Being perceived as an expert

American political strategist Lee Atwater is credited with saying “perception is reality,” generally taken to mean that appearance and opinion are more influential than objective fact when it comes to influencing and communicating with people. One of your early objectives is to be seen — perceived — as an expert in your field, someone who is worth paying attention to and who can provide answers to your prospect’s needs. Actually being an expert is less important than having the aura of one in your prospect’s eyes.

The key is to be able to back up any claims you make and generally anything that you tell your prospect. You need him to accept you as an expert in your field or, at the minimum, someone who has access to the resources necessary to solve his problem.

You’ll likely be tested early in the sales process as your prospect tests the boundaries of your knowledge. Prospects often do this with subtlety, and this test is a key part in establishing the buyer-versus-seller ground behavior rules. When you notice this happening, take and retain control of the process by demonstrating your knowledge of your subject. Fail this early “expert test,” and your sale is in trouble. Make sure you pass the test by having a solid grounding in your subject that will help to position you as an expert and someone who can be trusted to deliver a solution to your prospect’s need.

Perhaps the greatest exponent of being perceived as an expert was Steve Jobs, cofounder of Apple. Jobs was infamous for what became known as his reality distortion field — the ability to convince himself and others to believe almost anything by using a mixture of charisma, charm, bravado, and persistence (see the nearby sidebar for more information). Few who listened to Jobs were in any doubt that he was an expert, regardless of whether he was or not. This is an extreme example, but it does illustrate my point well — being perceived as an expert will go a long way toward getting your prospect to accept what you’re saying and ultimately say yes to your sales proposition.

Writing white papers, blog articles, and website posts that cover the basics of both your industry and your specific solution are excellent ways of demonstrating that you have a good, solid grasp on your subject, and you should try to make a habit of doing so.

Being able to back up any claim you make is vital to establishing yourself as an expert, and I go through some ways of doing that in the following sections. I say it’s “vital” because the quickest way to lose credibility in your prospect’s eyes is to overpromise and underdeliver, and if he considers that you’re doing this in the early stages of relationship building, he’ll begin to question the wisdom of trusting you to provide a solution to his problems.

Using the power of case studies

One of the most powerful weapons in your sales armory is testimonials or endorsements from third parties — that is, people who have experienced the type of solution that you’re proposing and have found that it does what it claims to do. If you’re able to talk about successful implementations of your solution in other sales situations, especially if they’re in related business types, and preferably be able to back up these claims with written case studies, then you have the power of the third-party endorsement that can work for you.

Share your sales success stories with your marketing experts so they can help develop these case studies. Check out Chapter 6 for more info.

To understand the power of the case study and third-party endorsement, put yourself in your prospect’s shoes. Suddenly, you’re not alone, nor are you a trailblazer. Someone else who has had the same type of problem has found that this person or company can provide a solution that works, and you’re able to see the impact that it’s had.

Being able to relate your prospect’s situation with that of someone who has successfully bought from you or your company is one of the most powerful things you can bring to the sales table. It’s always well worth reading up and learning about the case studies you have available to you.

While case studies are the responsibility of your marketing colleagues, part of your role in winning new business is to recommend to your colleagues which clients are most suitable to provide them. I cover this topic in more detail in Chapter 6.

You can give case studies to your prospect as a document to read, or you can refer to them as you discuss specific elements of a solution. They provide what’s perceived as an independent view that backs up your story. By using case studies as a sales tool, you’re taking your prospect on a significant journey. You’re no longer selling to him; rather, you’re letting the power of the third party-endorsement do your selling for you. And if the case study is related to a company, person, industry sector, or situation that your prospect is familiar with, then he’ll place a great deal of weight on that. All you’ve done is use the material that is available to you in a professional manner, having understood your prospect’s needs.

Using statistics and anecdotal evidence

Mark Twain popularized the phrase “lies, damned lies, and statistics” to illustrate the power of statistics to build up weak arguments, but using statistics and anecdotal evidence can be another key weapon in your sales armory.

Very few prospects want to be pioneers or early adopters, preferring to be numbered among the late majority (in marketing speak). In plain English, this means that if you can demonstrate that other people have successfully used your solution, then your prospect is following a well-worn path and not sticking his head above the parapet or taking an undue risk.

“Nine out of ten cats prefer Whiskers” is a claim made in a television advertisement for pet food that illustrates the power of statistics in selling — if all those other cats like it, then the chances are yours will, too. You’re not taking a risk with buying the product.

Take this basic premise and make it work for your solution; find research that shows customers have successfully worked with your product or service and that it has produced outstanding results for them. I cover more on how to achieve this in Chapter 9 on prospecting effectively.

Being able to talk about your solution in terms of others statistics and anecdotal evidence does a number of key things to help drive your prospect toward that yes:

• It keeps the focus on other people’s results.
• It demonstrates that your solution is successful.

Focusing on the big picture

While making sure you always have something relevant to say, you also want to keep your, and the prospect’s, focus on the big picture — that is, how your proposed solution is going to solve his problem and make his life easier. Why is this important, and how do you achieve this?

First, it’s important to avoid too many diversions into myriad detail about your product. That comes after you close the sale, because small issues that in reality are insignificant can easily derail your sale if you don’t manage them effectively.

Next, a tried-and-true method is to work with the prospect at the very beginning of the sales cycle to establish terms of reference — what exactly is he seeking to do with the solution he wants? Set a series of reference points that you can check off as you cover them and agree that, as you do so, those requirements and issues are dealt with to your prospect’s satisfaction. For example, suppose that you’re selling office furniture to a prospect, and he says that color, height, and style are the most important features to him. You explain that your product is available in red, blue, or green and either red or blue will coordinate with the existing color scheme, so color is resolved to his satisfaction and is no longer an issue. You can then move on to the next reference point.

If you get bogged down in detail at any stage, take a step back and review the big picture. Take the heat out of any sticking points by reminding your prospect of all the things you’ve already agreed on. Focus on the positive, and look at the big picture. Together you can work toward a solution for all the reference points you have agreed on to form the basis of the solution.

Performing and applying research

Throughout history, you see examples of knowledge equating to power, and key historical figures, such as Francis Bacon and Thomas Jefferson, understood this principle and applied it to their own situations. Your selling principle is the same: The more you know and can apply to your advantage, the better chance you have to drive the sales process toward a yes.

Can you imagine arriving for a sales meeting knowing nothing about the company you’re selling to? How far do you think you’d get? Spending half an hour doing some background reading about the company will at least give you a basic understanding, and spending more time digging deeper will reap rewards. Without knowledge, you really have nothing to relate to your prospect with apart from whatever solution you’re selling, and without basic knowledge of their situation, you have no idea if or how it may fit for them.

I’m sure you’ve been on the receiving end of cold sales phone calls when you answer the phone and someone launches straight into a prearranged script, having no idea who you are or what your circumstances are. How often do you let them get beyond the first 30 seconds before you hang up? Talking to your prospects without having some basic knowledge is almost as bad as that. You want and need to be perceived as an expert who can help them, but why would they be willing to give you any time or pay any attention to what you’re talking about if you clearly can’t demonstrate some circumstantial knowledge and be able to talk about their specific situation?

Often, you’ll be faced with a competitive sales situation. If all the solutions being proposed to your prospect are roughly similar in terms of doing the job, then he’ll generally make his buying decision based on interpersonal relationships. From the very beginning, you need to be able to rise above the noise level of the sales environment and be the standout candidate in your prospect’s eyes. You can go a very long way to achieving this status by demonstrating your understanding of his situation, which you get only by having gained knowledge and using it to your advantage.

So how do you acquire this knowledge? I’m not talking about knowing everything there is to know about a person and company. I’m talking about taking the time to research commonly available facts — for example, look at the company website for background information and for latest news. If something is either relevant to the sale or clearly important in their eyes, make a note of it and introduce it into conversation. Show that you’re interested.

Background research can also save you from making some big mistakes that could kill your sale. I was once the marketing director for an advertising agency where the CEO was known for being forthright and blunt. He had an unfortunate tendency to liberally intersperse every statement with a string of profanities — how he ever got to be CEO I never understood. We were due to host an important prospective client meeting, and my background research on the people involved showed that one of the key players was from a very conservative background and that he was also a lay preacher in a local church. It was obvious that our CEO was not going to do well with this audience and that having him in the meeting was a very real risk to the sale, so we excluded him. He didn’t like being told that he wasn’t invited, but you have to do the right thing for the right reasons.

Understanding clients’ problem areas

Clients and especially prospective clients rarely want to be trailblazers. Of course, there are some exceptions, and your background research will highlight these, but in general prospects will take a safety-in-numbers approach. It’s unusual to find a prospect who wants to be first to implement a specific solution that’s not tried and tested.

You need to understand your prospect’s problem areas, such as what he’s trying to achieve with the solution he’s considering buying. This may not always be obvious and may not be limited to the immediate need he tells you about, so you need to be aware of any connected activities that have an influence on the buying decision and get your prospect to tell you about all the issues involved. The last thing you need is to discover something new that delays the sale just as you’re about to secure the yes.

Until you can develop a clear understanding of what your prospect is looking to achieve, you can’t really propose a solution. Don’t make assumptions.

Recently, I was considering a major software purchase for my business. I was looking at a project management system (or I thought that’s what I wanted). I did some research and made inquiries. A software vendor picked up my inquiry, contacted me, and arranged to give me a demonstration. He did some basic qualification in terms of how many users, an idea of the budget for the project, and the technical environment it would be working in. What he didn’t check was what I wanted to do with the software. He assumed that I wanted to manage projects because that’s what a project management system does. Had he spent a bit more time initially checking my requirements, he would have saved himself a lot of time and effort later in the sales cycle.

The demonstration went ahead as arranged, and I’m sure the software was really good, but it didn’t do what I wanted. My fault, no doubt, but it turned out that my requirement was for a document portal and information hub to share with clients so we could all see progress, and in my terminology that was “project management.” That was not the right terminology, but that came to light only when the demonstration didn’t show me what I was looking for. The salesman had assumed that I knew what I wanted — I did, but it wasn’t what I asked for. Taking the time to understand what my real needs were would have saved a lot of time and may have led to a sales opportunity, but I wasn’t going to buy something that didn’t do the job.

Sometimes understanding a client’s needs requires a bit more digging and some risk (I cover risk in Chapter 18). You can discover other factors to investigate in understanding needs by considering your prospect’s job function. If the solution he seems to be looking for isn’t a generally accepted fit for his function, then you need to ask some probing questions to discover whether he’s asking for the right thing or if terminology has gotten in the way.

Displaying empathy

It’s important to be able to empathize with your prospect and let him know that you’re working with him to solve a problem. You’re seeking to be a third-party expert with a detailed view of what he’s trying to achieve and the way he wants to do it. You’re not trying to sympathize with him because he has a problem that needs resolving. There is a massive difference between sympathy and empathy:

• Sympathy is understanding and reacting to someone’s need; it’s a feeling emotion.
• Empathy is understanding the need from the other person’s viewpoint or the capacity to place yourself in the other person’s position and isn’t based on emotion.

Selling based on fulfilling an emotional need isn’t the same thing. When building a relationship with your prospect and demonstrating that you’re the person to fulfill his needs, you need to base your help on an empathic level, showing your prospect that you understand his need and can find a solution based on that understanding.

At times in a buying cycle, the prospect will be vulnerable — for example, when he is out of his knowledge comfort zone. You need to recognize this and guide him through the decision-making process without making him feel that he’s ever wrong. Prospects and clients are never wrong; they sometimes just need to be guided away from a viewpoint or course of action by someone who has their best interests in mind.

The type of relationship you’re building with your prospect is based on understanding his needs, understanding how to address them, and being perceived as someone he can ask for assistance from without being subservient to because he is the prospect, and the prospect is always the king.

Prospects generally seek safety in numbers. So being able to demonstrate that your solution is tried and tested by others who have found that it met their needs in exactly the same way your prospect wants will go a long way to reinforcing you as the emphatic choice and will ease you on the way to that yes that you’re looking for.

Solving problems, not making friends

In all your communication with your prospect, remember your objective: getting to a yes. You’re not looking to make a new friend; you’re looking to solve a business problem with a solution you’re selling. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter whether you like your prospect or whether he likes you. What does matter, though, and hugely, is that you have mutual respect for each other.

You need to respect your prospect’s time. One of the ways you do this is by always having something relevant to say when you’re communicating either face to face or on the phone. Don’t phone to ask how he is or if he had a good weekend — you’re not buddies. Your relationship is professional, and you want your prospect to think of you as professional and trustworthy, someone he can listen to for advice and trust to do the right thing in proposing the correct solution to his needs.

Consider the relationship you have with your bank manager. You need him to help manage your financial affairs, and you trust him because of the nature of his role in the business. You may be a bit in awe of him and may worry that he doesn’t agree with requests you make. He’s not your buddy, and you wouldn’t consider wasting his time with small talk. This is the type of relationship you want your prospect to have with you. You’re the one with the solutions to his needs.

Disagreeing with your prospect is okay, as long as you do it the right way and enable him to save face if he’s wrong. How do you do that, you ask? By using the conditional agree strategy. In this idea, whenever your prospect says something that isn’t what you need to hear in the sales process, you first agree and then bring him around to your point of view. For example, if you can say, “I understand why you think that, and of course you’re right, but have you considered … ” as a way of turning the answer around, then you show him the way you want the solution to work while allowing him to save face because you told him he was right. The prospect is never wrong, just sometimes mistaken. There are just different forms of right, his and yours, and you need to get him to agree that your form of right is the one he wants.

In all conversations, you want to be the voice of reason. You need to be the one who finds reasons things can be done rather than can’t be done. It’s important to do this right from the beginning because by the time the important issues come up, your prospect will be comfortable with agreeing with you — after all, you’re the expert who’s guiding and helping him.

Never, ever get into a situation where you need to tell your prospect that he’s wrong or has made the wrong choice because this will lead to conflict, which is the opposite of what you’re trying to achieve. Even if at the end of the sales cycle you get a no instead of a yes, don’t tell him he’s made the wrong choice. Tell him that you understand and that should the situation change in the future, you’ll be happy to present your solution again. Walk away as a professional and accept that other days you’ll get the win.

More often than you may think, prospects suffer from what’s known as buyer’s remorse — when they begin to question the decision they made. If you left the door open and acted throughout with professionalism and integrity, you may be surprised to find that your lost sale eventually returns as a yes.

Being your company’s mouthpiece

When you’re in discussions with your prospect, you’re representing your company. But this comes with obligations. You need to be truthful, professional, and transparent. You have a responsibility to accurately portray your solution as a fit for your prospect’s needs. Being your company’s mouthpiece gives you an additional responsibility in that you’re representing not just your own view but a corporate view. The way that you deliver messages needs to be in keeping with this fact.

Whether your prospect speaks to you or another one of your colleagues about the solution, he should hear the same messages from everyone. The message needs to be consistent to avoid misunderstandings and issues around “he said, she said” as you progress through the sales cycle.

Sometimes, especially when getting to a difficult part of the sales negotiation, it’s useful to be able to fall back on a higher authority, where you tell the prospect that you can’t agree on a specific term without authority from someone more senior. Use this with care, though, as you’re establishing yourself as the expert in your prospect’s eyes, and having to refer elsewhere can be seen as a sign of weakness. Turn it to your advantage by letting your prospect know that whatever he wants is something special, and before you can commit on it, you need to check. This way, you retain your position as the expert and also become the prospect’s advocate in seeking something special. Don’t overuse this, though, or it will become self-defeating, and your prospect will want to deal with higher authority and cut you out of the loop. Then you have a huge problem.

An important part of being your company’s mouthpiece is that it falls on you to set expectations on exactly what your solution is going to deliver. Rarely will you find any solution to any problem that’s going to be a panacea. The rule is to underpromise and overdeliver, leaving you with a very happy customer. Get this the wrong way around and you have a problem of your own making.

Understanding the importance of words

The right word at the right time can make all the difference, just as the wrong word at the wrong time can have a devastating effect. The same word can have different meanings, especially in a multilingual setting. Words are the single most powerful weapon any of us has at our disposal and can either make or break any relationship, business or personal. So choose them and use them with care.

In winning new business, the most important word you can hear is yes, and you need to do all the right things to get to that stage — that’s why you’re reading this book!

Consider words from your prospect’s point of view. He may not be totally familiar with the solution that you’re proposing, so you need to make sure that you carefully explain all the key points and show him how it’ll satisfy his objectives. Use positive, action-oriented words, and try to avoid negative words. If you need to say no, then always follow it up with an alternative.

Avoid using slang terms because they are easily misunderstood, even in a native tongue. I’ve heard people say that something is “bad” when they mean the exact opposite. Don’t try to be clever with language; always be precise and clear.

The single most important word your prospect will ever hear is the sound of his name. In a selling situation, this can be key but can also backfire if you’re not careful. You need to consider the prospect’s culture as well as the perception of the interpersonal relationship between you before you begin calling him by his first name. There are two differing schools of thought here:

• You and your prospect are equals and should address one another by given names.
• You should address someone by his given name only with his permission.

No hard and fast rule exists here. It’s up to you to decide which feels right in your situation. Absolutely nothing is wrong with asking your prospect how he’d like to be addressed. The way I see it is that I’m the prospect’s equal, so I will use his name, and he is free to use mine. That’s a personal choice I make, and it’s difficult to define a rule that’s right for every situation, so you need to go with your instinct.

If you’re going to address your prospect by his given name, then make sure you get the name right! Experience has taught me that there are fewer routes to alienating a prospect than calling him the wrong name.

Developing your own style

How to address your prospect (which I discuss in the preceding section) is the first part of developing your own style. I always use a prospect’s given name because that’s in my nature. My belief is that to do anything else is making myself subservient to him.

Early in your sales career, having a role model — someone you look up to and can learn from — is especially important. Take tips on how your role model approaches prospects and handles himself during a sales process, and mimic those elements that you want to put to work for yourself. I had two role models early in my career, and I’m sure that a lot of my style is an amalgamation of bits I picked up from observing both of them.

I couldn’t tell what my style is today. It’s just me being me, the best me I can be. If you can achieve that, then you won’t go far wrong. It’s when you put on an act that’s not natural that you begin to experience problems.

If you’re unsure of how you come across, record yourself and ask for feedback from managers and peers. Don’t be afraid to ask your prospect whether you’re doing a good job — the answer may both surprise you and open up new opportunities.

I’m aware of how I come across in a sales situation because I’ve recorded myself and asked for feedback, and the results have played a part in me revising my approach over the years. You may find, as I do, that you have a habit that you need to work on. If this is the case, put in the effort to sort it out. In my case, I would mimic accents. It wasn’t something I did deliberately; it just happened. Now that I’m aware of it, I go out of my way to make sure I don’t do it. Had I not checked, I would never have known.

Be yourself and don’t try to be someone or something that you’re not, because you’ll get found out and suffer the consequences.

In discussing winning new business with a prospect once, he told me that he employed an out-of-work actor to make new business phone calls for him “because they can pretend to be someone they are not and just play a role,” he said. I was dumbfounded when I heard this and even more so when I discovered an outsourced new business company also did this on behalf of clients. The risk they took was astounding. How on earth can an actor represent your business without in-depth knowledge and understanding? They can’t. The rationale was that they did not take rejection personally as they were playing a role. What message does this send to your prospects? That you don’t care enough about them and solving their problems. “Don’t worry, Mr. Prospect, I can take rejection because today I’m being King Lear.” Or is it the King of Siam? Unbelievable but true. Stupidity, on behalf of whoever signed it off, of the highest degree. I hope someday to be in a competitive sales situation against one of these people!

Part of the reason for cultivating your new business style is to make yourself memorable for the right reasons. You can take tone of voice and apply it to yourself in the corporate sense of helping to define a brand where the brand is you. You can probably think of someone you know who dresses distinctly — maybe a man who wears a bow tie all the time, for example. That’s his brand statement, and that’s what will instantly come to mind when people think of him. Although developing a personal brand in this way as part of your style is fine to do, don’t let style get in the way of substance. Ultimately, you are what you say and do, and an act will come undone at the most inopportune moment and expose you as having put on a front. Not exactly the way you want to be remembered, especially by a prospect. I look at this is in more detail in Chapter 3.

Listening twice as much as you speak

You need to be alert to nonverbal communication. Facial expressions, gestures, voice tone, eye contact, and posture all tell you a story that will either back up or contradict the words you’re hearing.

Basically, you should aim to listen twice as much as you speak, and you will gain valuable insight that will help you in the sales process.

You can’t learn what the prospect really wants if you’re not listening to him — and I mean really listening. The key to the success of a sale may not be the headline features or the most obvious benefit. Maybe a small but important side issue is the real driver. Unless you get to this nugget of information, you won’t get to your yes decision. If you spend the entire phone call or meeting talking and not listening, you likely either won’t hear whether it’s articulated or won’t be able to tease it out with careful questioning if it’s hinted at. I’m not suggesting that your prospect will be hiding some vital information from you but rather that he may not really know or appreciate its importance or may assume that you already know.

A typical prospect will give a lot of information and is likely to ask a lot of questions. Some have a habit of using questions as a summary, an aid to themselves. Not every question requires an immediate answer; some you will cover in other ways, such as in your presentation or proposal. Don’t try to counter every objection or answer every question just so you can have the last word.

You also need to acknowledge that your prospect is right when he raises points, but again sometimes a simple “yes, you are right” is sufficient rather that a lecture. Especially at the early stages of a sales cycle, you need to get your prospect to do the majority of the talking because this is where you’re going to learn a lot about the needs, about the fit of your solution, and what objections are going to have to be covered in your proposal. If you’re spending too much time speaking, you’re likely not listening sufficiently.

Engaging in active listening

There is a massive difference between listening and hearing. You can hear words easily enough, but are you picking up on and focusing on the real meaning?

Active listening involves not just focusing on the words but also using all your senses to take in what’s being said. Is the prospect’s body language telling you that this subject is of particular importance? Is your body language communicating back to him that you really are engaged with the conversation? Nonverbal signs you can give include nodding your head in agreement, smiling, and making eye contact, but beware that too much can be intimidating, such as leaning forward to listen. Don’t be distracted, and don’t look like you are. You need to be, and be seen to be, paying full attention.

Interruptions, even reinforcement words like “yes,” “I understand,” and “I see,” can be negative and off-putting to the prospect when he’s explaining something to you. Taking brief notes as an aide memoir is far better. Asking relevant questions and seeking clarification are signs that you’re engaged in active listening and paraphrasing or summarizing what you’ve been told will help to reinforce this view. Avoid going off topic, stick to what you’ve learned and probe deeper, giving your full attention to the topic at hand. Often you’ll gain valuable insight by asking the prospect for more detail on a specific point or asking questions that will probe for more specific information.

If you observe a number of salespeople in action, you’ll find several different styles of note taking. You need to discover what works best for you:

• Some write verbose long hand notes, but this is often off-putting for the prospect.
• Others rely solely on memory, making detailed notes afterward. If you can do this, it’s the best way to go.
• Others, me included, make brief notes of certain words or phrases to remind them of key points.

Go with whatever works best for you, but if it’s verbose notes, be aware of its impact.

If a lot of your new business work is telephone-based, consider a call recording system to assist you with remembering detail. I do this. I spend several hours every day talking on the phone, and by not having to take detailed notes, I can pay much more attention to the conversation I’m having. There are some pitfalls you need to be aware of here, which I go over in Chapter 4.

Whatever method you use to capture information, be sure you log it for future use. This is one of the roles of using a CRM that I cover in Chapter 9.

Making sure you don’t talk yourself out of a sale

There comes a time in every sales meeting and in every attempted sales close when it’s time to stop talking. Recognizing when that is can be the difference between a yes and a no. Recently I was involved in a competitive pitch situation, which in my business is very rare. Three companies were invited to be present at the same time and were able to listen to each other pitch. I was a little uncomfortable in having competitors listen to me but decided to go along with it.

As it happens, I went first — luck of the draw. I did my pitch without making any reference to the competitors, exactly as I would have done had it been just me. Companies two and three followed, and at least one of them did make reference to the others, but no problem there. The meeting was then opened up to a question-and-answer session, and it quickly degenerated into a mud-throwing session with the other two companies attempting to score cheap points. I kept quiet as much out of embarrassment of the behavior as anything else. I answered questions as I was asked them and referred back to points that had been raised in initial discussions and in my pitch. The meeting leader began to summarize, and as he did the other two companies constantly interrupted by making their own points.

No decision was made that day, contrary to expectations that had been set, and we were told this was due to unforeseen issues needing to be resolved. It transpired that the other two companies had done themselves no favors by failing to keep quiet and were subsequently dropped from the buying process. My company was asked to retender based on additional requirements, and it was to be a single tender.

Two things of note came out of this: The power of silence was definitely effective, and I learned a lesson about not agreeing to be involved in such a circus again!

There are other reasons for knowing when to stop talking:

• You need to be wary of repetition, which is fine for reinforcing a point, but when it’s done, stop.

• Don’t risk reopening closed issues for the sake of having something to say.

  Don’t under any circumstances lapse into any form of unprofessional behavior, such as switching out of sales meeting mode as you’re saying goodbye and begin some gibberish about this evening’s plans.

• Don’t tell tales out of school. Earlier in this chapter, I talk about the power of case studies, and these should always be positive. Don’t go on to talk about product or service disasters or about clients that failed. That’s a surefire way to a no.

If you’re at a meeting, remember that the meeting starts as you walk into the building and ends only after you leave the building. Anything you say in passing on the way in or out needs to be in the new business context. Apart from a warm greeting and a professional departure, everything else is to do with the sale and getting to the yes. Who cares if it’s going to rain over the weekend and spoil the camping trip? You’re not making buddies; you’re solving a prospect’s problems and need to be seen to be the consummate professional he can absolutely rely on.