Don't Forget: Your Customer is your Teammate

You’ve planned a meeting meticulously to set yourself up for success. You’ve built rapport. You’ve started to dig beneath the surface to get at the heart of your customer’s needs.

Now it’s time for my personal favorite part of any sales call - the part where you get to share your ideas and create solutions that will turn prospective customers into signed ones.

It’s also the place where, if you aren’t careful, all of the work you’ve done up until this point can quickly unravel. And if you’re entering this stage thinking about how you can “win” the customer’s business, you might alienate them before you even get started.

Don't Lose the Sale with the Wrong Opening Line.

“What’s your budget?” is an opening line that some salespeople swear by. “Everybody has a budget,” they’d likely argue. “Why waste time beating around the bush?”

They aren’t necessarily wrong, and yet, it’s an opening line that typically kills sales (and the relationship) before the conversation can really begin.

Yes, money is important. Yes, your client likely has a budget in mind. But starting there won’t help you continue to build a relationship with your client. Why? It puts them on the defensive.

Clients worry that if they name a number that’s too low, they’ll be judged or offered a subpar experience. On the other hand, if they name a number that’s unnecessarily high, will you inflate your prices so that they get taken advantage of?

Suddenly your entire interaction - the one that was carefully built with curiosity and authenticity - has become transactional. And that’s not a feeling that’s easy to come back from.

Your Sales Pitch Should Feel Like a Collaboration, Not a Confrontation.

The whole process so far, from planning each stage of the meeting to building a rapport, has centered around including the customer. Now that it’s time to start sharing solutions, that shouldn’t change.

Instead of viewing the presentation of ideas as your moment, think of it as a collaborative brainstorming session where you create a roadmap with the customer.

Start by ignoring the financial elephant in the room. Think big. Offer solutions that would solve their problems, share creative ideas, and take their feedback into account as you go. Share any exciting and relevant possibility during this conversation without placing limitations on either of you.

Create a Safe Space to Tackle the Details.

The budget does, inevitably, have to come up. But by brainstorming first, you’re showing the client that your goal, first and foremost, is helping them find the right solutions. When the time does come to discuss their budget, it will be clear that your goal is modifying the plans you created together to match their financial needs.

Once again, you’re working with them to provide a solution - not asking a trick question.

You're Playing for the Same Team. If One of You Wins, You Both Do.

Your customer is investing one of their most valuable resources with you: their time. And they’re doing it because they’ve been happy with the rapport you’ve built so far and the direction your relationship is heading in. They believe you could be a good partner for them. They want this partnership to work.

Instead of thinking of winning their business, consider that a successful sales call means both of your teams get to win.