Three Ways to Talk Yourself Out of a Sale

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by Diane Sanchez, Stephen E. Heiman and Tad Tuleja

Do you "push product benefits" when you sell? You could be talking yourself out of sale after sale. Pushing benefits is deeply rooted in the selling tradition. According to countless images in popular culture and (bizarrely enough) according to many salespeople themselves, the super sales rep is a perambulating gab machine, mouth going a mile a minute and ears stuffed with wax.

Consider the clichis. "He could sell snow to Eskimos." "You're not a great salesman until you can sell something to someone who doesn't want it." "The selling doesn't start until the customer says no." All of these phrases--which are part of our profession's occupational folklore--define selling as telling: telling customers what they want, what they need, and where to sign. The conventional salesperson is smilin' Sammy, the arm-pumping used car salesman (or woman) whose philosophy is "Tell 'em whatever you have to. Just make the sale."

But you don't have to be smilin' Sammy to fall victim now and again to this disease. Even the best and most ethical of sales professionals sometimes practice "talking cures" which can be almost as deadly to your revenue as smilin' Sammy's scams. The most common examples are variations of "product push," in which the seller is mesmerized by the product or service itself, rather than trying to identify what the customer wants to accomplish and what the customer needs.

Variation 1: "Take This-You Need It."

In one variation, sellers confuse what the customer needs with what their company needs to sell--that is, the seller mistakes the company's solution for the customer' image of that solution.

Although this approach is closely related to smilin' Sammy's hand-pumping style, there's not necessarily anything underhanded or treacherous about it. In all but the most sophisticated of selling organizations, salespeople confuse customers' needs with their own companies' marketing needs because the relationship between salesperson and customer is only one factor that influences what a company produces and markets. When you're face to face with a customer, you're not there alone. Behind you is your entire corporate organization, filled with fellow professionals whose day-to-day concerns may have less to do with providing solutions than with manufacturing issues, inventory costs, sales forecasts, or profit margins. Those concerns affect what you believe you need to sell, whish in turn affects your perception of the customer's need.

A colleague of ours once worked for a furniture manufacturer. In the early '70s, this company came out with a line called "the Toledo," which the design department and the company president were convinced would replace American Colonial as the look of the decade. The sales force was instructed to "push the Toledo," while the assembly line worked overtime on Spanish-style grillwork.

The field staff followed directions, only to discover six months down the line that the Mediterranean vogue that was supposed to drive sales skyward was a figment of the design department's imagination. Results? A record number of returns, irritated retailers everywhere from Tallahassee to Tacoma, a revenue nosedive--and the sales staff caught in the middle, taking the hit for a misconceived marketing policy. The policy makers had never asked retailers or homeowners what they wanted in the first place.

Variation 2: "Whatever You Need, We Have It."

In a second variation, sellers make a perfunctory attempt to determine the customer's need but then revert to type, assuming that whatever the customer needs, their company can supply it. After all, with our volume and variety, they've got to be interested in something.

This error in judgment is most common in large corporations which have enjoyed a major market share for a long time, and whose product lines (they feel) are infinitely adaptable. If you're big enough, and the menu of your products or services is diverse enough, it's very tempting to assume "If you don't see it on the menu, you don't really want it."

Here's a bitterly humorous example. A major manufacturer of office machines closed a deal with a medium sized accounting firm to replace their outmoded copiers with a new, hotshot system. Was it a great system? Absolutely. The only glitch was, when the installers arrived to put the new units into place, they didn't fit. Literally.

The accounting firm was housed in a genteel old building with narrow hallways, and--short of knocking down walls--there was no way to wheel in the new units. The hotshot new copiers went back to the warehouse, the sale fell through, and the accountants, amazed that so elementary a spec had been overlooked, gave their business to another supplier.

What did the deal in was the manufacturer's failure to understand the customer's mental picture of the solution (smaller copiers--which the manufacturer in fact made). By focusing on product first, you can lose sight of the fact that product and buyer's expectations also have to "fit."

Variation 3: "Give the Customers What They Want"

In this third variation, sellers deliver a product or service package that they know, for one reason or another, isn't right for a customer, but justify the sale with "It's what the customer asked for." It seems to absolve the seller of responsibility, but really sets up both buyer and seller for a fall. "The customer is always right" is a great idea, but the plain fact is that the customer isn't always right. Sometimes, in making buying decisions, the customer is a 24-karat idiot. Because this is so, it's wise to think "caveat vendor" before you give a customer what he or she wants. If you allow customers to dictate, rather than explain their understanding of the problem and its solution, you are little more than a sophisticated order taker. You can end up paying for your generosity with dissatisfied customers, lost accounts, and bad word-of-mouth.

Can you talk yourself out of a sale? Sure. Remember to push the product you have, rather than listen to what the customer needs. Remember "one size fits all" customers and that they're not so special even if they think they are. And remember that since the customer is always right, whatever choice that customer makes is all right with you--even if it costs you future business.