership rather than a vendor relationship, act like a partner, not a typical salesperson.
We teach our clients to go into a sales meeting with a different intent: to seek the truth and do the right thing. Lose the attachment to the outcome of the meeting and get comfortable with hearing either a yes or a no.
This concept came to us from an unusual place: the district attorney’s office. I am married to a career prosecutor, a Law and Order–type guy. Prior to meeting Jim, I didn’t know too much about this type of law. So on one of our first dates, I asked him if he made a lot of money if he won a case. Jim looked puzzled and replied, “No we are held to a different code of ethics in my profession. We are charged with seeking the truth and doing the right thing.”
Because of this code of ethics, Jim is not attached to any one outcome. He is attached to finding the truth and evidence behind each case that ends up on his desk. His intent is to remain objective and ask a lot of tough questions: “Why was the stop made?” “What makes you think the defendant is guilty?” “Where’s the proof?” “How do we know for sure?”
Seeking the truth during sales meetings should be the goal of every salesperson. Ask questions and come to a solution that makes the most sense for the customer, rather than simply try to land a deal and hit your quota. And the reality is, sometimes the right solution has nothing to do with your product or service.
When you are attached to the outcome of a sale, you avoid asking the tough questions such as, “Do you really need to do anything?” You are attached to hearing a yes, not the truth. Think like a prosecutor. What questions would you ask your prospects if you were simply investigating their business case, hoping to understand the truth of their situation, rather than trying to arrive at the desired result?
When you lose the attachment to the outcome of a meeting, you focus on uncovering objective data rather than what you’d like to hear. The emotional intelligence skill of reality testing is important in having an objective mindset. Rather than asking questions that try to get you the answers you want to hear, such as “If we could save you time in your day, would that be of interest?”, reality testing helps you ask smart questions that test the data, such as “Are you sure this particular challenge is costing you loss of time? Is there something else happening at the company that is contributing to this time problem?”
Seeking the truth by having the right mindset creates a peer-to-peer conversation because the prospect isn’t being manipulated by obvious leading questions. You’re acting like a partner, not a vendor.
Are You Still Trying to Overcome Objections?
This new mindset might mean letting go of old axioms you have no doubt heard. Many salespeople are still taught archaic sales techniques for overcoming a prospect’s objections. They are told: “The first objection is never the real one.” “A no gets you closer to a yes.” “Don’t give up unless you have overcome the objection three to five times.”
Is any prospect in their right mind going to bring up an objection, knowing that you have been trained to overcome it and not take no for an answer? Instead of being open and honest, the prospect avoids bringing up real concerns. Needless to say, this mentality doesn’t do a lot for creating a partnership or a relationship. It also gets a lot of salespeople into chase mode, where they end up pursuing a customer who is not interested.
Here’s a novel idea. Don’t overcome the objections—ask questions that will bring them up. Conduct this exercise with yourself or with your sales team. Write down all the reasons a prospect doesn’t move forward with you. Here are the typical objections our clients hear from prospects:
They believe it will be a hassle to switch vendors.
Your company is not as well branded as the competition.
They can possibly do the work internally instead of outsourcing it.
They have a very limited budget.
The timing is bad.
They have an existing vendor relationship.
Ask yourself when you would like to find out about these objections: before or after you spend time writing a proposal? Of course, most salespeople answer that they would prefer to uncover deal breakers before writing a proposal. Now ask yourself the next question, when do you find out about these objections—before or after writing a proposal? Fifty percent of the time, the answer we hear from salespeople is that they find out after writing a proposal. Wow, what a waste of time!
Many salespeople initially push back on this concept, fearing that bringing up an objection will plant a seed of doubt in the prospect’s mind or a reason not to do business. But here’s a sales tip: your prospect has already thought about all the objections. That’s why you keep running into these objections too late in the sales process, after you’ve submitted a proposal. You’ll close more business if you bring up an objection because you will be present to facilitate a conversation regarding concerns and misperceptions.
Keep in mind that you are setting the expectation for a partnership. This requires real-world dialogue, not superficial conversation. Put on your empathy hat and step into your prospect’s shoes. Ask questions about potential problems or stalls:
“Joan, since this is a fairly new product, I am guessing you might be wondering about reliability. Should we talk about this?”
“Joan, you haven’t brought this up, so I don’t know if it’s an issue for you. Our firm is a small boutique firm and I know you are looking at some larger firms. Are there any concerns about our capability to deliver the same quality of work?”
“Joan, you shared with me that you had a bad experience with our company five years ago. I am guessing you might be wondering if we have corrected some of those customer service issues or not. Should we talk about that?”
Don’t overcome the objections: bring them up. Creating this kind of exchange will serve you well in the long run. You will be able to ask and answer questions regarding their objections, acting as an advisor, not a self-centered salesperson. To do this, it’s critical that you shift your expectations; understand that you are on an investigative, fact-finding mission rather than a close-the-deal-now mission. That is a partner mindset.
Case Study
One of our innovation clients, Imaginibbles, is very good at managing expectations and discussing potential problems before writing a proposal. As a result, they don’t waste time with unqualified opportunities. If Imaginibbles loses, they like to lose early in the sales process.
Their target market is Fortune 500 companies that often have internal research and development departments. Part of Imaginibbles’ service offering includes new product development and customer research. Many of their prospects have internal teams charged with similar responsibilities. So the obvious objection is, “Why should we hire you?” Part of their qualification process is figuring out if the prospect believes in outsourcing or if they are “do-it-yourself-ers.”
At some point, before any proposal, the Imaginibbles team brings up the potential objection: “Mike, we appreciate your interest and willingness to take at look at the work we have done in innovation and strategy. But we are curious—what is making you take a look at outsourcing this when you have a ton of talent on staff?”
Because they aren’t attached to the outcome of the sale, they ask the tough question and are willing to hear the truth, which could be a no. Qualified prospects immediately share common reasons for outsourcing: the internal team is overworked; there is worry about groupthink; or they sincerely believe outside perspective and collaboration helps create better products.
Unqualified prospects decide to do the work with just their internal team. The good news is that Imaginibbles did not waste time writing a practice proposal for a nonqualified opportunity.
Managing expectations and dealing with the potential problem paid off nicely for Imaginibbles, which recently landed a six-figure contract with a company that had a substantial internal research and development department. The owner attributes part of their success to seeking the truth and dealing with potential problems early in the sales process.
Does the Prospect Deserve a Second Meeting?
Once you have explored all of these issues in an initial conversation, the next step is to evaluate the need for another appointment. Salespeople get excited when prospects agree to a second meeting. And because of their desire to close a deal, they often fail to ask the tough question and apply their reality-testing skills: Is there really a need for another meeting or even a follow-up call? Did they hear any “pain” during the first meeting? Enough pain to justify writing a proposal and scheduling another meeting to present?
Don’t let excitement and poor emotion management override your objective thinking. Before agreeing to a second meeting, often based only on the slim hope that you might make a sale, test the reality of the situation. Ask yourself some truth-seeking questions:
Did your client express a real problem that needs solving in the first meeting? (If you didn’t hear any pain during that meeting, why are you meeting with the prospect again? Are you headed down the path of writing a practice proposal?)
Is the prospect open to sharing his budget? (If the prospect is unwilling to share his budget, why do you want to keep working with a noncollaborative person? Does this match your expectations for being treated like a partner?)
Is the prospect willing to set up introductions to other decision makers? (If the prospect isn’t willing to involve other decision makers, aren’t you headed toward an ineffective recommendation? Another practice proposal? Does this look like collaboration?)
Asking yourself these questions will save you many headaches and much time chasing a prospect who doesn’t need your services or isn’t willing to engage in a collaborative relationship.
A common example of not setting and managing expectations for the follow-up meeting or call often occurs at trade shows. Sales reps return back to the office, excited about their new contacts, only to end up in email and voicemail hell. Companies spend thousands of dollars on exhibits, promotional items, and travel but invest little time and money in training their sales team in how to set and manage their own expectations, as well as those of potential customers.
For example, a prospect comes to your booth and asks, “What do you guys do?” You and the prospect have a short conversation. The prospect states that he is very interested, and you agree to follow up with the prospect after the show. You honor your part of the agreement and call the prospect. Then you email. Next, you call the prospect again. Yes, chase mode is in full play. In this selling situation, chase mode occurred for one main reason. You didn’t set clear expectations for specific next steps or deal with potential problems up front.
Here’s an example of properly setting expectations and establishing a partnership not a vendor-ship.
“Now George, we all know what these trade shows are like. You’re going to get back to your office and have a to-do list a mile long. When do you suggest I call? And you’re going to get bombarded with calls from other vendors. What should I say or send ahead of time to remind you of our conversation? By the way, if you change your mind, would you please accept my call, even if it’s only to tell me no? That way I won’t become a sales stalker after this show.”
Notice how many expectations are being set by the salesperson to be discussed and agreed upon by both the salesperson and the prospect before the salesperson is willing to invest her valuable time. Also note that successful salespeople seek the truth by pointing out potential problems before they occur. It prevents chase mode and bad knees, both of which come from running after too many uninterested prospects!
Be assertive and state what you need nicely. It makes sales a lot easier and more comfortable for both the salesperson and the prospect.
Set and Manage Expectations to Create Raving Fans
As the business relationship evolves, it is your job to continue to let clients know what you expect of them. There is an old saying in business: “The customer is always right.” Salespeople jump through hoops trying to please the customer. And sometimes their hoop jumping doesn’t pay off because expectations for success were not set, agreed upon, or managed throughout the sales process and client engagement.
Here’s one scenario that you might be able to relate to. The deal is closed and the salesperson is happy with her new customer. Project implementation is about to begin, with the goal of completing by the end of the quarter. The salesperson starts experiencing problems in getting meetings set up with key stakeholders. These meetings are necessary to keep the project moving forward and hitting agreed-upon deadlines. The salesperson pushes and cajoles the client, trying to hold meetings and gather the necessary data, with little success. The deadline is missed and the client shares her disappointment about the ineffectiveness of the salesperson and his company. The salesperson has an unhappy customer, but not because his company fell short of expectations. The client is actually the one that fell short and doesn’t own up to it because expectations for success were not set before the project started.
Setting and managing expectations requires discussing each company’s role in achieving successful outcomes. It means discussing expectations regarding potential problems—before they occur. This is a key principle in expectation management. The expectation must be set before the selling event.
Here are some questions you might ask in order to firm up the rules of the partnership and each person’s role in successful outcomes:
Is the customer going to be okay moving the deadline out by two weeks if their internal team falls short of expectations?
What happens if key stakeholders miss meetings?
What should we do if critical information isn’t getting transferred to us?
Who is accountable for this project on the client’s end?
Be assertive and set expectations with your new and old customers regarding their role in a successful outcome. Good business results happen when companies work together as partners. And partnership thinking comes from setting and managing expectations for success.
Case Study
We worked with a website development firm whose staff was very frustrated. The account managers were becoming expert “hoop jumpers.” They were trying very hard to create raving fans and, instead, often ended up with unsatisfied clients. Many of their clients were small and didn’t have a full-time marketing person on staff. Pictures, information, and marketing copy were often delayed getting to the developers, which pushed back the launch date of the new website.
We worked with this team and helped them set and manage expectations about each company’s responsibility in ensuring success in the design and implementation of the website. Roles, responsibilities, and potential problems were openly and thoroughly discussed. The website development firm found that its clients appreciated the clarity and, as a result, did a better job of working as a partner to achieve successful outcomes. There was less finger-pointing and blaming because most issues had already been discussed and agreed upon before any work was started on a customer’s new website.
Customer satisfaction increased because expectations were set early in the process and managed throughout the development of the website. The company is now well on its way to producing raving fans and the hoops have been put away in storage.
Soft skills needed to create raving fans are problem solving and assertiveness. Analyze when, where, and how client dissatisfaction occurs. Be accountable and accept where you and your company fall short. State what you need from the customers in order to provide exceptional results. Business is a two-way street. Make sure you and your customers are driving in the right direction.
Action Steps for Improving the Way You Manage Expectations
Make it a goal to get very good at setting clear expectations. Develop a mindset for partnerships not vendor-ships. The first leads to profits, the second leads to price chopping and practice proposals.
Eliminate vague or fuzzy agreements. They aren’t beneficial to you or to the prospect. When you and your prospect are on the same page, time is invested wisely and outcomes for mutual success are defined and agreed upon. Then you have something called a partnership.
Here are some action steps that will help you get what you expect:
1. Review your last three months of sales appointments and analyze how you showed up.
2. Visualize and practice setting and managing expectations.
3. Revisit the value you bring to your prospects and clients.
Step #1: Review Your Last Three Months of Sales Appointments and Analyze How You Showed Up
Were you assertive, stating nicely what you needed in order to conduct effective business, or did you slip into passive sales behavior—going along to get along? If you were passive, what was the trigger that set off such a response?
For example, does the following scenario sound all too familiar? You schedule a first appointment with a prospect and he agrees to a forty-five-minute meeting. But when you sit down and double-check the time expectation with the prospect, he says he only has about fifteen minutes.
You let your emotions get the best of you and go into fight-or-flight mode, panicking and moving into a product dump because in your mind there is no time to ask questions and run a consultative sales call.
If this experience is common to you, think about a more productive response to this situation. Recognize that if you simply go ahead with the meeting under the new time constraint, the conversation is likely to be one-sided, boring, and will probably end with the prospect telling you he needs to think your offer over.
Instead, change your response by managing your emotions. Tap into your empathy and recognize that a first sales meeting can be a little uncomfortable for the prospect. He is probably worried that you are meeting with him with the sole intention of selling him something he doesn’t need. Don’t react to his remark that he only has fifteen minutes. Instead, reset expectations for a consultative meeting: “Mr. Prospect, we can do one of two things. I don’t know how much we will cover in fifteen minutes but we can get started and at the end of that time determine whether a second meeting makes sense. Or should we reschedule? It looks like you might have some other fires to attend to.”
By being assertive and empathetic, you reset the prospect’s expectations for a successful meeting and also state the truth: you can’t get much done in fifteen minutes. We’ve found in almost every selling situation, the prospect agrees to get started and the meeting ends up running for forty-five minutes or longer as initially agreed upon.
Good prospects are not offended by a salesperson setting expectations. The key word here is “good.” Good prospects respect you and what you bring to the sales table. Good prospects understand and value partnerships and, therefore, treat you like a partner. Think of how often you have fallen short of this mindset over the past months and commit to a different approach.
Step #2: Visualize and Practice Setting and Managing Expectations
Once you’ve committed to the idea of controlling expectations on all sides, work on forming those new neural pathways in your brain to change your normal, ineffective responses. Think about recent selling scenarios where you were passive and didn’t state what you needed. What was the outcome of those meetings? Did you end up in chase mode? Did you write an ineffective proposal because you got rushed during the interview?
Work on your assertiveness to prevent victim mentality. Salespeople who aren’t assertive turn into sales doormats. They complain that they are always being taken advantage of, which creates resentment and an inability to enjoy their job. Apply some reality testing. Is the prospect or customer taking advantage of you or are you just not asking for what you need?
In order to practice becoming more assertive, identify non-threatening environments where you can practice different responses to difficult situations. For example, if you lack assertiveness, you might be one of those people reluctant to send cold food back in a restaurant. Instead of enduring a bad meal, smile at the waiter and ask him to reheat your food. Small acts of assertiveness help you get better at developing this skill.
Step #3: Revisit the Value You Bring to Your Prospects and Clients
A successful business transaction is mutually beneficial for both the salesperson and customer. If you find yourself being treated like a vendor, remind yourself of the value you bring to your customers. If you don’t believe in your value, why should your customer? Make a list of all the ways your product or service helps your customers. For example:
Your service improves profitability by eliminating ineffective processes.
Your product frees people up to work on higher-priority items.
You help keep your customers competitive in a global market.
You help your customer look better to their customers, which in turn helps them retain their best clients.
You are a shortcut and can help companies ramp up without wasting precious time.
Your quick response time prevents downtime for your clients.
These are a few areas where sales professionals help their clients. Make your own list because it will remind you not to shortchange yourself on what to expect from a sales meeting and a business transaction. Look at the list often to build your confidence and self-regard. You are a valuable resource to your prospects and clients. Don’t ever doubt it or forget it.
Set and manage expectations early and often during the sales process. Remember, you get what you expect. Do you go into appointments expecting to be treated as a peer and professional? Or do you show up as a subservient salesperson, just hoping to get some time and attention? Show up expecting to be treated like a partner, not a vendor.
Follow popular TV talk show host Dr. Phil’s advice: “We teach people how to treat us. Own, rather than complain about, how people treat you. Learn to renegotiate the relationships to have what you want.”