One of our sales training corporate clients related a story to me yesterday about a deal he got a couple of weeks ago. It was a classic RFP scenario, where he stood no chance–but got it because he did things the right way.
He had been asked in for an RFP for a prospect he had NO relationship with. The other two vendors in on the deal had done business with the customer so my client’s chances were slim–slim that is, if he went about it the traditional way. (I’m not pessimistic–I’m realistic about how sales people spend their time chasing unlikely opportunities).
I told him one sales strategy to use and the only way to stand out is to NOT QUOTE!
WHAT??!! Right.
Go in and be “verbally skeptical” about their willingness to award the business to an unknown quantity. First off, that’s how he felt. Secondly, it’s true. He told the prospect that in his own soft way.
You want your prospect selling you–not you selling him.
What do you suppose happened? Right. They pulled him back in–convincing him to quote and telling him all the reasons that the other quotes weren’t any good. Do you think that would have happened if he would have merely responded to the RFP? Of course not. They would have told him nothing.
But their pain was they needed to get the job done right–and he had the solution to that problem.
You see, in sales training work, sometimes the best thing is not to sell–not to convince–not to try. Let the customer bring you along. Let him sell you. I talk about that in Same Game New Rules. You’re happier because you don’t have to compete on the same terms as everyone else.
And they’re happier because they want you badly. We’ll podcast on that sometime soon…giving you the whole story.
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