A Decision Not to Make a Decision is a Decision

In our reading from Mattson and from class discussion, we talked about core concept 4: a decision not to make a decision is a decision. Both the book and the lecture described this idea in the following way. When a prospect says, “I will think it over….” or “I will give it some thought and time….”, what does that really mean? These prospects in these examples are actively deciding not to make a decision. And that, to the salesperson, is still a decision to not buy the product or service, at least, at that time. Therefore, the salesperson generally wants to avoid a situation in which the prospect might say one of these lines. The salesperson needs to give the prospect “permission” to say no. This is ideally done at the beginning of a sales conversation. The salesperson wants to make the prospect feel comfortable, trusted, and open to conversation. He should lead with a statement like “If at any point, either one of us feels like this just wouldn’t be a good fit, can we let each other say no?” This makes the prospect relax because there is less pressure on them, and it also reminds them that the salesperson is determining whether the prospect is even good for their company or product or not. The object of the salesperson is to get to the truth of what the prospect is actually thinking and feeling and move over the social niceties of not wanting to disappoint the other person by straight up saying no. I think we fall into this trap all the time just in every day social interactions. We feel like we are not allowed to say no to offers or requests because it might make the other person upset. But the reality is that being completely open and honest about how you are feeling will make the other person trust you more, just as the prospect will trust the salesperson more.