Why Clients Say No to Your
Alternative
by Victor Antonio, Sales Influence
Have you ever been in a situation where you’re presenting your product
(or services) to the ideal client but it just feels like he or she isn’t responding
to anything you’re suggesting? How
frustrating is it when you know your alternative is better than one the one the
client has chosen but they won’t listen?
Or why is it that sometimes clients close themselves off to new
alternatives (i.e., new product, service or idea) without at least hearing your
side of the argument?
Well a few researchers decided to explore the concept of why sometimes
people or clients let good opportunities pass them by. And their findings may help us
better understand why clients don’t respond to product presentations or proposals. Before presenting their study, it’s important that we take a step back
and define a few terms and concepts.
Cognitive Dissonance:
The internal pressure to change your behavior or modify your thinking
when your actions aren’t congruent with what you’ve stated. Example: Have you ever told
someone you’d help them move but when the day arrived your invented an excuse
to get out of that responsibility?
That yuck feeling you feel is ‘cognitive dissonance’. To relieve ourselves of feeling bad, we
either follow through on our commitment or we modify our thinking (i.e.,
rationalize our behavior) to justify our decision and reduce the dissonance we
feel.
Selective Perception:
See only those things your mind is oriented to focus on. Example: Has anyone ever told you to
give them object off a table, but you can’t seem to find it. The person eventually walks over and
grabs it from right under your nose.
The object was in plain sight but your mind wasn’t oriented to seeing
it. How about this; did you ever
buy a new car and then noticed that same model on the road? They were always there but your mind
was now ‘oriented’ to see them.
This is selective perception and it can work for us (e.g., focus on the
things we need to get done) or against us as I’ve demonstrated in these two
examples.
Concrete Goals
Let’s say that after having visited the doctor, you realize that you have
to change your eating habits if you want to reduce your cholesterol level. The strategy you’ve decided to use is
to limit the number of eggs you eat to 2 eggs per week. You now become focused on making sure
your egg intake is no more than two a week.
Now lets say that a few weeks later a new study shows that if you
exercise 3 times a week that will also reduce your cholesterol level. Having this new information, what
do you think most people would? Do
you think most people would opt to add exercising to their strategy? Or do you think they’ll stick to
limiting the egg intake to 2 a week?
In other words, if you had decided to implement strategy A (2 eggs per
week) to reduce your cholesterol and some time after Strategy B was proposed
(exercise 3 times a week), how likely or unlikely would you be to add or
implement Strategy B?
This question and similar scenarios is what researchers Bayuk, Janiszewski
and LeBoeuf wanted to know more about.
How likely were people willing to change their ‘strategy’ when they were
introduced to a new alternative?
The researchers concluded that if a person has a concrete goal in mind
and has already chose a plan or ‘implementation strategy’, they would ignore any
alternatives proposed no matter how well founded and useful they might be. A person who has implemented a strategy
and has committed to it will be less likely to listen to or see alternatives
since it would require them to change or modify their approach (i.e., cognitive
dissonance).
On the other hand, what the researchers also found is that those who had
a goal in mind but NO firm strategy for arriving at that goal were more likely
to listen to alternatives and adopt new strategies to achieve them. Because they hadn’t decided upon
or acted upon a specific implementation strategy, they didn’t have any
cognitive dissonance to overcome.
Summary:
1)
Concrete Goal + Implementation Strategy = Less
likely to consider alternatives
2)
Concrete Goal + No specific Implementation
Strategy = Likely to consider alternatives
Sales Alternatives
Now let’s get back to the client you’re trying to sell. If the client has decided on attaining
a goal, and has already chosen an implementation strategy, then proposing an
alternative will meet with some resistance. For example, if a client has already begun to implement
their strategy, for them to accept your new alternative will require them to
admit that:
a)
They may have chosen a poor strategy to begin
with
b)
They may have to start again
c)
It may cost them more than they had planned
Each of these reasons will lead to cognitive dissonance between what
they’re doing and what you’re proposing.
So in order to ‘reduce the dissonance’ they can either:
a)
admit their mistake and start over
b)
stop and re-evaluate and incorporate the
alternative
c)
rationalize why their decision is still sound
Unfortunately, many will choose the latter; reduce their dissonance by
rationalizing their original decision.
Has a client ever said:
- I like your product, but right now we want to
see if this one works for us
- We’ve already started the process and
interfering might hurt us more than help us
- We’ve already chosen a vendor and they seem to
know what they’re doing or talking about
- You’re idea sounds good but right now there’s no
way for us to stop and try it
- Right now we don’t have the budget to consider
an alternative; maybe next quarter
- We’ve been working with this vendor for years
and we’re very happy
You can probably come up with a few of your own. All of the above statements
are dissonance reducers aimed at making themselves (the client) feel better
about the decision they’ve already undertaken. The chances of you succeeding in selling them your
product decreases proportional to the amount of time and commitments they’ve
already invested in their original implementation strategy.
That’s the bad news; here’s the good news. If you are the vendor of choice and a client has selected
you, it’ll be harder for competitors to come in and steal the business once the
process has started.
Qualifying New Clients
Qualify early in order to shorten your sales cycle. By qualify I mean determining whether
or not you as a salesperson should invest time in selling them or make the
decision to move on to another more viable client. One of the biggest time wasters for any salesperson is
spending time with someone who isn’t going to buy. The best salespeople know that a big part of their
time management job is to weed out, as early as possible in the sales process,
clients who have no intention of buying.
So how can you use the information in the above study to help you qualify
new clients early on?
We know that if a client has a concrete goal AND an implementation
strategy they are less likely to consider alternatives. We also know that if they have NO
specific implementation strategy they are likely to consider alternatives. So your sales questions should be aimed
at discovering where they’re at in the process.
For example, let’s say that you’re selling high-end industrial printers
and your company has just launched a new line. Your sales manager instructs you to identify possible beta
site candidates from your existing client base. You go out and speak with two of those potential
candidates and the conversations go something like this:
Client A:
Salesperson: Mr. Client,
how do you plan to reduce your printing cost?
Client: Yes, we’ve gotten
together as a group and have decided to try a new printer technology call
quick-o-print.
Salesperson: When will you begin that process?
Client: Next week.
Client B:
Salesperson: Mr. Client, how do you plan to reduce
your printing cost?
Client: Right now we’re
looking at alternatives.
Salesperson: Have you
narrowed down your choices?
Client: To some extent we have. We’re hoping to make some decisions by
next month to get the process going.
Which one is more likely to listen to your alternative? The answer is obvious; Client B would
be more open to an alternative since they have yet to commit to an
implementation strategy. I realize
this is an oversimplification, but you get the point.
Again, once a client has taken several steps in committing to an
implementation strategy, the chances of you getting them to consider your
alternative diminish proportionately.
Remember, concrete goals lead to creating an Implementation
Strategy. This leads to the person
socializing (mentally accepting) this strategy as the best way of reaching
their goal. Once they’ve committed
to that strategy, they will ignore alternatives (selective perception), in
order to reach their goal. So don’t waste too much time on these
client types; they’re closed-minded and most likely will not buy from you. Your goal should be to find clients who
know what they want to accomplish (concrete goal) but are still considering an
implementation strategy (i.e., how to achieve their goal). These types of clients will be more
receptive to your presentation and proposal.
Lastly, as you’re talking to clients, listen carefully for ‘commitment
statements’; statements that indicate they’ve already made certain decisions
regarding what you’re attempting to sell them.
Victor Antonio, Sales Influence
Source: Julia Belyavsky
Bayuk, Chris Janiszewski, Robyn A. LeBoeuf, “Letting Good Opportunities Pass Us By – Examining the Role
of Mind-Set during Goal Pursuit”< Journal of Consumer Research, December
2010 p. 570 - 583
