Oh, baby. You're in a sales demo, the company CEO just cycled in (17 minutes tardily), apologizes for beingness "slammed," and immediately jumps into ambitious questioning. This is the biggest bargain in your pipeline, you lot've been forecasting it for nine months, and, suddenly, information technology's being threatened.

Maybe this CEO asks why your widget manufactory doesn't have an API, or why you lot don't offer to ship someone to install your SaaS on their internal server (call up near it). These are extreme examples, just most salespeople have faced something similar when trying to hitting quota.

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And so, how do you respond when a customer makes a point, raises a concern, or critiques your product/service in a way that's fundamentally inaccurate? I've got a few ideas. But first, where exactly did this annoyingly idealistic phrase come from?

The Customer is Always Right

The phrase, "The client is always right," was brought to the mainstream in the early 20th century by American-British retailer and founder of the London-based Selfridges Department Store Harry Gordon Selfridge.

Selfridge had a radical thought for the time: that shopping should be for pleasance, not just necessity. His staff were encouraged to be of help to customers while never being as well pushy.

The idea of a client-centric arroyo to sales was as well pioneered past hotelier César Ritz, who championed the phrase, "The customer is never wrong."

Variations followed over the years, with Marshall Field, founder of Chicago-based department shop Marshall Field and Company, adopting the motto, "Give the lady what she wants."

What to Do When the Customer Isn't Right

1. Call back, miscommunication is role of a full schedule

First, grin, have a deep breath, and thank the sales gods you read the HubSpot Sales Blog. And so, remember miscommunication unremarkably means you're doing something right.

When you have a full schedule of client interactions, there's going to be a message or two that falls through the cracks. What matters is how yous proceed. Here are two things to endeavour:

  • E'er be tweaking - Never cease looking for means to improve your presentation. Utilize call reviews, check-ins, and prospect meetings to strop your message, heed to feedback, and ask how you can get better.
  • Put your friends and family to work - Your presentations should be clear plenty that someone with little-to-no familiarity with your company understands what you do when you're done speaking. Accept a friend to dinner if they sit through your presentation, or bring home dessert for a loved one if they listen to your latest feature pitch. Enquire for honest feedback, and be prepared to put it to use.

Everyone's different, and misunderstandings are normal -- but and then is sales improvement. So, get tweaking.

ii. Empathize your buyer meliorate

Customers are more than demanding and more educated than ever. The good role about this is that prospects do a lot of research on your company before you bound on your beginning phone call. The bad thing about this is -- evidently -- there'south a lot of misinformation on the internet.

This means, your prospect might come to your showtime meeting with incorrect assumptions about your product/service. To mitigate these scenarios, it's important to ameliorate understand your customers. You can do this a couple of ways:

  • Study your buyer personas. Determine the standard questions your prospects ask, and anticipate the answers. The more familiar yous are with the evolution of your buyer persona in real time, the better you can conceptualize what they'll ask next.
  • Understand your prospect'south learning style. Have a few of your existing customers complete a DISC or Myers-Briggs personality assessment, and see if any patterns emerge. These assist you lot understand whether your average prospect is an introvert, extrovert, or ambivert, which can drastically alter how you lot sell to them.
  • Determine your prospect'due south composure level. How interested are they in digging into the details of your product/service? Would they rather y'all provide only a loftier-level overview? Specifically ask what they'd like to become from your time together, and alter your bulletin accordingly.

When y'all go to know your customer better, it's easier to understand their concerns and even their misunderstandings. Make this part of your weekly or monthly workflow and never miss a beat with your prospects.

3. Practice active listening

During every call or meeting yous host, periodically stop and review what you've heard. Simply ask, "What I'thou hearing is that you're happy with service 10 and offer Y, but you're worried the monthly cost will still be also high. Is that correct?"

This ensures you're on the same page before steamrolling ahead. If your prospect answers, "Actually, our reservations stalk from a different expanse …" you can clarify and correct any misconceptions before they become a misunderstanding.

Don't salve questions for the end. If you run over fourth dimension, you'll lose that opportunity to clear up prospect defoliation. By saving questions, you as well gamble the prospect harboring a misunderstanding throughout your whole presentation, clouding their judgement and your message.

Terminate every five minutes, and field questions before moving on. And reward every question you receive. A uncomplicated, "That's a not bad question," or "Thanks so much for bringing that upwards," volition fix participants at ease and encourage conversation.

Finally, before you begin each meeting, enquire everyone in attendance what their goals are for the fourth dimension allotted. Yous will accept already had this chat with your champion, but it'due south important for you to read the room, gain understanding of what each person is interested in, and set expectations ahead of time.

iv. Avert negative ability statements

Conflict with a prospect isn't conducive to winning deals. When faced with aggressive questioning or accusatory statements, avoid negative power statements that only serve to drag you lot downwardly.

Phrases like, "That'south wrong," "No fashion," "That'southward non the fashion it works," and "Who told you that?" won't win you whatever friends or positively influence a deal.

Instead, if a prospect says something factually incorrect, tedious downwardly the chat and repeat what y'all've heard, saying, "So, what I'm hearing is that you've heard our product doesn't work for construction companies. Tin y'all tell me more about that?"

Instead of immediately refuting your prospect's agreement of the state of affairs with information or a structure case study, you've ensured the customer feels heard and understood.

In one case they're finished, move the conversation forwards in one of the following diplomatic ways:

  • "I see how y'all could depict that decision. There'due south a lot of truth in there, just there'southward too a petty more to the story."
  • "I hear that sometimes. Let me speak to a few of those concerns."
  • "I call back you have most of information technology, but there are some gaps I should fill in."
  • "That's how it worked before, but every bit of [month and twelvemonth], nosotros've fabricated some improvements."

The key to disagreeing without killing a deal are threefold. Offset, be able to differentiate between facts and opinion. To do this well, you must know your product/service better than the back of your hand.

Don't have the facts necessary to contradict a prospect in the coming together? Say, "That'south interesting. Let me talk to our team and get dorsum to you with some answers."

Second, respect everyone's experience and perspective. It's easy to feel indignant or write your prospect off every bit arrogant. Instead, respect the fact they've come to this conclusion in a thoughtful way, and understand it's your chore to address their concerns -- which brings us to the final part.

Take responsibility for explaining the correct respond conspicuously. It'south probable non your fault your prospect is misinformed. But it is your responsibility to clear things upwards, and leave the prospect with a positive impression of yous, your company, and your product/service. Use these tips to do that and do it well.

sales qualification

sales qualification

Originally published Jul 12, 2019 3:42:00 PM, updated Dec 02 2021