Always be prepared to walk away.

Being ready to qualify out of a sale usually will mean we don’t have too.

Some sales deals we just don’t need, or want. When the customer gets too difficult, wanting too much for too little, we should qualify out of the sale and walk away from the deal. Strangely, always being prepared to walk away usually means we won’t have to

The longer we’re engaged in a sales opportunity, and the more we think we’re going to win it, the more we have invested in it – cost of sale, aspiration, pride. Telling a customer we’re no longer interested in his business can be an awfully hard thing to do, especially when plans for spending the commission are already made. It’s quite natural the tenacity that got us to this point will keep us focused on winning, regardless of the cost. Well, that same tenacity digs a big whole for us costing time, money and self-respect.

Like so many of the philosophies described here, “Always be prepared to walk away” is counter intuitive. i.e. that which seems to be the “wrong thing to do” is actually “the right thing to do”. Understanding this one’s absolutely fundamental to success in selling – success that is, not just in getting the order, but getting the order at the right price, at the right time and with the right cost of sale.

Lets paint the scenario. We’ve religiously followed the process, qualified the opportunity, committed the customer to our proposal, and covered all the bases. We know we have the right offer, and so does the customer, but we just can’t close the deal. The customer wants just a little bit more scope, a bit more discount, and some more time. The longer this goes on, the more desperate we get, and the further away the deal goes. We have a problem. We can’t give up now. We’ve too much invested in it.

Customers are like kids at Christmas. They’re never going to be satisfied with the toy they’ve just opened while there’s an unopened package on the floor. They’re going to keep asking, and keep delaying, until there aren’t any unopened packages left, and no more appear.

The customer isn’t going to stop asking for more until we start saying NO – there I’ve said it NO. Explained like this we’re not being counter intuitive anymore. This is blindingly obvious, right.

So now everybody has accepted at some point we have to say no, its time to move on the really outrageous part. The earlier in the process we say no, the faster we’ll get the deal closed and the better our terms will be. As soon as the customer has what he set out to get, we’ll close.

Covered elsewhere are the topics of sales process, opportunity review and risk, helping the customer to buy. If we’ve done our job professionally, won the customer’s trust and committed them to our solution, then we can be confident in saying no. They have the right deal on the table and should sign, now.

If, throughout the process we’ve let the customer control us then at this point it gets to be hard on both buyer and seller if the tables are turned. On the other hand, if we’ve controlled the process then we can also have conveyed the message – when this gets to be bad business for me “I’m always prepared to walk away”. The customer has already been told there are no more packages before he starts opening.

One topic discussed elsewhere in the Conditional Close. This is a great tactic for gaining control before the customer starts to enjoy telling us what to do.

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