I had been planning for the Strategic Business Selling program for the past 2 months focusing on the
hard skills needed to successfully sell in the new reality of the post-pandemic disrupted virtual world. I’ve been working with the same group of Sales Professionals every time this year for the past 4 years with a focus on building a complete suite of skills including how to leverage business acumen skills into the selling process to present a value proposition from the business perspective.
On Monday, I presented the agenda for the week which included 10 hours of virtual connections. The goal was to refresh the business acumen skills and the social selling skills and then practice conducting virtual sales meetings.
I was into the first 15 minutes of the content when I could tell there was something wrong. My audience was looking distracted and there was no engagement. Usually, the topics of cold emailing and leveraging social selling receive a lot of action but not this time.
Knowing something was amiss, I paused and asked the group what was happening.
One of the participants responded right away, “Well, strategic business selling isn’t our problem right now. Because of the booming economy from pent-up demand, supply chain shortages, and selling virtually, we are almost sold out of every product through 2023. We aren’t really doing any selling right now. The only thing that is happening is difficult conversations with existing and potentially new customers that we are raising their pricing and can’t meet their demand. Our time would be better served if we could learn how to have difficult sales conversations.”
Luckily for us, I had developed a similar module at the beginning of the pandemic and was happy to dust it off for this program. For readers of this blog, here are the 7 key steps of having difficult sales conversations:
Prepare and set an agenda and specific talking points. Have a purpose, goals, and objectives for success.
The first tip is to aggressively prepare and never just wing it. It will get you into big trouble. In preparing, have an agenda and key talking points. Have defined goals and objectives and know what success looks like at the completion of the conversation.
Be confident and direct.
The customer will sniff out uncertainty even on a video call. If you are unprepared, you will come across as not confident. If you are nervous and afraid to have difficult conversations, then practice and have a plan. Once you start the conversation, be direct and don’t mislead, lie, and exaggerate. If anything, under-promise and then overdeliver.
Focus on facts, not feelings or emotions.
In a difficult sales conversation, there are certainly going to be hard and cold facts. Focus on them while keeping the emotions out of the dialogue. When describing the facts and data do it in a way that is factual and doesn’t cause further emotions.
Create an environment of transparency and openness.
Trust is all you have in a business-to-customer relationship. You worked so hard to cultivate it so don’t let it evaporate by engaging in cover-ups and mistruths. The more open and transparent you are, the more trust you will build
Be open to other person’s perspectives. Acknowledge their issues, concerns, and opinions.
Contrary to popular opinion, you are not always right, nor do you have all the answers. In a strong business dialogue that is difficult, you must also come across as empathetic and willing to listen to other perspectives and points of view.
Aim for achieving understanding above consensus.
Coming to a common “consensus” of compromise can often be unsatisfying and water-downed. In a difficult sales conversation, you want to make your point, listen to the other points, and reach a solid understanding of a solution that may not satisfy everyone. For example, one of my participants shared a recent story where a customer had ordered and contracted for 5,000 pounds of raw material. Because of the supply chain issues, only 2,500 were available. The customer demanded that they get all 5,000 pounds but it didn’t exist. He then demanded the participant take 1,000 pounds away from other customers. Ordinarily, my client would have agreed, but there were no other options. So instead of compromising, my client told the customer that all he could deliver right now is 2,500 pounds and that if things should change, he’d be the first to know. Things never changed and the customer had to get used to lower production.
Find a solution together.
There is only one good outcome to a difficult sales conversation and that is finding a solution that all parties develop together. The positive conversation diffuses tension and talks about the “what can be” and not the “what could have been.”
In summary, it’s going to get worse for sales professionals before it gets better. Having the skills and tools to confidently have difficult conversations is an absolute must!
