7
take their temperature
(STEP SIX: TRIAL CLOSE)
Never test the depth of the river with both feet.
Do you want to be a pushy salesperson?
Of course not. Even plenty of extroverts cringe when it comes to the hard sell. No one actually wants to do it. So why does the traditional approach to sales teach us to be aggressive?
It’s to solve the same problem we all face when selling to people: their basic fear of loss. People would rather make no decision than make a bad one. They’d rather hang on to what they have than risk it in order to gain something better. It’s where we get the saying, “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.” It’s safer to keep what they’ve got (i.e., their money) than to trade it for something better (i.e., a product or service that solves their problem).
One time while working as the state sales manager in South Australia, I was showing a rep how to sell in Adelaide. A married couple told me that before our meeting, they’d both agreed that they weren’t going to sign anything that day. During the meeting, however, they got to a point where they both felt so comfortable that they just nodded at each other and moved forward on the sale. When you have your process polished to this degree, it’s not just a sales meeting, it’s a performance, much like a play.
Many salespeople believe they have to be pushy; they don’t believe that there’s any other way to get people to take action. They force people into making a decision, instead of sitting there patiently waiting, while the customer keeps thinking and thinking and thinking.
“Well, I’m not sure . . .”
“You know, let me talk to my wife about this . . .”
“I really need to consult with my pastor first . . .”
I’ve heard every excuse in the book from people who were afraid to make a decision. I’ve even done it myself, thinking, You know, I bet I could find something better elsewhere, or, I don’t really have time to do this right now, but maybe in a year . . .
Don’t worry. I’m not about to tell you that you have to be aggressive, or that you need to “ask for the sale.” That’s conventional thinking for pushy, extroverted salespeople. That’s not who we are.
By the same token, if you give people all the time in the world, they’ll take it. The more time you spend chasing a sale, the less time you have to chase other sales, much less attend to all the rest of your work. On another front, the more time you waste waiting for someone to make a decision, the less time you’ll have for your other customers.
It’s a catch-22. People need to be pushed, yet hate to be pushed; we need to push them, yet we hate to push. How can an introvert ask for the sale without outright asking for the sale?
How can we push without being pushy?
TOE IN THE WATER
I had asthma as a kid. I don’t know if my parents were trying to help me or kill me, but they decided to sign me up for underwater swimming. (It turned out to benefit me by increasing my lung capacity, but I don’t know if they knew that was going to happen.)
At the start of the season, you don’t just jump in. The pool might still be freezing. You put a toe in the water to test the temperature. If it’s warm enough, then you can dive in headfirst.
You see where I’m going with this. In fact, the idea is pretty standard in the conventional approach to sales. We’re supposed to look for signs that people have warmed up to us—that they’re ready to buy. Such signs include nodding their head, an open posture, a relaxed demeanor, and other such nonverbal cues. On the phone, we’re supposed to listen to the tone of their voice, the words they use, and whether they’re talking about the future (having already decided about the present).
Leave all that to the psychologists and fortune-tellers. Let me show you a far easier way to take someone’s temperature. And my way doesn’t require you to have years of experience studying micro-expressions and linguistics.
Have you ever said something that could be taken two ways—and the other person took it the wrong way? When you realize the miscommunication, you say, “Oh, no, I didn’t mean it that way! What I meant was . . .”
“Playing it off” is when you really did mean it that way, but you see that doesn’t sit well with your audience (or when you realize that you’ve potentially embarrassed yourself). So you play it off by acting as if you didn’t mean it the way you actually meant it.
Let me show how to intentionally do this with sales.
Meshell Baker provides life coaching. When she’s on a phone call with a potential client, after going through her questions and addressing their concerns and determining that they might be ready to make a decision, she’ll ask the innocuous question, “So would you prefer to set up calls in the afternoons or in the evenings?”
If they say, “Yeah, you know, I think evenings would really work best for me,” then it signals that they’re already mentally moving forward with the coaching relationship. Unless and until they signal otherwise, Meshell assumes that they’ve already said yes—that she already has the sale.
She asked without asking.
However, if they say, “Hang on, Meshell, I’m not ready to make a decision just yet,” she can easily play it off.
“Oh, no, I didn’t assume you were. I just need to understand your preference so I can speak to how our sessions would work for you and your schedule.”
That seemingly unimportant exchange actually accomplishes quite a lot. It:
1. Gives the prospect the nudge they need to make a decision.
2. Lets Meshell take the temperature to see if they’ve already made the decision in their mind without putting pressure on them (or herself) by asking outright.
3. Puts the prospect in a slightly apologetic state of mind: “Oh, I’m sorry I misunderstood you, Meshell.” That helps them feel like they owe her (even if it’s just a little).
4. Lets Meshell know that she still has some work to do and more stories to tell.
If they don’t pick an option, it means they’re not ready to buy, which means that Meshell needs to go back to probing for pain points, translating features and benefits into stories. Instead of trying to force them to make a decision (the normal approach to sales), she can play it off, smoothly follow it up with another question, and go right back into Steps Three, Four, and Five.
When she finds what’s holding them back from making a decision and they appear ready to pull the trigger, she can use a similar line for trial close, take two: “Now, I’m just looking at my schedule. Do Tuesday or Thursday evenings work better for you?” or, “Would you rather do these sessions in person or via Skype?”
THE DOUBLE-BIND
Even better, the tack I took with Meshell provides the additional benefit of introducing what we call a double-bind. You don’t want to ask the customer, “Do you want this or not?” It’s a yes-or-no, black-or-white question. Plus, it’s loaded with emotion: We don’t want to be rejected, and the customer doesn’t want the annoyance and/or guilt that comes with saying no.
Instead, Meshell’s prospects face the question, “Do you want this one or that one?” That is, instead of yes or no, it makes them focus on option A or B. Here are just some of the double-bind trial closes I’ve used myself, with my sales teams or with my clients. Any of these nudge people down the path of taking action rather than deciding if they want to take action in the first place:
“Now, did you prefer the black model or the silver?”
“So, would a weekday or a weekend session work best for you?”
“Would a day course or a night course suit you better?”
“Okay, so would you prefer the self-guided online option or would you like to hear more about what working with me is like?
“So, does leasing or renting work best for you?”
Thanks to my strong marketing, I’m lucky enough to have people booked in to speak with me. These days, when speaking to a potential client, this is the trial close I use after going through questions and stories (where I give them real value to help them in whatever situation they’re in): “Now, at this stage, I can do one of these three things. I can direct you to some great free content I created to help you create rapid growth for yourself . . .”
Let’s stop and think about this for a second. Why do I offer free content? It taps into our basic instinct for reciprocity. In his book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, Robert Cialdini does a great job of showing how powerfully we feel the need to reciprocate, even when given something as seemingly inconsequential as a wildflower. By leading with the offer of something free, it makes me seem indifferent (i.e., in demand) and invokes the law of reciprocity: The prospects now feel like they are slightly in my debt. Also, having a free option helps get time-wasters out of your hair. If they want to jump right to the free option, then they really didn’t want to pay in the first place.
Continuing on with my trial close, the next thing I say is, “Or I can talk to you about an academy I created where you can learn and work with a group of like-minded service providers, or I can talk to you about what working with me would look like. Do you have a preference?”
I don’t ask them, “Which of these options do you want to buy?” Instead, I ask, “Which of these options do you want to pursue?”
They’re telling me what they want me to sell them.