Don’t spill your candy in the lobby is core concept #2 and it is really interesting. This is just another topic about waiting for the right moments to talk. The analogy refers to a box of candy being all the good stuff that you are able to bring into a sales meeting. This candy could be a potential discount on price or something that differentiates you from the competition.
Too many sales people are extremely eager to tell the customer everything that they know and have and they show the perspective customer their stuff way too early. The sales person makes the mistake of doing a little “show and tell” by offering up all their information. This concept is so important because if you do spill your candy in the lobby, it can either turn the customer off immediately, or put you in a terrible position for negotiations.
A good sales process requires patience, and an appropriate developmental approach to building trust. In the early parts of the sales call all the candy should stay in the box, this part of the sales process is for building trust and bonding. By keeping your candy in the box you can make sure that the customer doesn’t have you there for alternative motives. The sales person’s job early in the sales call is to get information, NOT to give information. You can’t sell to a person who’s pain you don’t understand.
testacr22
Core Concept #2 is a really interesting one for sure! Throwing to much information will definitely make it difficult to identify the customer’s primary pains and needs. Without knowing the pain and needs, completing the sale will be more difficult for sure. We should all stay in the box when in sales!
I definitely agree that “spilling your candy” can be very detrimental in negotiating situations. If someone already knows everything you have to offer, it is hard to keep the buyer fair and interested.
I really enjoyed the analogy of not spilling your candy in the lobby. Not only is it applicable to sales, but it’s applicable to many other things in life, too: from just being good at conversation to even applying it to the dating world, not spilling your candy in the lobby is a helpful maxim to just encourage patience in conversation.