To be clear, this series on sales and dating is not meant to give you lessons in love. It is to help make sales a little more relatable on a primal level that we can all appreciate. So why not jump into the awkward baseball analogy of having bases? Don’t worry, we’re not going past second base here. This series is getting weird enough already. You can create your own inferences for third and fourth base. For the purposes of this article, getting to second base is the follow up meeting, the tour, the product demonstration and so forth. We’ll save the kissing for the next article. For most everyone in sales, getting to second base means understanding objections and having a meaningful way to manage them. Most of us never learn how to effectively manage objections when we are in our dating years. We hear an objection as an instant ‘no’ and run away as fast as we can. Objections in the dating world sound like:
- ‘I am seeing someone else right now’ (we are using one of your competitors).
- ‘I was told that you aren’t very fun’ (your prices are too high)
- ‘I heard that you never call someone back’ (you have customer service issues)
- ‘I usually don’t date someone like you’ (we have a hard time accepting change)
- ‘I recently got out of a bad relationship’ (our last vendor completely failed us)
Indeed the parallels between sales and dating are never ending. If you are going to get to second base with a client, you will need to understand their objection and work through it. Objection and rejection are not the same thing when you look at it closely. We all know that when someone says that they are dating someone else, they are telling you that out of obligation and not necessarily to convey that they are happy in their current situation. Not to mention the fact that most great relationships start out with a little bit of friction early on. Rejection is friction; a part of the process, not the end of the process. Getting to second base as a lady or a gentleman, comes about by having a good conversation and understanding each other’s wants and desires. It is no different in sales. In that conversation you will find that you don’t see eye to eye on everything, and that is okay. You may also find that one of you is a square peg while the other is a round hole and it is best to shake hands and walk away. After all, you only have so much time to find the right one for you so it would be best to keep moving on. If you are having trouble getting to second base, we can help. The flaw is usually found in your approach and process. How do you go about getting to know the prospect? What method do you use for asking for a second meeting? What is the value proposition that makes you special among all of their other options? Having a sales coach to role play with you will give your brain the experiential memory you need to change your approach and outcome. Just as pro baseball players practice in the batting cage, Scorecard Sales coaching and training modules improve your game. Role playing is the best tool you have to work through objections as long as you have the right coach to role play with. Once we teach you how to get to second base, the easier it will be for you to go in for the kiss; closing the deal.
