NICE GUYS FINISH LAST?

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If you’re like me, you may have been raised with some basic values your parents wanted you to adhere to.  Be courteous to people, be polite, answer when people speak to you, and don’t be rude. In my opinion, all of these are good things to learn as a child and carry into your adult life. However, let’s talk a moment about how the way we were raised can dramatically affect our sales results.

Before you wrinkle your forehead and raise your eyebrows let me explain. There are many situations in sales where we can’t be the “nice-guy“.  It can be when one is asking for a higher price, being asked for a discount, when somebody wants to delay a decision or when the prospect makes a statement that is either not true or suspicious. There are literally hundreds of situations that could be discussed where being a nice guy won’t help. Now, let’s not confuse the difference between brand new prospects and current customers. Customers that currently give you business often don’t need to be confronted. But, prospects that have never worked with you could be misleading, not open, holding cards close to the vest or could be withholding information. This doesn’t mean they’re bad individuals, we all do it to protect ourselves.

Therefore, we need to sometimes quiet some of the good character skills that we were taught in early life. I’ve seen more nice guys get burned in sales because they don’t confront, don’t say things that need to be said, or allow the prospect to get away with obvious misleading statements such as “ I’ll think about it”, “I need to do some research”, or “I need to talk to my spouse”.  As we have discussed in previous articles, most often when people say things like this they are actually not interested, but don't want to tell you that.  And remember, we want you to stay a good guy but earn their respect and get to the truth by saying things that need to be said. And, on the way, I promise you’ll close more sales.

Let’s give some examples. A prospect who has yet to decide asks you to come back out to their location.  You know you shouldn’t until you have more of a commitment but you’re a “nice-guy” so you say OK. A better approach might be to simply respond with, “I’d be happy to, but I should probably share with you my policy on coming back out after an initial meeting”. You then tell them that without some form of verbal commitment you’ll have to have a phone call instead.  In this scenario, you’ll save time, gain the respect of the prospect, and perhaps even turn the request into a nice conversation on the phone which will lead to a commitment.

Another situation: a prospect tells you they need some time to think it over. Instead of saying, “sure”, and following up later, only to find that the think-it-over turned into a no… Why not ask a bold question?  “Look, I’ve been doing this a long time. Typically, when people tell me they need more time what they’re really saying is, no. Is that the case? “ Being bold at the right moment could give you the truth. And when do you want to hear the truth? If you said, right away, I would agree. They may not be your best friend after that moment, but is that really what we want with someone that we’ve never worked with before?

The last example. A prospect tells you that if you give him a discount on this project, he’ll add a little bit to the order.  Before you accept this, let me remind you, he said he would “add a little bit”, not a significant amount to the order. Some will accept this request every time in order to be a “nice-guy”, even though they know they shouldn't. Meanwhile, an all-star sales person gets both orders and maintains his price. There are many approaches to this one, but for this example I will offer this: “Knowing we wanted to work with you, we came in very aggressive as it is. If you’re going to have to say no to us because we don’t discount, I’ll have to live with that. Is it over?”  You may not close those that are trying to get more for less, but you’ll gain the respect of the real prospects, potentially close more and waste less time in the process.

I can actually remember some key moments when I tried techniques like this myself. Years ago, I started with them over the phone, gripping the phone tightly in one hand, a pen in my fist with the other and even closed my eyes! I didn’t want to do it, frankly, but I was frustrated with being taken advantage of and not getting business I felt I had earned. When it worked over and over again to my surprise, I was elated. It became evident that my early upbringing was costing me sales! But, with this new confidence the techniques came to me more freely.  Use bold techniques when needed, even if it goes against the grain of your upbringing.

The key to the delivery of anything like this is all in the tonality. Change the tonality to make yourself comfortable. Take risk. Try things you’ve never tried. Take a chance. Look for opportunities to be bold.  Want more good news?  Once you close the sale, you can go back to your regular self, being courteous, giving in to people in your personal life and getting others to like you. Meanwhile, get the order today and make friends later!