Add Boldness to Skills Needed for Sales
Be Bold and Win the Sale is almost ten years old. Fun fact that was not the original title. The working title was “Chasing Easy.”
For those who have read Be Bold and Win the Sale, you know that I talk at great length about comfort addictions. I often equate comfort addiction with chasing easy.
Chasing easy is a malady. Boldness is the remedy and belongs to the skills needed for sales.
Sadly, far too many people hear the word “bold” and instantly think obnoxious. There is an inherent alarm in the word.
Let me be very, very clear on this point. Boldness is NOT obnoxious bravado, flashy dialogue, or stealthy manipulation. I reject any such notion as being counter to the core of the message.
I define boldness this way: Doing the right thing in the face of discomfort.
You see, every moment of discomfort arrives with a corollary moment of decision. And the quality of those decisions makes all the difference in our sales approach and lives.
Boldness is not about doing the HARD thing. Boldness is about doing the RIGHT thing.
For example, suppose you are deep into discussions with a customer, and you believe you are about to land this sale. When you think you have this one in the bag, the customer says, “This is quite a bit more than we were planning on spending. We need to go back and crunch the numbers.”
As a salesperson, you believe that all the number-crunching in the world will not change the situation. You have the best possible solution available, and you offer it at a fair price.
On the other hand, you don’t want to show disrespect toward a reasonable-sounding request.
Do you press onward, or do you give in? Do you challenge the objection or let the customer walk so they can “think about it”?
Misinterpreting the word “bold” would cause many to take a very aggressive approach in this situation. “Come on. You know the price is right, we have the best solution, and you know that you will ultimately go with us. Just do it already.”
Um, hate to break it to you, but you just jeopardized the entire sale.
Option two says, “I understand – it’s a big decision. Take all the time you need.”
Guess what. Your sale is also in jeopardy.
But what if you redefine “boldness” as serving the customer’s best interests. And what if you recognized that your customer needed you to politely push back in the service of their own best interests?
Your response might be, “I get that it’s a lot of money, and I know that makes it tougher. But I can save you a lot of headaches here. I’ve done all the research for you. There is no better option available at this price. You simply cannot solve your problem adequately with any other solution. The sooner you decide, the sooner we can solve your problem and improve your situation. Make sense?”
Remember, boldness is not about doing the HARD thing; it’s about doing the RIGHT thing – for you, your company, and your customer.
And that’s when you get the chance to change someone’s world.
