Sales Tips: Buyers Are NOT Always Right?

Sales Tips: Buyers Are NOT Always Right?

When I started in Sales, a common phrase was that “the customer/buyer is always right.” While I’ve always believed sellers should respect buyers, nobody I know is right all of the time. I’d like to share a situation where it was appropriate to challenge a buyer’s opinion.

Several years ago a new CCS® Business Partner asked me to make a call with him on a VP of Sales that he had known a long time. He felt the VP would be a good candidate for implementing our sales process. The three of us met for lunch and after a few minutes of rapport building, we started discussing some of the challenges the prospect was experiencing.

He initially indicated things were going fairly well, but after a few more minutes said the majority of his sellers weren’t making his numbers. He went on to say that he didn’t feel that there would be much benefit in doing any sales training for his staff. He then asked if CCS® did anything in helping sellers improve their presentation skills. I shared with him that we didn’t, but there were some other people that I’d be happy to put him in touch with.

One option was to finish the lunch and at the end of our call share some empty words about any future needs that might arise. I was mildly upset the Business Partner hadn’t uncovered some areas for discussion prior to our meeting, but what really bothered me was his thought that improved presentation skills would allow his staff to drive higher revenue.

With little to lose, I asked: How much impact do you feel improved presentation skills will have on driving higher revenue?  He hesitated for several seconds and seemed surprised in admitting that it was unlikely that better presentation skills would address his revenue shortfall. We then went on to have a detailed discussion about the underlying reasons many of his reps weren’t achieving quota.

Earlier in my sales consulting career, I probably would have challenged him sooner and more directly. In hindsight, admitting that I couldn’t help in presentation skills and offering him others that could, allowed me a little later in the call to challenge the direction he planned to take with his sales staff.

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