Ten Set Pieces
Blair provides some modeling language in a sales context. While using scripts for a sales conversation is not advised, there are some “set piece” phrases that are handy to have at the ready.
Links
Transcript
David C. Baker: All right, Blair. Today, we're going to talk about 10 set pieces. This is something you've been thinking about for a long time. In fact, you wrote an article about it many years ago, and it's the whole idea of you want to stay away from really specific sales scripts. That doesn't mean that it's not useful to have some phrases in your mind, things that you can quickly pull out of a toolbox. That's what we're going to talk about today, right?
Blair Enns: Right. No scripted sales messages, no scripted conversations, but there are certain situations where it makes sense to have some phrases at the ready.
David: I really like that because sometimes our minds can just clamp down and freeze and you have to have something right under the surface. I discovered something pretty interesting one time, I don't think I've ever told you this, but I was doing some personality profile work of people who were cold call salespeople that follow the script on the phone. Without any exception, every one of them was very high I, In other words, they were very relationship-driven and they were very high S, in other words, they were very process-driven.
I started to expand on that and think about it. It was pretty universal that salespeople that follow scripts are very high I and S. In other words, they can't deviate from stuff that they memorize and that's not what you're talking about at all. You're really talking about pre-thinking about what to say and when and how you might handle an objection. What's prompted you to want to talk about this right now?
Blair: Well, as you alluded to it, I wrote an article on this, I think it was in 2006. It's one of the top-performing posts on our website to this day. I notice anytime I model language, people really like it. I thought, oh, we should do some of that. I'll just back up a bit point out when you say high I and high S you're talking about in disk language?
David: Right.
Blair: People who sell from a script or high I, high S but business development people are high I and zero S, right?
David: Right. Exactly. In other words, they're not process-oriented. They can think quickly on their feet, they don't object to change and some chaos and sales calls can be chaos. Right? This helps with the chaos.
Blair: Yes. To the extent that anybody calls anybody for outbound sales anymore, but they would be dialing the phone and then thinking about what they're going to say on the last four digits. They'd be pressing the buttons on the phone. It's like, oh, what should I say? The phones ringing. I should think of something to say. Whereas somebody with high I and disk parlance is like, no, they need visibility into the future. They need to know what they're going to say before they pick up the phone.
They'll write it out, so in a high volume, high transaction, quick sales environment, where you can work from a script and you can crunch all the numbers that actually works, but in a consultative sale, it doesn't work. If you have a need for a script, you're not so good at thinking on your feet. You can't really go with the flow and in a consultative sale, you really need to be able to go with the flow.
David: That's why it's more a conversation than a sale. If we're talking about somebody that's using the script, they're often selling to somebody that has the same needs. They're selling the same product or service. There's not a lot of variability. It's not a consultative sale. They don't have to learn that much about the person. Before we get into these, I think there's 10 of them here. How do you recognize? What is the look like when somebody that's say going through your sales training holds onto a script idea more than normal? How does that show up? Is this where you take them first when they have those natural fears?
Blair: Usually shows up that they're nervous about exactly what to say. What do I say exactly? I want to know exactly what to say, and they'll have me back up, or the coaches they're working with and say, can you say that again? That's entirely valid when you hear something a phrase that you want to adopt, that's entirely valid to write it down word for word. I hope the people who are listening to this one will take note of the exact words that I choose in these 10 set pieces.
What you don't want to do is write out your introduction, write out the entire path forward. It presents itself as a need for visibility into what will or might happen. That's how it presents itself and nervousness around that kind of, I need to know, I need to understand, I need to wrap my head around now, what might happen, what I'm going to say, what the client might say, et cetera.
I have, over the years, worked with you would call them high I, I would call them low autonomy. People who are systematic and process-oriented, who have gone on to become very good salespeople, but they end up doing it through sheer brute force. They script everything, they memorize everything and then they have to be in enough situations where they've been through every possible permutation once. Then the confidence starts to build.
They're never really shooting from the hip per se, they are pulling from a repertoire of set pieces that would probably be multiples, maybe even a couple orders of magnitude greater than what a high autonomy or a low I a person would have. They succeed through the brute force of memorizing hundreds of different lines. It can be done. It's just those are the people that you wouldn't consider to be natural salespeople.
David: Those are also the folks who are not necessarily listening as carefully as they could, because they're already anticipating what I'm going to say next in response to what I'm hearing. It's a little bit like the difference between needing a teleprompter or having a few thoughts scribbled down on a napkin that you wrote down right before you got up and spoke, and then you don't even look at the napkin.
Let's look at these. I love the first one. These are somewhat in chronological order. Obviously, they might come up in a different order in a real conversation, a sales conversation, but the first is around RFPs. You have this radar tower that's in your head and it's spinning in, as soon as it detects the word RFP, what happens?
Blair: As soon as you hear the letters RFP in a sale, bring out this set piece. I almost like robotically, almost automatically. We don't typically respond to RFPs. Just think about that. It's not hard, no, you're leaving a crack and we don't typically respond to RFPs followed by silence.
David: The power silence, which I just broke. Sorry. You were doing that for a fact.
[laughter]
We have a whole episode on that too. We don't say anything for 35 minutes. That's just the point. Really, we do have an episode. I don't remember what it was called, but that word that's important in here is typically, instead of saying, we don't respond to RPs, you're saying we don't typically respond to RPs.
Blair: Yes. We don't typically respond to RFPs. Let's say you're the client and I'm the consultant. We're having a really good initial qualifying conversation. I'm thinking this is going well. Then you drop the subtle point that, oh, yes, this is an RFP-driven process or I'll send you the RFP. As soon as I hear those letters, RFP, I should respond with, I need to let you know, we don't typically respond to RFPs and then stop.
There's two different ways to proceed. It can be silence or I can follow it up with an alternative. I can say, well, David, we don't typically respond to RFPs. How about instead we do this. How about you and your colleague that you mentioned? How about the three of us sit down and have a conversation, see if there's a good fit here. If we all agree, there's a good fit. We'll agree on the next step together. You can deliver the objection.
We don't typically respond to RFPs and immediately suggest an alternative. I really love the power of silence because in that silence, you gain all kinds of information, like the client might say, well, how did you get hired then? Why don't you respond to RFPs? You need to be prepared for the why question. I like following that up with silence.
David: Okay. One of the things that you're not doing here is talking about policy yet. You haven't used the word policy. You've just said we don't typically respond to RFPs. That's the phrase, that's the first of about 10 different set pieces. We don't typically respond to RPs. The next thing that might come up is around policy. What's it most likely to come up and what would you say around that? When would you use the policy card and pull it out of your deck as the second one?
Blair: It's worth noting as you did that. You don't play the policy card when you're talking about responding to RFPs, because there are some times you are going to have to where if the RFP process is embedded in their process and their policies, then you might have to respond to the RFP and then your tactics will change. Instead of trying to derail an RFP, you're trying to gain the advantage.
You're jocking for the preferred position, and that's an entirely different podcast. I suggest, and I've heard a lot of firms use the policy card on the RFP. I would say we don't typically respond to RFP. The policy card is really a preface when you deliver an objection to a client or a prospective client, more likely if you preface it with the words, it's our policy, that dot, dot, dot then you're in a stronger position.
You would typically play the policy card when you're combating a client-side policy. I've mentioned this in other episodes before, we tend to go to war in situations with clients where clients are armed with policies and we are armed with preferences and inclinations, things we would like to do and policy will always win. Here's the line, here's the set-piece. It's our policy that we don't write our proposal without first meeting with the senior decision-maker or executive sponsor, if you rather, it's our policy, they wouldn't write a proposal without first meeting with the senior decision-maker.
You would use this when you're trying to gain access to a senior decision-maker and that access is being blocked and the client is asking you to respond to an RFP or write a proposal without being able to have a conversation with that senior decision-maker. With any new client, you should dig in, become a little bit obstinate, and the way to politely be obstinate is to play the policy card.
David: Yes, it probably doesn't occur to somebody on the other side of the table that the person making the statement is often the person who makes the policy, who could change. [chuckles]
Blair: I've made a policy on the spot in conversations half a dozen times. I've talked about it in an earlier episode. I remember vividly the first time I did it, and I was struck by how powerful it was and I thought, "Wow, is it really that easy?" The client was pushing back on both price and timeline and I said, "No, it's our policy." I even wrote it up onto a one-page document and handed it to [unintelligible 00:11:01] No, it says right here in the document that I had written up an hour earlier.
David: There's something about it, because underneath that statement is this notion that we've tried that before and we just haven't found that it works very well for our clients or for us. That's a softer statement about it but it also takes some of the personal sting out of it psychologically, it seems like. The person listening to that thinks, "Oh, this isn't just about me, this is the policy you have with everybody. You're not singling me out and throwing up a roadblock, this is what you do with everybody because you've learned that it's the most effective way to build an enduring relationship." I really liked that. I don't use it myself but I like the concept a lot.
Blair: Yes, and clients do it to you. They'll say, "No, I'm sorry," but my hands are tied, I have to get three bids. I really, really want to work with you but I have to get three bids and [unintelligible 00:11:55] Okay, it's out of your hands, it's a policy, we understand that so let's play that card ourselves. A policy is just a predetermined decision so make the decision in advance that you're not going to do something and then state it as a policy. I'm being a little bit glib here, but it can't really be that simple.
David: When you hear unexpected news after making one of these statements, it could be, "Oh, this is going to go better than I thought," or it could be, "Oh, this is going to go much worse than I thought," there should be such a relief at either one of those. In other words, I'm so glad I found out that this isn't going to work, or I'm so glad I found out that this is going to work.
The whole idea here, I'm just going to insert my entire business philosophy, is that what I'm trying to do is to help my clients run their firms in a way so that they're not held captive to anything, that's just the bottom line. When you enter a conversation like this and don't feel any pressure about it, it's so much easier to say the right things.
Blair: Yes.
David: All right, so number three, oh, my God, my blood pressure just rose a little bit when I read this because somebody asked me this last week. When somebody asked you a prospect on the other side of the conversation, why should we hire you? That's number three. What do you do then?
Blair: Did you get asked that question?
David: I did.
Blair: I could see your blood pressure rising. How did you answer it?
David: I just laughed. I forget exactly what I said but the situation was that there's two principals of a firm, and one of them knew of my work and wanted to work together. I said, "Okay, we'll bring the other partner on so we can all talk about this." He was reading from this predetermined list of questions about, okay, what would the deliverables be? Every question was one that just sent my blood pressure high. I don't remember what I said but I wrote them off immediately. I was very kind in the call but I just assumed in the CRM, I just said this isn't going anywhere. Why should we hire you? What would you recommend that somebody say when that question comes up?
Blair: Well, first, I wanted to hear that you excoriated this person but that's just me.
David: I'm growing up slowly.
Blair: It's too bad. Here's the line, here's the set-piece. It's not my job to talk you into hiring us. There's more but that's the line I want you to remember.
David: Okay, it's not my job to talk you into hiring us.
Blair: It's not my job to talk you into hiring us followed by, why don't I tell you why our clients typically hire us, and then you can decide for yourself if those reasons work for you.
David: You can decide if you want to be one of the winners or the losers, listen to what they say.
Blair: Yes, that's a great way to put it. That can sound a little bit jarring and there's a caveat to how you deliver all of this that we'll talk about at the end. It's like, "I appreciate the invitation but I don't really see it as my job to talk you into hiring us. I'm not here to convince you. I'll tell you why our clients typically hire us and you tell me if that works for you, and if it doesn't, that's fine, we're all adults here."
David: The way you've stated that is really, really good. What is it about when you decide to take the bait and begin persuading the client to hire you, what is it about that that gets you in trouble?
Blair: It's like who's a good boy? Who's a good one. Who wants a cookie? Do you want a cookie? Do you want a-- How bad do you want it? I really want it. You should hire us because I'm great.
[laughter]
That's what I think of somebody with a dog, who wants a cookie? Why should we hire you?
David: Whoever has the cookie has all the power at that point. If you're going to respond to this, then you're basically handing all the power to the person with the cookie who has the power to hire you. That's what you're saying?
Blair: Yes. To this day, there are firms that have a section on their website that say, why us? Why you should hire us. That don't do that. There are other ways to communicate the benefits of hiring you without having to go into convince mode like that. Anytime you are invited to show how badly you want it, anytime you are openly invited to sell to the client, you should gracefully decline.
David: Yes, because asking the question really is assuming something about power. You and I need to get slightly drunk sometime. You haven't heard what we're going to do with it yet. Then we get the logins to people's websites and we are going to fix 10 of them a night, just thrashing websites of firms. I'm so disgusted, generally. I've been starting to publish one a week on LinkedIn and Twitter that I think is really good just to help change the conversation a little bit. It is crazy.
Blair: That would be a great YouTube video. We'll call it Drunk Consulting.
David: [chuckles] All right. The fourth, this is like throwing meat in front of a dog with you free RFP. You have all these words that just set you up. Free is the fourth one, when asked for free ideas. How does that come up and what do you say?
Blair: You're in a sales call and the client invites you to cross over the line that separates proving your ability to solve their problem from actually solving their problem. What do you think we should do here? What would that look like? What would the creative look like? What would the strategy look like? The line is, we don't begin to solve our client's problems before we are engaged. A little bit of context around it, maybe to soften the blow. You sound like a robot if you deliver it like that. Just say, "Yes, we don't begin to solve our clients problems before we're engaged. I'd have to invoice you to answer that question."
David: Sometimes we don't even solve them after we've been paid. It's just this awesome.
[laughter]
If you fear you're going to lose the client anyway, you might as well just throw that in.
Blair: I have found every time I've used that, I can't think of an exception to this. Maybe there has been one, but I can't think of one where the client has not snapped to attention and somewhat apologized for asking me to cross the line, like basically acknowledge, "Oh, yes, that's not fair. I get that." Now you do need to have the ability to know where to go next in the conversation because the client is looking for some form of reassurance.
You want to have other forms of reassurance ready? We did a whole podcast episode on that called Alternative Forms of Reassurance. The client is looking for you to actually solve the problem as proof of your ability, to solve the problem and you decline by saying, we don't begin to solve our client's problems before we are engaged. Then you would think about, well, what other ways can I give them the assurance that we're looking for?
David: Sometimes the prospect they're not being evil here, it's just a natural question. Frankly, a lot of your competitors have answered in the affirmative and have started to help them think through it. In a way, you're just kindly restating what it is they're asking. Oh, so you're asking me to work for free," but you're not doing it in a snotty way, you're just saying, oh, that crosses the line.
Blair: I want to back up to the top because I realize your chess reference you're thinking about these as chess pieces. When I say set pieces, I mean a set play in typically soccer/football. Also, writers have set pieces where in a novel, there will be just like a standalone piece where something happens.
Steven Pressfield writes about that. That's often referred to as a set-piece. There are these standard writing set pieces that get changed by writers and dropped in as these standalone pieces that just stand on their own and add some context to the character. That's what by set-piece. I mean a set play. That's what we're talking about.
David: Okay. The fifth one is when the word proposal comes up, especially if it comes up sooner than you would've expected them to say that. How do you handle this?
Blair: Yes, I think some listeners would not be too disturbed by a request like an oral request for a proposal coming up too early, it always sets alarm bells off in my head. We're still vetting each other and you're already asking me for a proposal. I think that is something to be aware of in the line and I got this from a friend of mine that it worked with years ago. Paul O'Malley, I would be happy to get you a proposal if it makes sense to do so.
Then followed immediately by letting me ask you a few more questions. The context here is I'm still qualifying you. I'm still vetting you to see if you are a right fit client. If we really can help, if you've got enough money, if your timelines are realistic, all of those standard qualifying or vetting conversations. Before I'm done vetting, at a point that I feel is too premature, you say, "Hey, can you get me a proposal on that?"
That should set alarm bells off. It tells me that, maybe I'm a third bid. Maybe you're just a tire kicker looking for free ideas. I still have questions to ask before I determine whether or not that is the up with next step. I just acknowledge I give you a positive answer. I would be happy to get your proposal if it makes sense to do so. Let me ask you a few more questions and just keep going with the questions that I want to get answered.
David: If the prospect asks for a proposal too soon, they really haven't invested anything. It doesn't cost anything to ask for a proposal. You're throwing a roadblock in front of them that isn't money, but it's time, spend a little time with me answering these questions. Then, also, I want to pull out something that you assumed, and I hope people picked up, but that this is a two-way vetting conversation. It's not just them deciding they're ready, maybe they're ready, but you have to be ready too. It's a two-way consultative relationship and you're not the supplicant here. It's not just one party that decides when the time is right, but both parties.
Blair: you'll both have your vetting frameworks. Some will be fairly rigorous and some will be loose and intuitive, but asking for a proposal before both parties have vetted each other in a conversation, even at a high level, that's just a sign that you're just shopping for free ideas or you're looking for a third bid.
David: I will then play off the others that I'll probably hire anyway. The sixth one is about the contract stage agreement and principle. This makes me think about one of the core concepts that I've learned from you. That's something in writing is just simply memorializing an agreement that already exists. The agreement is there first and now we're going to put it in writing. How does this come up and how do you handle that?
Blair: It's really still in the domain of a client asking for a proposal at an inappropriate time. In this situation, you might actually be in a fruitful conversation working out well, like what you might do for a client, et cetera. Let's say you're the client, David, and I'm the consultant. You're telling me what your challenge is. You've briefed me on it. I'm walking through the conversation with you. Do you say, you're looking for this type of engagement?
I say I can do that type of engagement for you. I typically charge this much money and you say Okay. That makes sense. Can you write up a proposal? Well, it's like, we just had an agreement in principle. You told me what looking for. I told you what I could do. I said a price. You said that makes sense. Why would I insert an unnecessary step of me going away and writing this big, long document? My line here would be well happy to write up a contract for your signature. If we have an agreement in principle, do we?
Yes, I will set again. I'd be happy to write up a contract through your signature if we have an agreement in principle, do we, so you would ask that when you think, well it feels like we just worked out all the high-level points of agreement. If you're looking for a big long proposal for me, is it because you want to shop it around? What is it that you want? I just want to double-check here. I thought we had a good conversation.
I thought we agreed on principle. Do we have an agreement in principle and you are looking for something that you need to sign or do you want me to put all of the detail in the document so that you can shop it around? See if you can get a lower price or just let it ferment in your inbox while buyer's remorse sets in.
David: You wouldn't say all that, just to clarify for listeners.
Blair: Thank you for clarifying that.
David: It's not just about saving your time, but it's also about maybe at this point, surfacing any objections you can just anticipate what the objections might be and you rather just find out sooner rather than later, is this where you surface those or is that at another point in the conversation.
Blair: This set piece will surface well, we have an agreement in principle, but I still have to get three bids or I have to run it past the missing decision-maker that you didn't uncover. It's really about if you do have an agreement in principle, the client might go. That makes sense. I'm ready to sign off the contract. There are some details but. As long as they're in the contract, and we can go back and forth in those details, a contract would work. If there are some hidden objections or missing decision-makers, you'll uncover them with this set piece.
David: The next one, the seventh one only comes into play when there's other things that might be missing in normal conversations where you either feel like it's appropriate, or you care a little bit less about it. That's around proposal writing, what kind of phrase might you use in that setting, and why.
Blair: We've got three here on proposals. I'd be happy to get you a proposal if that makes sense to do so. I'd be happy to write up a contract for your signature if we have an agreement principle and then the third one is, yes, we're not in a proposal writing business. I love this line, and I'll often say it this way, "Well, I'm not really in that proposal writing business."
Then you can proceed with the next alternative next step, or you can just let the client marinate in that statement for a bit. Now, again, we're going to get to this caveat about, it's not just the words, it's how you say them. It's the context, it's the inflection. It's like, are you owning these words with appropriate balance of confidence and humility or do they just make you sound like an asshole when they come out of your mouth?
I assure you, I can say them in a way that is provocative and usually doesn't cross the line of offending the client. It catches them off guard. "Okay, so you're not in a proposal writing business." How do you get clients' conversations? When we arrive at agreement, in principle, I'll write up a contract for signature. We can go back and forth on the details in the contract but really, I'm looking for an agreement and a principle that we work through in conversation.
David: If we decide to go to contract stage, there won't be any surprises in there, will have talked about everything, yes.
Blair: Yes. Now, that ignores the idea of offering options in your proposals. We've done a whole episode on that and it's come up in many other episodes. We'll just set that aside for now, there's still a time and a place for this, "Hey get me a proposal." "Yes, we're not really in the proposal writing business." Like an earlier set piece, you have to be prepared to answer the why question, "Okay, I'll bite. You're not in the proposal writing business, I know you're in the business of whatever but surely, you have to write proposals from time to time." You need to be able to address that. If you don't know how to handle what comes next, probably don't use it.
David: How you respond is going to have a lot to do with the context. Let's say that you've been referred to this prospect by a mutual friend, and you all respect each other, you can have a little bit more fun with it. If this is somebody that, just out of the blue, wants to talk with you, and there's unclear reasons why, and they're just shopping, then you could say this with a slightly different attention in your voice too.
Blair: Sometimes it's just owning it. A lot of times, it's the appropriate thing for you to do to write a proposal. As we've talked about, I would advocate a one-page proposal but there's something about this space that we're in where clients ask for proposals too early and too often. We really should be having conversations still, rather than putting pen to paper. I think it's okay on just setting the clients straight in a firm but polite manner.
There was a guy on Twitter yesterday, I forget who it was, who was commenting. He was saying a client reached out to him and said, "Hey, can you give me a breakdown on your costs on that proposal?" What he was saying is, "I'd like to be able to say, the cost of going ahead with my proposal is £2,545, the cost of not going ahead is zero." Then he said, "If only it were that simple." My reply was, "It's that simple. The moment you decide, it's that simple." That's a different topic but it's just on the point of owning these words without being aloof, arrogant, you can be firm and kind at the same time.
David: All of the discussions you have as a team, all the training you go through, all the notes you take when your reading, all of that is hypothetical when it comes to your positioning, your business strategy, what matters to you. The crucible of those decisions come in the conversations you have with prospects and clients and employees like in the real world, live. That's why it's not a bad idea to think about how to articulate what you think because words matter and how you deliver the words matter too. We're not in the proposal writing business. I wish we were because we're really good at it, but we just don't do that.
Blair: Does it pay all that well?
David: I'm looking for somebody who has an MA in proposal writing, but so far we haven't found one, so sorry. All right. Number eight was when asked about conflict of interest.
Blair: If you're newer to this field, many firms would have, especially the larger firms would have what's called a conflict strategy. That would say, okay, if we have a client, if we're working for United Airlines, we agree we're not going to work for Delta or something like that. This might come up early in a conversation. I've used what I learned from you years ago many times with my clients just thinking about it.
David: Let's say a prospect comes to you and says, "Do you have any other clients on the roster that would be a conflict with this?" Then you say, "Well, we have these two and this is what we do for them," and then they get another objection then how would you handle that?
Blair: With a smile in your voice you would say, "Oh, we'd be happy to sell you category exclusivity."
David: They'll grin and say, "Oh, no, it's not that important to us." It's true, we can't just write off the concerns that a prospect might have around conflicts of interest. It is real, but what's even more real is a fear of incompetence. If you don't know what you're doing, it comes from the fact that you probably haven't done it all that much and so if you're going to really know how to help a client, you better know a lot about that industry and that's not going to happen unless you've worked for other clients in that industry. It's like, listen, the firm that's going to win here is the firm that listens to me. Most of my clients don't listen so you're safe if you listen. I wouldn't say that either.
Blair: I've heard you say many times, two clients in a category is a conflict and three is a specialism. You think about that it's a little bit ironic. Isn't it? It's like, okay you're not working with anybody in this category. You've never worked in this category before. That's great. That's one end of the spectrum. Yes. Really. How great is that? I've never done this before.
David: You are completely incompetent. Let's go forward.
Blair: Yes. The other end of the spectrum is you do this all the time for companies like ours. Then somewhere in the middle, it's like, you don't do this all the time for companies like ours, but you're doing it for somebody like us right now, and they raise that as the objection. You could reply and say, well, we'll go get a couple more in this space and then I guess we'll be vertical specialists, but this set piece is, well, if you want category exclusivity, we'd be happy to sell it to you. Uptick in your voice at the end, we'd be happy to sell it to you like you just won the lottery.
David: Right. Now you have another problem because when they decide to throw their weight around, you're going to go out of business too. All right. Ninth is the objection stage. What I love about this one is that it's not a response to what the prospect is raising as an objection, but ideally, you are inserting this. You're bringing this up at this point.
Blair: Yes. Objections come up early and often, and that's a good thing for them to come up but if you're a schooled salesperson, then you are trained to do a final search for objections before you close. The way it was taught to me is a variation of this sentence. When you're uncovering all this information, it might be in the qualifying conversation or the value conversation, probably in the qualifying conversation where you're doing your vetting and you get all of your questions answered, but something's still bothering you or you're just being a thorough salesperson. Then you would use this set piece as a search for final objections so it sounds like this. Okay. Let's talk about the reasons why it might not make sense to work together.
David: Their head snaps up because they're not anticipating that question.
Blair: You follow it up with silence or you could say, why don't you go first so it's like, we're going to have a conversation. We're going to make lists here of the reasons why this might not make sense together. You start. What you're trying to do is if you have broken down the typical dynamics of this brief and present where there is no real proper two-way communication, only one way at a time.
If you've broken that down and you've kept things conversational, and you haven't over-invested in the sale in time, money, or emotions, then the client should feel free to share any remaining objections that they have not yet put on the table because objections are your friends when you hear them early and your enemies when you hear them late. It's just a beautiful little set-piece that you can memorize to get the client to put any final remaining objections on the table. Let's talk about the reasons why it might not make sense to work together.
David: That's a great one. I've seen that pop up so effectively many times, this last one, number 10 and I'll review all of them in a minute, is about the point where you have to ask a question that might be difficult. Something like, "Hey, are you the final decision-maker or have you not been promoted yet because they read your email last year?" There's some things that you really do need to ask, it's in everybody's best interest, but you're not sure how to ask them. How would you phrase those? What's a set-piece type of language for that?
Blair: It's a preface to whatever your request is. If you're finding it difficult to ask the question, you should ask in this moment to get the information that you should be getting, then simply preface your ask with the words, "feel free to say no, but allow me to ask." Feel free to say no, if this doesn't work for you, but allow me to ask, are you able to get the VP to join us in that meeting? That's one example. I love, feel free to say no, but allow me to ask as the final sentence in a very short, succinct, outreach email. Feel free to just say no, but allow me to ask, are you interested in having a conversation on how we might help?
If the answer is no, you're far more likely to hear no. Then you could do something with a no, you can move on. You can ask, "Why is it a no?" But you're more likely to get information back. That whole idea, feel free to say no, but allow me to ask, I first encountered it in Jim Camp's book on negotiating called Start with No. What he says is, with that preface you remove the emotional weight from the decision.
David: I want to recap these and then ask for some final thoughts from you in a second. I just want to say something to make this as human as possible. If I put myself in the shoes of the typical listener here, I think it would be a really good idea to actually memorize these phrases, but then probably slowly make them your own and change them a little bit. When you actually respond, I think it's useful to immediately respond because they need to know that you've thought about this but then struggle for the words.
Don't just blurt out a phrase as if you've memorized it, but be thoughtful. Hesitate, pause, think a little bit about how you would do it, and don't just utter some straight phrase that indicates that you're sort of a robot here in a sales conversation. It needs to be as human as possible.
Blair: You just got out of a sales training program and you're reciting things broadly.
David: Your guide is going to listen to a recording of this tape and grade you on it. Let me give these 10 so that I can just summarize where we were and then any final thoughts from you, Blair. The first is, we don't typically respond to RFPs, and typically is a good word there. Second, it's our policy that, and then you can follow that up with whatever it is that you're trying to communicate. You're referring to policy. Third, it's not my job to talk you into hiring us. Then you might follow with, "but here are why some of our clients hire us."
Fourth, we don't begin to solve our client's problems before we are engaged. You're just highlighting the fact that they're crossing the line here and asking for something that you haven't been paid for. Fifth, I'd be happy to get you a proposal if it makes sense to do so. Follow that with some more questions to make sure it makes sense. Six, I'd be happy to write up a contract for your signature if we have an agreement in principle."
Seven, we're not in the proposal-writing business. Eight, we'd be happy to sell you category exclusivity, with a little twinkle in your eye. Nine, let's talk about the reasons why it might not make sense to work together. You're raising objections early in the process. Then, finally, feel free to say no, but allow me to ask, when you are getting ready to venture into a more difficult part of the conversation. Did we summarize this well?
Blair: Yes, that's great. I really loved your point right before the summary about memorize them and then make them your own. You don't need to be the slick salesperson. The fact that you can pull this set-piece out quickly says, oh, you've thought about this before. You've encountered this before. You're prepared for this. Again, you don't want to sound like a sales robot, make it your own.
You have to strike this balance between confident and casual. You say it like it's a matter of fact and not arrogantly. I have given clients of mine over the years language to use in specific situations and they have reported back from time to time and said, "Well, that blew up in my face." I would say, "Okay, well, say to me what I said to you." They would say it and I would just recoil. [chuckles]
They were words that I've given them, but there was something about the inability to own those words or the way the lack of inflection, the lack of maybe the robotic nature about it. It's not just the words themselves. Again, the whole point of this episode is I think these are 10 statements worth memorizing, but you do have to make them your own. You do have to live with them a little bit. You do have to choose the context in which to use them. You do have to strike this balance between confident and casual.
David: Like empathetic leverage.
Blair: Yes.
David: We'll have to think about that.
Blair: I like it.
David: Thank you, Blair. This is a really good one.
Blair: Thanks, David.