Go Negative Once in a While

As a salesperson, we tend to think on the more positive side of things. This could mean showing the prospect what benefits our product can hold, or it can mean being positive about the sale in general. Either way you look at it, salespeople tend to look towards the positive most of the time.

Of course, this does not always have to be the case. It is okay to look at the negatives in a sales situation. Buoyancy is not about banishing the negatives of a situation. Instead, it is about harnessing its power for good.

One positive that we can take away from negative selling is that it provides corrective data. You are able to express both the positives and negatives that the product being sold has to offer. This gives the prospect the understanding that you are not just trying to sell them a product to earn a profit. Instead, it lets the prospect know that you are keeping their best interest in mind. We should want to sell someone something because we think that it can benefit them, not just because we want to make a sale.

Another positive that we can take away from negative selling is that it gives us the ability to defend against pessimism. If we are only selling the positives that a product has to offer, how do we know some of the negatives that can come from what we are selling. If a prospect starts addressing questions that have a negative undertone, how can we combat these if we do not know about some of the negatives of our product. Thinking about how our product may not be as beneficial as other products helps us to think of solutions and ways that our product can benefit the customer better than other products. That way, when a customer starts attacking us about why our product is not good enough, we will be able to come up with solutions to the customer’s attack.

Finally, negative selling keeps us grounded. We do not get consumed in the thought that our product is the best out there. We have to understand that sometimes our product is not always the best thing for the prospect. If we cannot understand that then we may start selling for the wrong reasons. We want to sell something because it is taking away our prospect’s pain.