Sandler Rules: Fall Back

In the Mattson book including the Sandler Rules, one of the rules highlights the idea of falling back. Whenever you are in a meeting with a potential prospect or an existing one, make sure to not get heated or offended by what they say. For example, if you are getting yelled at for a crazy offer or if you already have the business and your company messed up the order, you have to resort to fall back. Now, the initial human reaction is most often to fight back and make sure that you defend your company/product. However, often in a selling situation, this may result in more issues between you and your customers, and you can lose business because of it. Resorting to falling back and addressing the issue without getting upset will hopefully be able to put your customer at ease. Be careful to not accuse them for being part of the problem or trying to express to them all of the excuses that you have about the problem on your end. They most often will not want to hear it. Make sure to address the situation, apologize, maybe say if you know how to fix it so it will not happen in the future, but the most crucial part may be just to ask if they still want to do business with you, even though you made a mistake. Most often, even if your company makes mistakes, customers will not reject you because we are all human, we are going to make mistakes now and again, just be sure to address that with your customers and prospective clients.

Just make sure that your customers understand the problem and make sure to address the issues together. Do not come into the situation in a rage because that will result, most often, in bigger issues. In addition, just be sure to ask them directly if they want to continue, and if not, just move forward, fix your mistakes, and learn from the situation. This will serve you greatly in the business and selling world of today.