101 Best Sales and Marketing Ideas
IDEA 14:
LOSE YOUR EGO
In many field of selling it is more important to get the order than to get the credit or some kind of person involvement.
Idea
A consulting firm (which must remain nameless)….
Without a doubt the best example I have ever come cross of this occurred in a training consultancy. A potential project had reached a crucial stage. An enquiry had been received, meeting held and a written proposal submitted. Everything seemed to be going well, and at his most confident, the consultant who had achieved this much believed that confirmation was imminent. Indeed he soon got a response, but it was negative.
In many bespoke businesses the next step is to try to find out why the company hasn’t won the contract. If you can do so- in the case it might have involved price, method, timing, ales than favourable comparison with an alternative supplier or many more reasons- this can be useful information for the future.
Sometimes such a discovery call can actually change things and turn a no into a yes, as happened this time. The consultant telephones the decision maker and persuaded him to discuss why the company had said so. However he was not very forthcoming. Various reasons were floated but there was nothing substantial, nothing that seemed to be key factor. Reading between the lines, the consultant opted for bluntness. “I think I know what the problem is,” he said. “You don’t like me”. There was a long silence and then the prospect agreed!
This is not something most clients would want to say unprompted. But not only did the consultant find out the reason, he turned the situation around. He persuaded the client to meet a younger colleague and consider giving her the job. She got it.
In practice
- We cannot all get on with everyone to the same extent. Beyond that, the principle of checking on the reasons for a refusal is eminently worthwhile.
- So too is an approach that does not take too egocentric an approach to things.