Business to Business Selling Skills: Don’t try and force a “No” into a “Yes”
Accountants in Manchester – Small Business Advice
There are a number of individuals who view sales as a series of repeated catch phrases that somehow, magically force customers to purchase. The “say anything, do anything” approach to sales may allow you to close one or two orders. However, once your customer realizes they’ve purchased something they weren’t entirely happy with, you’ll lose their repeat business. This is especially true if they feel you’ve led them astray.
Don’t try and force a “no” into a “yes”. Instead, understand why the answer is “no” and then move forward.
Contrary to popular opinion, there is no magical way to get past a “no”. The doctrine of turning a “no” into a “yes” is both outdated and antiquated. If you really push and push, you’ll likely be able to close an order even though someone has said “no”. However, it’s the wrong approach. This doesn’t mean you simply give up. You should always try and alleviate a customer’s concerns. Doing so might just lead you to winning new business. What it does mean, is that there are plenty of sales people who are simply satisfied with getting the one sale, without considering the long term consequences of an unhappy customer. Several sales people have taken the “no” to “yes” approach, and used it to convince someone to purchase something they simply didn’t need. The real intention is to answer all the reasons why your customer might not order, and then hopefully give the customer the confidence to purchase. Understand why someone may not want to order, and address these concerns first. Only after you’ve addressed all their concerns, and both you and your customer are confident you’ve found the solution, should you then move forward.
Using catch phrases, and other sales tricks, to slip one past a customer may get you that one order, but will never allow you to grow repeat business. It’s simply no way to create a long standing and lasting business relationship.
