By Bruce Keith
There is a popular television program called The Good Wife. With a rather misleading title, it focuses on a very powerful legal firm and all the dynamics surrounding the business and personal lives of the characters. In a recent episode, one of the clients said to her lawyer, “I thought you were on my side, you’re supposed to be representing me!” This evoked a very simple yet pragmatic response from the attorney. “The best way for me to be on your side is to know how the other side thinks.”
That approach makes a lot of sense and certainly applies to the negotiations that go on every day in the sales business. Great salespeople are great negotiators.
It is easy to recognize that to be a great negotiator we need to be good at understanding how the other side thinks. This isn’t something you should try to guess at. Just like a great attorney, it helps to ask some simple open questions:
1. Can you tell me more about where you/your customer is coming from?
2. How did you arrive at that conclusion?
3. Could you please tell me more about your/their position?
4. Where do you really want to end up here?
5. How do you mean?
6. What is it going to take to put this together?
Great negotiating starts and ends with give and take. The taking part isn’t hard; it’s the giving part that is tricky. By asking more questions, by understanding how the other side thinks, you will not end up giving any more than is necessary.
One final thought… great negotiators are never attached to the outcome. Even if it’s true, do not reveal that you really “need this deal”. That doesn’t serve anyone very well… especially you. No excuses.
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Here is an interesting definition of the salesperson’s job: “Help people overcome their fears so they can commit to something they’ll end up being glad they invested in.” Very interesting. Think about it for a moment – if you are just an order taker, all you have to do is “wrap up the product, put it in a bag and ring it up on the till”. That’s not selling! And it doesn’t pay near as much. Selling is all about helping the consumer overcome their fears of making a bad decision. Eliminate their fear of loss.
Once the customer is comfortable that their decision/investment is in their best interests, the closing part becomes simple. That’s when they are ready to buy. The way to get the customer to that stage is to be sure you answer all their questions and address their fears. Use the technique of “isolate the objection”. How? Ask good questions. Follow this sequence:
1. What’s the next step for you?
2. What’s preventing you from moving forward on this decision?
3. What do you need to know to help you be comfortable and make this purchase?
4. What expectations do you have so we can be sure that this is right for you?
5. Is anything else preventing you from saying yes?
6. Once we deal with this issue, are you ready to go ahead?
Sometimes in my seminars and coaching situations, people say to me, “Yeah, but asking those questions is hard.” I submit to you that asking the above questions is not hard; it just requires an adjustment in thinking. Living in a third world country, or not having enough money or having poor health – that’s hard! Taking on the challenges of mastering Q#1 to Q#6 and handling the objection, that’s not hard. That’s exciting. Do that and your customer’s fears will disappear. No excuses.
Bruce Keith, the “Sales Coach”, began his sales career at IBM and 15 years later used his marketing and sales expertise to develop a highly successful real estate business. He is a master of teaching “what to say and how to say it”. His high energy and entertaining training style has allowed him to create a popular coaching and seminar business for numerous sales organizations during the last 12 years. www.brucekeithresults.com
Bruce Keith is a leading Real Estate Coach/Author/Speaker. Like Bruce Keith Results on Facebook or connect with Bruce on Linkedin. Email Bruce Keith.
