Defuse The Bomb Before It Blows Up

Sometimes, salespeople stress themselves out for no good reason. They sit around waiting for bombs to go off. Don't be one of those salespeople.

If you have the possibility of a recurring problem with your product or service, don't expose yourself to the stress of wondering when and how your prospect is going to lower the boom. Bring the issue up before the prospect does. Defuse it!

Here's an example:

You: One of the problems we may have Harry, assuming that we decide to do business together, is this: We don't provide local service. Is that going to be a problem?

Prospect: Yes, I'm afraid it may be.

You: Want to talk about that problem?

Prospect: Yes.

You: You start.

Bringing the problem up yourself makes it easier for you to handle the potential objection, rather than having to handle the problem while you're on the "defensive." This strategy can be applied to virtually any area of the sales process where you might reasonably expect to encounter a problem or disagreement: Financing, credit worthiness, delivery times, inventory status - you name it. If experience tells you that there's the real possibility of you and your prospect experiencing a bump in the road, you should find a way to talk about it ahead of time.

Don't let the fear of "looking bad" or "losing momentum" with the prospect stop you from addressing the most important issues. You will in fact, only look more professional in the prospect's eyes once you make it clear that you are willing to face rather than avoid obstacles. Finally, if the obstacle is in fact going to keep the two of you from doing business together you're better off knowing that now.

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The two key points of the Sandler System that I put into practice were the "Up-Front Contract" and finding the "Pain." These two components allowed us to either continue through the sales process or look elsewhere for our sales. Now DWA, Inc. is coming off its best year in our 18 years with a 33% increase in sales over 2007. I dare to think, what if I had started my career 40+ years ago with the Sandler System.

Dennis Weaver, D. Weaver & Associates, Inc.