What do you do if your prospect has had a bad experience with your product or service in the past?
For instance, let’s say you work for the 321 Company, which offers high-quality multifunction office copiers. You meet with Dan Edwards, and right away he says, “We had a 321 Copier three years ago, but we had to get rid of it. It was way too slow for us. As a matter of fact, we wasted a lot of employee time with your machine.”
Now, if you react by getting into a debate with him about how the new 321 Copier is just as fast as other copiers from the competition, do you think the argument will go well? Probably not.
Instead, Mr. Edwards will likely say, “I hear what you’re saying, but we just don’t want another 321 Copier. Thanks for reaching out though. Good-bye.”
So, rather than arguing with him, what else can you do? Well, you can ask him to put himself in your shoes by saying, “Mr. Edwards, would you imagine with me for a moment that you’re the president of your own company, and you’ve just found out that you’re facing the exact same challenge that we had with the speed of our copiers. How would you handle this?”
You see, by putting him in the role of the company president, you’ve asked him one question that both instills a sense of accomplishment in him and has an obvious answer, haven’t you?
As a result, Mr. Edwards will say something like, “I’d have my engineering team look into the issue immediately, and direct them to fix the problem as soon as possible.”
Then, you simply respond by saying, “Well, that’s exactly what we at 321 Company did, and now I’m here to show you all of our latest improvements.” And with that response, Mr. Edwards is much more likely to listen to the rest of your presentation.