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Exeter, Devon | info.southwest@sandler.com

Your meeting is arranged and you have done your homework, rehearsed how you think the meeting will go, prepared your questions and polished your presentation. It can’t fail, can it?

At some point between the beginning and the end of the meeting, your prospect decides he is not going to behave like a reasonable human being or the person you mentally rehearsed the script with. So, what do you do now?

Of course there may be some people who see this as a reason why not to try and prepare for sales meetings. However, if that is your approach, could you already be inadvertently positioning yourself to play a subservient role? Your prospect will make the running and you will follow. In this case you will struggle to establish a ‘meeting of equals’.

There are buyers who are expert in positioning sales people into the ‘one down’ position. They keep you waiting in reception, they cut the meeting short due to rescheduling of other meetings or they introduce hypothetical deadlines to apply pressure. 

As a salesperson or business owner you may put up with manipulative behaviour from buyers because you believe that if you jump when asked, you stay in the running for the business.

Success selling requires you to establish and maintain equal business stature and this begins well before the meeting.

Sandler Training clients learn how to set an ‘Up-Front Contract’- a clear, mutually accepted set of outcomes and next steps through which a buyer and a seller determine what will constitute a successful outcome of the meeting and the next steps to be taken.  Sometimes that means the salesperson has to take a deep breath and resist the buyer's attempts to manipulate things. 

This needs preparation, the ‘right’ attitude and techniques to manage the situation. It also means that sometimes you may need to walk away. It forces the buyer to consider whether their attempts to position you as a supplier who is no different to other potential suppliers is really in their own best interest. Would you really want to be regarded as ‘one of many’?

It sounds like an 'opportunity' you should pass on and instead, invest your time in uncovering a better prospect -one who will value your contribution to their business and view it as a partnership.

 

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