By Ellen Manzo

Situation:  Out with the old; in with the new.  A former colleague announces retirement or that he’s leaving the firm and you’ve been given a “new opportunity to excel”.  You inherit one of the accounts in his territory.  Sound familiar? 

Taking on a new client is no different than courting a new date with one exception.  If you’re lucky, you might have access to the old date to find out about your new client.  So, assuming you are fortunate to have access to the former account manager, capitalize on that knowledge base before it walks out the door!  Offer to take your former colleague out to a congratulatory lunch in celebration of his or her future and take the opportunity to pick the former rep’s brain as he or she dives into an appetizer.  Find out about the:

• company – its mission, directives, business objectives, industry position, acquisitions, divestitures, locations, upcoming mission critical applications, it’s competitors;
• client contacts - decision makers and influencers, their professional backgrounds, personal interests, titles, contact information -- addresses, phone numbers and email addresses, preferred communications approach – preferred time to meet, favored executive in your firm to include on sales calls, favorite restaurant, etc.; 
• account history;
• critical applications for your product or service – past and future;
• prospective sales opportunities and liabilities;
• current sales forecast and how that compares to previous sales history;
• available client budget for upcoming decisions;
• account billing and receivables;
• why they’ve chosen your product in the past and just as important, why they might have chosen someone else’s product in the past;
• competitive inroads;
• buying signals;
• what works well in sales approach;
• contact information and
• last but not least, kindly secure the account file if your colleague is willing to part with it as he or she is promoted or leaves the firm. 

Finally, be sure to include a question that asks for advice.  People love to give advice.  Consider:  “Were you to continue selling this to this account, what would you advise as a plan for the next year or two?”  There is plenty more that can be added to this list, but you get the idea.

Second – Do your research on the account!  Use those college acquired skills on research papers to learn about the clients business.  (See “Researching Your Client - Just cause you’ve graduated, don’t think you should take exodus of the school library!”)

Third – Announce to your new client contacts that there has been an account representative turnover.  Several delivery methods work well here:

• A letter of introduction or telephone call from your mutual boss often works well;
• A telephone call from the former account manager presuming your soon-to-be former colleague is leaving under positive terms; or
• A letter of introduction co-signed by the former and new account managers.  

Fourth – Arrange a first date.  The turnover call or initial sales call can often be quite lengthy.  Carefully think through how you might choose to manage this visit and carefully plan your agenda.  Participants should include the key client decision maker along with only you or you and others.  Keep in mind that it is important to carefully orchestrate this initial call as you choose to bring in more participants to the visit. 

Option 1:  An introductory sales call - going solo.  Making this very important sales call solo minimizes chances of being compared or associated with a predecessor other than through the logo that appears on your collective business cards.  My favorite approach in taking on a new client was to request that a telephone call be made to target contact by my boss to introduce the turnover.  During that telephone call I asked my boss to tell my new client that I would be contacting him or her within the next 24 hours to schedule a visit.  I preferred to handle my initial visit solo, for going alone always allowed me to ask the tough questions without putting anyone in a position of feeling awkward.  I could ask the client questions about the business and more importantly about his or her perspectives on my company, my firm’s former representation and the handling of the account.  Clients, I find, are usually straight up when it comes to providing a prospective on their suppliers.  What could be better than to hear from a new client about how he or she would like to be handled? 

Questions I often asked about past account management typically included:

“What did you think of your former account representative?”  

“What do you feel he or she did exceptionally well in handling your account?”  I advise that this question be asked from the perspective of the positive.  I do this for two reasons:  First, were I to pose this question in the reverse and ask “What did my predecessor do that you’d like me to avoid in the future?” assumes that the client has something negative to say about your former colleague and can bring down that first meeting with your new client.  I find that it is always smart to portray one’s own firm in a positive light.  Second, even though the above question is posed in the positive; invariably the client will also articulate what your former colleague didn’t do well so be prepared to hear the negative anyway.

“Why did you buy from our representative and our firm?  What did you like most about the value he or she brought to your table?”  Or, stated another way “If our firm could replicate the value the former account rep brought to your table in future representatives, that value would be what?  Is there something in his or her approach to your firm that one should attempt to emulate in handling your account?”

“Who else have you met from our firm?”  This is an important question for it will tell you if your client met with support representatives – technical, service, or admin reps, as example, your company leadership – your boss, the regional head, or top executives.  If your client has met with others from your firm, carefully inspect his perspective on those he has met. Most especially, find out what he thinks of your leadership.  This discussion will quickly tell you if an established trust exists with others from your firm with whom your new client has previously met.  Let’s face it.  It takes time to establish trust with any new date.  These familiar faces and previously established levels of trust can be extremely useful to maintain and build upon while your new client is sizing up his new representative, you, to see if he can build trust in his new account manager.  It shortens the dead time, the time devoted to transition management.  Seldom is one lucky to receive additional territory without additional quota.  Shortening dead time is critical to quickly turning around results and meeting new sales objectives. 

Remember to keep the questions positive.  Asking these questions allows for a dialogue to be open and honest from the get go.  And remember, people buy from those they like and trust. 

Option 2:  An introductory sales call - three players - Participants include the 1) client, 2) the former account rep and 3) you, the new account rep.  Keep in mind however that an introductory visit by the former rep and you can deliver mixed results.  If your former colleague was very successful, the risk you take on is often minimized.   If, on the other hand, your former colleague was not very successful with your account, the risk factor is increased as your face becomes associated with his or her face.  A great lesson is learned on this one from grade school teachers in their handling of identical twins.  Often times grade school teachers attempt to divide twin siblings into separate classes to minimize the chance of one twin being compared to that of his/her partner twin.  Keep in mind that your new client will compare you to the former rep from your firm. 

Option 3:  Four players – Participants include the client, the former account rep, you as the new account rep and your boss.  This could be a solid approach providing the former account rep is getting promoted or leaving your firm under good terms and as long as you don’t feel that the number of participants would overwhelm the client.   This is also a great approach should you sense that it is important to validate the forecast you’ve just been handed from the former account rep in contrast to the additional quota you’ve been asked to take on from your boss.   

This was a life saver to me once.  My company had just undergone a huge reorganization which resulted in a future loss of personal income as much of my territory which included significant backlog (and we earned commission upon installation of orders) was being splintered.  The reorganization called for the majority of my huge money making accounts to be moved to several newly established branches in a new organization.  My management wanted me to continue to work for them and stay behind.  In return for my anticipated income loss, my management gave me some new territory to include a new client – the largest city government account in our region who had the benefit of recently being sold to by one of the top sales people in my company.  The former rep was awaiting the announcement of his new promotion, so he was obviously leaving the account under good terms.  The better news for me was that his account included a lot of backlog.  While the backlog didn’t come close to matching what I had just sacrificed, it lessened the loss. 

I organized a four player sales call to include my new customer, the former account rep, my boss and me.  I walked into the call with agenda in hand expecting the call to be positive.  Instead, the outcome was disaster. 

In my first sales call to the client we discovered that all the customer orders in our backlog were suspect.  In addition to not wanting the equipment the client ordered, the client disclosed that he discovered that the former rep forged a bond accompanying his proposal to the account.  Not only were all the pending orders in jeopardy (and therefore the possible commission I would have been paid upon installation); but furthermore, the client informed us that within days our firm would be the recipient of legal notification of a lawsuit.  Within a week, my shining star predecessor was fired and my new objective was to handle the legalities of a law suit.  Not a fun way to break into a new account.  I can only thank my lucky stars that my boss was in attendance to hear the news in my presence.  My new quota was quickly adjusted to accurately reflect my new challenge. 

Fifth – Host the introductory meeting.  The introductory meeting is a great opportunity to validate what you heard from your predecessor – sales opportunities, current projects, product attractiveness, etc.  I advise that this be a key component of the agenda.  But be sure to do so in a way that is open ended.  Example:  Do ask:  “Can you tell me why your firm chooses to use our product?”  Do not ask:  “I hear you use our product because we are able to deliver within 24 hours of ordering.  Is that right?”  Do ask:  “What is your understanding of your backlog with our firm?”  Do not ask:  “Here is a list of the backlog.  Can you validate this?”

Take the opportunity of the first meeting to review the client’s business goals and objectives, the roles of others within his or her firm, upcoming applications or projects, budgetary concerns and any immediate needs on the table that should be addressed (and be sure to address them as quickly as possible to establish a reputation of follow-through.) 

Finally, establish a communications plan for your “courtship” and working together.  In doing so, consider suggesting approaches that you have found to be particularly successful for you in other sales endeavors.   Use your previous success and experience as your guide.   A word of caution:  be conservative in this first meeting.  I have seen too many overly zealous account managers who are anxious to quickly impress their new client by over promising at this first meeting.  Hold back if necessary and don’t plow on too many promises or “sales pitches” on this first call.  Keep in mind that you will build greater credibility by under promising and over delivering. 

If this account is your only account or one of perhaps 40 or so in your patch, consider convincing your client to allow you to host a planning session once a quarter or semi annually after you’ve had some time to become familiar with your new client’s business.  The purpose of a planning session is to allow your client’s team - decision makers and influencers – to get together with your team to discuss mutual business objectives.  (See “Hosting a Planning Session”.)

Sixth – Send a letter of appreciation to your new client that thanks him or her for the time and summarizes the key points from your discussion.  Sending flowers might be the right form after a first date but poor form after a client meeting.  Instead, consider sending a note of thanks along with something promotional oriented.  As example, if I noticed the client used a competitor’s promotional coffee mug, I traditionally sent my customer one of mine along with a note suggesting “Until I’ve had the opportunity to earn your trust, I would appreciate it if you would consider minimally giving me equal time.  Enclosed is a coffee mug and coffee for your next break.  Please feel free to use this along with the mug from (my competition) that I noticed in your office.  Thanks for your time yesterday.” 

What I didn’t write in my thank you is that if and when my account team was successful in earning their client’s trust to the extent of displacing the embedded competition of an account, our reps would return to our sales office grinning from ear to ear.  And in their hands if they held a promotional coffee mug advertising our competitor, we knew how to read the code for exactly what that meant.  We won.  The other guys lost.  And the competition just took a scalping!

don’t think you should take exodus of the school library!

By Ellen Manzo

Would any of us ever want to have surgery with a doctor who starts off an operation with “Hold it a minute; I have to do some research on this procedure first.”?  Of course we wouldn't. 

Effective sales representatives are effective consultants.  The best of the breed are not only those who know the product or service their firm can bring to the table, but who also are superior at educating clients on how their product or service can help clients with their business.  To serve as an effective sales consultant then, it is imperative to first fundamentally demonstrate an understanding for your client’s industry and your client’s company.  Without that, you’ll be just another sales person rotating through the door.   

The definition of research in the broadest sense is the gathering of data, information and facts for the advancement of knowledge.  Many college students graduate each year, enter sales and forget forever more all that they’ve learned in conducting thorough research over their four year college career.  Of course they might have read up on a firm to represent themselves well in job interviews.  But how many take the research skills he or she mastered while writing college term papers to the next step in career progression? 

I have been fortunate to hire hundreds of new sales people, perhaps about a third of whom were right out of college.  Regrettably, I found that very few brought their extensive research skills to the sales table until realizing the value of doing so.  Once they did, the recent graduates were the best at conducting research.  Fortunately, given the incredible availability of information over the internet, one is able to perform most research without leaving his or her desktop which suggests all the more reason for this to be an easy task. 

I encourage all account managers to conduct extensive research on a client prior to stepping foot across the client’s threshold.  Just about every sales person knows to check out a client’s web site.  But often times that is where the research stops.  Consider becoming expert with the sources listed below.  Customers buy from those they trust and what better way is there to build credibility than to become an expert in your client’s industry and business.  As a byproduct, thorough research will not only educate you on your client’s business, it will prove to educate you on possible investment opportunities as well.  So after earning the rich rewards for your sales efforts, this exercise might help you invest those rewards for continued financial growth. 

Sources to Consider:

The client web site.  Client web sites are excellent at revealing the company’s mission statement, objectives, direction, product line, recent news, latest financials, and personal profiles of the company’s leadership.  The investor relations section will often contain the company’s annual report, 10K Forms and most reports that have been released to the Securities Exchange Commission.

If your client is public, a share of stock.  Purchasing a single share of stock from a firm, particularly one that doesn’t have a great deal of investment information publicized will confirm that you will become the lucky recipient of major documents that are submitted to the Securities Exchange Commission.  In all likelihood, you will receive the annual report as well as most 10K reports.  At minimum, you will receive an invitation to the annual stockholders meeting.  

Attendance at the annual stockholders meeting.  Want to hear about industry trends, your client’s business goals and objectives, competitive pressures and upcoming plans for the future?  How about learning about new compensation considerations for the executive team that you might be selling to?  Are you interested in learning about what the analysts are saying to your client? 

Attending the annual stockholders meeting is a great way to obtain information of this kind.  It will also expose you to the presentation styles of your client’s executive team.  Keep in mind however that one needs to be a stockholder to attend so go ahead and invest in that single share of stock!  Telling your client that you also care about his company’s success for the reason that you are a stockholder and have an investment in his firm allows the two of you to share a common interest. 

The annual report.  Company annual reports are full of information.  They typically contain a Chairman’s Message to Stockholders, the company’s mission statement and objectives, a review of major initiatives for the firm, objectives for the coming year, product introductions, geographic inroads, discussions on acquisitions and divestitures and the financials for the last fiscal year. 

If your client’s web site doesn’t contain an Investor Relations section wherein most annual reports are provided, one can contact the Investor Relations Department of the firm and request that a copy be sent.  I haven’t come across a firm yet that hasn’t been anxious to comply with this request.  Investor Relations Departments are anxious to attract investors and realize that your telephone call to them might be your first exposure to their company.  Alternative sources for annual reports are the investment firm that manages the client’s pension plan or employee stock holdings, your personal broker or through simply buying a single share of stock from the firm as cited earlier. 

I advise account reps new to any account, to review the last five years of annual reports for the company.  Why five?  Often times account managers only read the most recent published report.  Reading any annual report is certainly a step in the right direction.  And some might contend that the trouble of research is that it tells you what people were thinking about yesterday, not tomorrow.  That research is like driving a car using a rearview mirror.  And to that end, they would be correct.  Yet others may portend on the contrary that history repeats itself.  Whether you believe that research is like looking into a rearview mirror or a crystal ball, I can offer from experience that reading several years of annual reports gives readers an appreciation for trends, for where the company has been and where it is going.  Simply reading the chairman’s message alone over the last several years will deliver a greater appreciation for a company’s personality and corporate culture, a depth of understanding far greater than that learned from a single report read.  Finally, knowing the history of a firm is almost as important as reviewing the predictions one has for its future. 

Comparison of your client’s financials to that of their competition.  This idea blew the socks off of many of my fortune 100 clients.  Here is a typical workshop I ran with some of my account managers. 

At one point in my career, I led a sales organization that sold to the pharmaceutical industry.  We sold to and managed our company sales to many of the largest pharmaceutical firms in America.  I requested that my sales teams arrive to my internal workshop with five years of annual reports in hand.  Together we analyzed the company financials of six major pharmaceutical companies.  We took a look at company expenses of each firm for each year and determined what percentage each area of the business represented to the overall revenue stream for the business. 

Next, we had a discussion to collectively determine and agree on the core competencies for success for any pharmaceutical company.  As example, we agreed that a critical core competency for pharmaceutical firms is research and development.  Pharmaceutical firms want to release the first cure in the market for major diseases.  In doing so, they are often able to patent their product and hold exclusivity in the market for a window of time (often seven years or more) over their competition.  As a result, R&D becomes a life blood for their business. 

The team next calculated what the R&D expense represented as a percentage of sales for each of their clients and then looked at the trend for each client over a five year period.  Was the R&D commitment increasing in a firm, decreasing in a firm or remaining status quo?  How did the R&D commitment of one firm compare to that of another?  Which firm had the highest percentage of R&D?  Which firm had the least percentage commitment to R&D? 

The results were astonishing.  There was one firm in the pack that year after year increased the percentage of funding they were pouring into R&D.  The increase was nearly a percentage point year over year.  Furthermore, the team easily detected that their dollar commitment to R&D was approaching the top of the accounts studied.  Based on these findings, the account managers made a projection on the firm whose stock was likely to increase over time on the basis of increases in R&D over the other five pharmaceutical competitors in the market.  Their philosophy was that the company that makes the greatest commitment to their core competency would likely become the winner.  In the pharmaceutical arena, the firm that rendered the greatest commitment to R&D today would be more likely to render better product sales tomorrow. 

One year later, we were able to congratulate one another on our predictions.  We nailed it.  We pegged the company that was likely to experience the greatest stock increase based on an increasing trend in R&D and surpassing competition by a percentage point across all companies in its commitment to research.  Two years later we saw our predictions confirmed even more.  Our company pick for the greatest stock gain was realizing increasing stock prices that left its competition in the dust! 

But the real payoff was the sales benefit from our research.  Following our workshop, each account team shared our research and their findings with their client in a biannual planning session.  Imagine how impressed their clients were to see our findings!  Our research bought instant credibility as we then together looked at applications that we could affect with our product line to help them improve their success.

Value Line!  Value Line!  Value Line!  My favorite of all resources.  Where can one go to obtain a fairly objective view of industry trends and company news and state of the union all in one place?  Value Line offers this and more.  Value Line is available in two forms – a hard copy paper version found in most library reference sections and is also available electronically through the library’s online subscription.  Updates to the publication are sent weekly.  I find that I can access this incredible resource at home through my library membership. 

Value Line prides itself in offering one of the most independent research staffs of investment analysts and statisticians in the world.  According to their web site, their research team tracks about 8000 stocks, 15,000 mutual funds and 80,000 options and other securities.  Value Line reports on each covered stock and industry every three months.  In just a page or two, one can learn about industrial trends, key players in the industry, the industrial leaders and losers, the industry timeliness compared to all other industries followed for economic growth and more. 

Value Line provides a full page write-up on the companies whose stocks they follow which shows a reader the historical economic data of the company, the financial estimates, the price/earnings ratio, and economic projections.  In addition, a summary of the company often references key initiatives such as new target markets of either geographic or product penetration nature, acquisition or divestiture plans, and potential events in the market which could be critical to the future of the company and more.  Investors will want to pay particular attention to the last paragraph in the Value Line one page company write-up which will always provide a condensed synopsis for the company’s investment potential to individual investors as perceived by the Value Line research team.   

Standard and Poor’s (S&P) – Excellent industry information, private company reviews and executive profiles.  So you’re handling the advertising agencies in your turf and you never came close to doing anything in your career in advertising.  Worse still, your idea of a great evening at home is watching Monday night football void of commercials!  You loathe commercials and now your future income depends on their success!  Where to begin? 

The Standard and Poor’s NetAdvantage product delivers excellent reviews of 50 of the largest North American and global industries and 115 sub industries.  S&P industry reviews cover essential topics and current environment issues of greatest importance to the market.  In addition, S&P provides an industry profile that educates readers on industrial trends, how the industry operates, key ratios and statistics and how to analyze a company in that industry.  S&P’s review includes a comparative analysis of companies in the respective industry along with industry references and a glossary of terms.  Where else can one become a quick study on an industry?! 

S&P’s NetAdvantage also covers information on private companies, for whom research is typically more difficult.   And as a real bonus, S&P supplies profiles and biographical data on hundreds of thousands of executives and directors of public and private companies.  Who knows, you might just find out that your key decision maker is a fellow alum, fraternity or sorority colleague!

Industry publications.  If your life blood is dependent on the actions of one account or one industry?  Is there any reason why you shouldn’t consider becoming an avid reader and subscriber to industry publications that discuss issues critical to your client’s industry?  Want to know which ones to invest your time and money in?  Simply look at the coffee table in your client’s lobby.  Staying up to date on client issues is imperative.  Keeping abreast of what keeps them awake at night will without question differentiate you as an industry expert who will be difficult to beat in the market.

Conclusion:  Do your research.  Do it early, before stepping foot in your client’s office.  Become familiar with the resources and exercise outlined above.  Stay on top of industry and your client’s business initiatives and issues.  The reward:  you will be viewed as a credible industry expert who is savvy to the issues for the clients whom you service.  You will differentiate yourself in the market.  The next time your client needs a consult, he or she will turn to you for advice, first, before your competition -- a perfect formula for success.



In the first element, detachment, we resist the notion that our product is necessarily best suited for the customer requirement.  Otherwise we are making presuppositions about customer needs and will not be open to listening for clues that would help uncover those needs. Instead, we ought to regard our product or service as only one in a universe of solutions available to the customer; then our task becomes discovering if and how our product might satisfy a customer problem not presume it will by virtue of our justifiable belief in its merits. This subtle distinction underscores needs-discovery as the primary enabler of consultative selling.

In order to explore how our product may solve a customer problem, we admit to the second element, dispassion or objectivity.  We should be more concerned about the problem and its ramifications on the customer’s business than about our product.  In other words, we have to assume the role of the customer-advisor or customer-advocate.  We deny our self-image as a sales rep and assume one of a problem solver.  This is tough to do when quotas are challenging, our livelihood depends on increasing commissions, and we are naturally enthusiastic about our product.  Therefore, we must convince ourselves against our instincts that earning a trusted advisor role will, over time, enhance customer loyalty, reduce competitor influence, improve the propensity of the customer to buy, and improve the margins of our proposals.

The third element, self-removal, is viewing the process from the perspective of a third person.  William Ury calls this “going to the balcony”.  A thorough discovery and co-developed definition of the customer problem allows us to propose potential applications of our product within a set of potential solutions.  This requires letting go of the feature-benefit mode of selling and focusing instead on problem-resolution, which forces us to think like the customer and like a shareholder in the customer’s organization.  We then accept the possibility that our product may resolve the problem, may be a component of the solution, or may not be a good fit.  In all three cases, a candid exposure of solution sets with the customer from their vantage point, earns us trust and contributes to the relationship.

Now we can venture a definition of consultative selling: a process by which the sales rep and the customer 1) agree that their relationship is paramount and must survive any single transaction, 2) focus first on discovering and defining a need or problem independent of the product or service, and 3) create a set of solutions to resolve the problem which may incorporate the product or service.

In summary, in the consultative sales process we start with detachment, dispassion, and self-removal, and work toward attaining a trusting relationship, candid discussions of needs, and co-development of a solution set. It is not with every customer that such a process will succeed as many will force us into the transactional or tactical sale.  I propose, however, that those customers with whom we can achieve such a relationship constitute our most loyal and most profitable accounts.

How-to-sell books invariably include a chapter on objections. Most talk about “handling” objections. One bestseller even discusses “preventing” objections! These approaches do the sales rep and the client disservice. Objections should neither be handled nor prevented. “Handling” leaves the client with the impression he was a victim of a mechanical technique with which the sales rep was forcibly imbued in sales school. “Preventing” is not even possible; it is presumptuous to believe a rep has that much control over the process. We cannot prevent a client from feeling this way or that about our product or service; we might only prevent a free expression of the client’s feeling, but the underlying thoughts are still present. Indeed, trying to prevent objections will have an unintended effect—the client will feel left out of the process and will be less apt to buy. It is precisely the client’s free expression that we must welcome and encourage. In fact, the very word “objection” should be eliminated from the lexicon of sales training. What is commonly viewed as “objection” ought to be regarded more precisely as the client’s exploration of building a relationship with us. Free expression encourages the client to engage us in the sales process and to share information that we can use to build the deal or to reinforce it.

When a client offers what we traditionally viewed as an objection, we should view it  instead as a sign of interest and an opportunity to continue to build trust. There are, of course, times when “no” means “no”, but this is a decision, not an objection. Hidden in every objection are clues to the client’s view of our product, and of the relationship he sees with us. By judiciously listening empathetically, summarizing what we are hearing, questioning openly, and referring to other clients who faced similar obstacles to those the present client seems to be facing, we can turn a dreaded phase of the sales process into a productive, positive exchange of information that brings us closer to a business relationship.

“You know, Mr. Client, customers who haven’t bought our latest storage compression appliance have found their storage costs increase 20 times the current baseline.”

or,

“If you don’t sign this agreement for this limited partnership today, one of our many other investors looking at the same investment may take your spot.”

It may be seductive to attempt such tactics, and they may have worked in past, but clients today are more sophisticated and are generally put-off by such approaches.  Clients wish to be respected and want to build long term relationships with their business partners.  They want to trust and be trusted. They neither wish to be sold nor to buy—they don’t want to be “closed’; rather they want to enter into a joint decision to move the business to the next level together with their solution provider.

Eliciting fear, uncertainty, or doubt may work sometimes; it may get you a meeting or an opportunity to present or demonstrate; it may even get you a signature on a contract.  But it will ultimately destroy the relationship.  Why?  Because the relationship, whether it is an agreement to move to the next step in the sales cycle or to an order, is based on fear, uncertainty, and doubt!

Your objective should be instead to build and enhance the relationship, unless you are selling carrot peelers on a corner of Times Square.  Even then, buyers want to trust that the seller is pitching something of real value and is ultimately considerate of the buyer’s desire for quality, reliability, and good value-to-price.

Instead of fear, try trust.  Even if you must walk away from the sale because some element in the deal requires follow-through or because there just wasn’t a fit for your product or service, continuously building trust will earn you the right to come back when the dynamics of the deal are more conducive to closure. And if you don’t have to walk away, closing a deal with your client in the spirit of trust fosters confidence, reduced buyer’s remorse, and repeat sales.  Further, it allows deeper, more fruitful conversations when new needs are discussed post-sale.

Instead of uncertainty, try assurance.  Work hard to earn your client’s confidence in you and in your product or service. Rather than saying “Disastrous things will befall you if you don’t buy my product”, say “My product may help achieve your goal of better budget allocation in the out years and may help release funds for your other projects,” and then go one step further “and I will be here to support its profitable implementation for you.”  The difference is nuanced, but the tone is more appealing. In any case, it is the way businessmen and women think and buy.

Instead of doubt, try confidence.  Clients don’t want to buy your product out of doubt about the consequences of not buying it.  They want to invest in your product or service in order to achieve their own business goals, whether these are cost reduction, cost avoidance, greater efficiency, better service for their internal or external customers, and so on.  By understanding these motives, you will position your product or service as a solution and yourself and your company as a value-adding business partner.

Trust, assurance, certainty ... TAC, yes ... FUD, no!