Have you ever found yourself in conflict with a prospect or customer?
- Who's OK?
- Who's not?
- Keep the prospect or customer from digging in.
There is a popular saying: "A good offense is the best defense." While this may hold true in some arenas, in selling situations it usually doesn't make for very good strategy.
The other myth that connects to this rule sounds like this: "The customer is always right." The prospect or customer is not "always right," but he definitely is the judge and jury.
So: How do you respond when you are under attack - being reprimanded for something, rightly or wrongly, for instance? If you take a so-called "good offense" approach by attempting to explain, justify, or defend your position, or by pointing out flaws in your "opponent's" reasoning, you will likely cause your accuser to dig his heels in. Your "good offense" will only make the prospect or customer feel "not OK." Assuming the customer is "always right," on the other hand, can also delivers some interesting outcomes - like your making promises that you can't possibly keep.
In sales, the better option is simply to fall back.
What "Falling Back" Sounds Like
Suppose your company missed a promised delivery date and the customer called to let you know how upset he is. Rather than to try to explain about the trucking company's delay, which was out of your control, you could fall back. Here is what that might sound like:
You: Bill, I know that you must be upset about the order arriving a day late. I'm sure it wouldn't do any good to explain what happened. I imagine that you have made up your mind never to do business with our company again. Would that be a fair statement?
It's hard to fight with someone who surrenders up front. In this case, the customer would likely reaffirm his displeasure about the late delivery, but would just as likely back away from the idea of never doing business with your company. If the customer had decided never to do business with you again, why would he be investing time in this conversation?
The customer will probably ask for an explanation. After explaining the situation and the measures you have taken to ensure it doesn't happen again, you could proceed with something like this:
You: Bill, if you were in my shoes, what would you do to make things right?
Negotiation by Falling Back
Or consider a different situation: A customer asks for a concession you can't make. When you come under this kind of pressure, you could attempt to explain your position and justify your on-the-spot denial of the customer's request. But what would that lead to? A session of verbal arm-wrestling that ends with the customer saying some variation of, "After all the business I've given you...!"
Instead, you could fall back and gently channel the customer's emotional energy away from hostility and toward creativity.
Customer: That's what we want from you: A box of ripitz for every case of widgets. And that's what we're going to get.
You: Tom, I get the feeling that unless we can provide you with a free box of ripitz with every case of widgets, we've lost you business.
Customer: You're darn close to losing it.
You: And even if I could come up with an alternative to a box of ripitz, it wouldn't make any difference, would it?
Customer: It might.
You: Well, if you were in my shoes, understanding the constraints I'm under, what alternatives would you come up with?
"Falling back" takes the wind out of the customer's sails and makes it possible for you to have a conversation in which each side is OK. Once the emotional intensity is reduced, and nobody is under attack, you have a better chance of working toward a solution.
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