SALES TO THE LEFT OF ME SALES TO THE RIGHT

I am thinking of a number between 1 and 100, can you tell me what it is? Nope, it isn’t 33, no it’s not 62. No it’s not 12 either. All good guesses but none correct.

If nothing else this exercise should tell you all that you are not mind readers. No one I have ever met, and I am going to go out on a limb and say, no one I will ever meet is a mind reader. And yet I am with reps all the time who think they are.

We have all walked into a prospect or an existing customer and have had someone standing there looking at what we are doing and listening to what we are saying. When this happens reps usually get a little quieter and very hesitant in what they are saying. In most cases this is because not knowing who the person is we don’t want to say anything that could hurt our chance of selling or the buyer’s chance of making profit by buying our product or service.

I understand this and I totally disagree with it. The simple facts are you don’t know who the stranger is and making an assumption that they should not hear what you are saying. I on the other hand make a different assumption, I assume that they are a buyer from another business and that by hearing what I have to say could ask me to stop by their business and make a presentation.

Now, to be honest, I need to admit that your assumption is usually correct. In most cases the person is not supposed to hear what you have to say. However, I have never seen a buyer yet that wouldn’t stop me and move me away from someone in their waiting room or office if they didn’t want that person to hear me.

Why should I make a negative decision about someone? Let the buyer make the decision, and if the buyer doesn’t say anything to me, I will keep going as if the person standing there was an employee and was invited to my presentation.

I have been asked for my business card dozens of times from people standing around me while I did a presentation, and in about 20% of the times I have gotten a phone call asking me to stop by their business or telling me about a friend of theirs business that I should go to. Either way, I have created a lead with no additional effort at all.

Now one caution to my method. I will usually not discuss money. That discussion is one I prefer to have in a more confined place with the buyer. But I will ask them if they want to go to their office or if they want to talk about it there in the open.

This is why I speak louder than most people and why I always try and speak clearly. If someone is listening I want them to hear me.

I have had some managers disagree with me about this method. They ask, what if it is a competitor’s sales rep. My answer is I very rarely say anything in an initial sales presentation that the customer couldn’t get from the web or sales material. If a competitor needs that information, they aren’t a competitor.

Lorin