How to Coach Your Customers

Everyone in sales dreads hearing the following from a customer: “I’ll review this with my boss. I know he’ll go ahead and place an order.” We dread it because we know the sale is very likely going to die. The good intentions of your contact are just not enough. When the boss says “This is very expensive” your contact will not have enough information to overcome this objection.

The best solution is for you to present it to the boss, but this usually won’t happen. Senior people are insulated deep within their organizations and don’t have the time or desire to meet with you. They rely on others for information.

So, back to your initial contact. It’s time to make them into one of your salespeople.

  1. Start by understanding your contact’s mind-set. They are certain that if they merely tell the boss to buy it, he will jump at the chance. Mostly, this isn’t the case.
  2. Urge your contact to invest a few minutes with you, learning key selling points about your product. Do this carefully. Remember, they think they know all of this already.
  3. Get agreement from the contact that your product would be beneficial to their company. Review the benefits with them. Recommend that they write them down, and have them handy when they meet with the boss “just in case.”
  4. Go over what to say in case the boss raises price objections. Engage your contact in this discussion; don’t just direct them.
  5. Compare your product with what they are currently using. Is it faster, sharper, more accurate, longer-lasting, etc.? Have your contact write these comparisons down as well.

There’s no guarantee that coaching your contact will lead to an order. However, if you don’t coach them, you definitely reduce your probability of success and your sales rate.