In our four decades of sales work in more than 2,400 companies, we've coached a LOT of elite salespeople. One thing that many of them ask us is how they can be more nurturing and nuanced in their sales conversations, as it's a hallmark Slattery skill to keep the prospect's engagement and goodwill all the way through swift closing.
As these sellers know, it's far too easy in a conversation to get ahead of the prosect, to get emotionally involved, and to forget to nurture the other person. Unfortunately, a fight with the prospect accomplishes nothing other than killing the sale.
So here 's a tip from the arts that can help you enhance your sales conversations, even when prospects do something unexpected or begin pushing back.
If you've ever done improvisational comedy, then you know that the first rule of improv is this: Always Say "Yes".
Always say "Yes". If you are doing a skit with another actor -- bare stage, no props, just you and the other actor -- then it's critical to make the FIRST thing out of your mouth be some kind of validation of what the other actor just said.
For example: Let's say the other actor on stage is like, "Whew, it's cold out! Being in that rain is really chilly!" Your response MUST be some sort of YES to what they just said.
You do not say, "What? It's not raining!" simply because in your head, the skit was supposed to go a different way.
Even if you'd hoped the skit would go a different way, you respond with something like, "Oh yeah, it's pouring cats and dogs out!" In other words, you say YES to whatever they brought you. That's what moves the skit forward.
If you say no, everything comes crashing to a halt. It's a train wreck on stage, and nobody wants to see that.
So the first rule of improv is: Always Say Yes.
Here's how it applies to sales: I want you to bring that rule into your conversations with your prospects.
We, as humans want to be right. We want to correct other people. We want to negate them when they're wrong. When things start getting dicey in a prospect conversation -- maybe they're pushing back a little bit, they're giving you stalls, they're giving you resistance -- the temptation will be to defend yourself, to defend your stuff, to disagree with their statements, to question their assertions.
But I want your mentality to be this: Always Say Yes.
This doesn't mean that you're a doormat and you're going to do everything that they ask for. In fact, we are VERY specific in our coaching about NOT giving in to prospects' requests for concessions and discounts and not agreeing with their declarations that you're a commodity. When you're selling on value, you don't give in to whatever they're asking for.
But that doesn't mean you have to fight with them, either. Rather, adopt an approach to the conversation where you're allies, you're in it together. You're on stage together. This is a human being that you're working with, and you want to take care of the other person in the other conversation first.
So if they challenge you, if they push back, if they give you a stall (and they will!), your response will be some version of "yes".
Just like improv: you're out on stage together with this other human being. How do we keep this skit going where you want it to go? By first validating what they said.
This is not the time to get your emotional needs met. This is not the time to correct and negate and be the person who's right. Rather, start with a mindset that you will say yes.
And then let the scene -- the conversation -- progress from there, with their engagement and goodwill.
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