Master the art of turning client rejections into successful engagement opportunities in the B2B sales landscape. The following list describes common negative situations and how you can turn them around.
Turning a “No” into an Opportunity
The first event you might encounter as a salesperson is a negative one—hearing your contact tell you no when you ask for a meeting. You should consider a refusal to meet as feedback that you haven't proposed something valuable enough for your client to agree to share their precious time with you. Refer to the book The Lost Art of Closing, where you will learn the Trading Value Rule.
Effective Follow-Up Techniques When Clients Don't Respond
Your contact is a busy person, and the higher up they are on the organizational chart, the more this holds true. If your contact returns your call, you should immediately buy a lottery ticket, as the odds of getting a callback are about the same. As more and more salespeople use automation for emails, your contact is unlikely to read any sales messages in their inbox—including yours. You should interpret this fact as evidence that your best chance of acquiring a meeting is a cold call. Don't worry. I've got you covered. Go here for my 17-minute cold calling course.
Strategies for When a Client Ghosts Your Meeting
You booked a meeting! Yay! But your contact ghosted you, without even the courtesy of a call or an email. It might not seem fair to do all the work to finally book a meeting only to have the person you are trying to help find something else to do at the time. While something important may have come up, being ghosted could mean your value proposition failed to compel them to meet with you.
Differentiating Yourself in a Competitive Market
Even though, during your onboarding, you were taught that your company and your solution are unique, your client yawns when you suggest that what you have to offer is better than anything your competitors have. Your competitors tell that same story., so if you don’t want to be treated as a commodity, you need to create greater value than they do. See the book Eat Their Lunch to understand the Four Levels of Value and learn how to enhance your credibility.
Your success in differentiating yourself is key to success after you meet with a client. If your client recognizes you have too little business acumen to be worth their time, they will move on. To be able to provide counsel and advice about what your client will need to do, you must have the experience and the business acumen to be credible. Go here for help with credibility.
Gaining Access to Key Stakeholders in Client Organizations
Your main contact tells you they are the decision maker, even though you believe the decision isn’t going to be made by one single person. You ask nicely about who might need to be a part of this conversation, but your contact stands their ground. When a client isn’t willing to introduce you to their peers, it often means your client believes you may embarrass them in front of the people they work with every day. Refer to the book Elite Sales Strategies to understand the concept called One-Up, which will help you pass the test and acquire more stakeholders.
Dealing with Clients Choosing Competitors Over Your Solutions
The phone rings and you see it is your main contact. You have been waiting for this call and the opportunity to drag your opportunity over to the “Win” column. But your contact has some bad news, and they are going with your competitor. To soften the blow, your client said you were in second place, but only because your competitor had a lower price. This may be true, but either way, the loss is a sign that you weren’t effective. If price were the deciding factor, you could have improved your position using triangulation strategy, which is described in Elite Sales Strategies. This would have opened up the conversation so you could negotiate more successfully, and get past your client’s objections to understand their real concerns.
Addressing Client Dissatisfaction and Service Failure
The big account you won is having a difficult time making your solution work. Part of the problem is that your approach is new to them, but the bigger issue is that your team is failing your client. Your contact is under duress, and you have left her alone in the foxhole. You may have missed her first call, but now she is on the phone, letting you go. Your role as a business advisor and consultant doesn’t end once you close the deal. This is a lesson you should avoid learning the hard way.
Embracing Accountability for Sales Challenges
While all these negative events are real, your contact is not to blame for any of them. Inside of each one is something you did or failed to do. One of the worst things you can do in B2B sales is to find blame elsewhere, especially with your contacts.
In situations where everything is your fault, you may still believe your contacts are the source of the negative event. This belief will cause you stress and anxiety, bringing on a negative mindset and making it more difficult for you to succeed in B2B sales. Believing your contact is to blame will cause you to have a victim mentality, one that will ruin your ability to sell effectively. When you begin to feel negative, it is more difficult to turn things around.
By believing and behaving as if a negative event is your fault, you can empower yourself to make the changes that will reverse them in the future. This sets you on your way to win deals and collect commission checks.
Throughout this article, you will find resources that will help encourage your clients to graciously give you their time. By creating value, you can move forward with your contacts. These resources may cost you a few bucks and the effort to make behavioral changes that will improve your ability to sell B2B.
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