As I sat down with professor Sweet to give my sales talk, I felt confident and ready. I was representing an educational board game company and professor Sweet was a school administrator responsible for buying supplies and games for their classrooms. Things started out well, the conversation was flowing smoothly and I was steering the conversation in the direction I wanted it to go. I was setting up to talk on how my game worked and why it was so special, but before I had finished the first sentence of what I was sure was going to be a home run pitch, I heard two words interrupt me:
This completely derailed me. How? I answered him right away and gave up all my power. I had been completely in control until this point. Something as simple and innocuous as quickly and honestly answering the question of price had derailed my entire presentation and changed the attitude of my prospect and distracted him from anything I was about to say.
I reacted by trying to pivot away from the question, telling him that we could revisit the question in a minute. This was like slapping a band-aid on a surgical incision. I had to face reality: I was done. Now thankfully, this was a class presentation and was meant to be a learning experience to understand topics like this. So what should I have done instead and what did I learn?
What I should’ve done upon receiving that question would’ve been to show that I heard his question, but ask if we can come back to it. This would give me enough time to find out more about his needs and also give him an idea of why my game is so important.
What did I learn? I learned how quickly things can go wrong in a sales conversation. You can give away all your leverage without realizing it. This is why it is so important to be on your toes and know how you will answer potential questions such as price before you even go into your conversation.
testacr22
There were many times when people were stumped. The key is to not get down on yourself and move into the future as if nothing had happened. This is a great example of how buoyancy can overcome struggles and have an affect on salesmen and how they treat future calls.
Phenominal post, Ed. That situation would have stumped any one of us. It was not only a learning experience for you, but for the entire class. I love how you went about writing this post. You have a real knack for it.
Its crazy how impactful two words can be, especially when we know enough to know those words are bad news. Luckily my product was very large and price wouldn’t typically be discussed in a first meeting. It is so important to be able to learn from the experience. Great post!
I think it’s crazy sometimes in sales we don’t treat, things like a normal conversation and can really get thrown off of our rhythm. In reality we are totally in control to answer what we want. i think definitely a key is knowing you don’t have to answer anything you don’t want to.