Overcome Negative Attitudes to Close the Sale
Posted by: Cheryl Clausen in sales coaching, tags: closing the sale, how to sell, sales coachingEven the most positive folks you know harbor negative attitudes. Some of us tend to think more negatively than others. Some respond more negatively to certain things than others. So how do you deal with a potential buyer who seems to hold negative attitudes?
Avoid War
Every time I’ve ever seen this happen it results in a virtual train wreck. The prospect makes a negative statement and you respond by trying to convince the prospect they’re wrong.
For example, the prospect says what you are selling costs too much. Rather than finding out what they really mean by that statement you take it as an opportunity to challenge their statement. So you come back with a statement about how great a value your service is.
This is a dangerous approach. You can very well win the argument and lose the sale because the more you try to convince the prospect of your position the more committed they become to their position.
A defensive reaction to a negative attitude escalates the problem rather than deflating it. Whenever a prospect makes a statement against what you sell you need to respect their point of view. To respect their point of view you need to acknowledge it, and find out more about what they mean.
Ownership
One way to work through negative attitudes is to help the potential client imagine ownership. They need to think through how ownership would impact them in as much detail as possible. They need to explore both the positive and negative potential.
Respect Motivation
Whether a person has a positive attitude or negative attitude they are either motivated to move toward something or away from something. You need to figure out if the person you are speaking with is more interested in moving toward a specific desired outcome, or if they are more concerned with avoiding a specific undesired outcome.
So when you are presented with a negative challenge:
- Diffuse the challenge by accepting it as a valid concern
- Respect the challenge by exploring the expressed concern
- Uncover the impact both positive and negative
- Accept challenges as unanswered questions
- Identify the prime motivator
Coach Cheryl
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