Some of the material in this posting appears in the second edition of Ford Harding’s book, Rain Making, which will be published in February and contains about 40 percent new content.

What do you do when a client brings up a matter she is clearly concerned about without realizing that it is something you can help with?  I must hear this question twenty times a year.  And it’s a troublesome one. 

Of course, there are some people to whom you can say, “Hillary, we have a lot of experience at managing come backs.  Let me tell you what we can do.”  But we have to know a person pretty well to know that they will accept this sudden shift into sales mode.  Many others will wish they had never brought up the matter and extricate themselves from the conversation as fast as they can.  They come away feeling that you have been insensitive or, worse, pushy and will be careful to avoid bringing up problems with you again.

Rainmakers deal with this problem simply and directly by asking permission to go into sales mode.  They say such things as:

• You didn’t come to lunch today to be subjected to a sales call, but you’ve brought up a subject that we actually know a lot about and I think we can really help you.  But I’m not trying to push anything at you.  So, just let me know if you want to talk about it.
• Would it be all right if I put on my sales hat on for a minute?

After saying these words, the rainmakers shut up and listen to what the client has to say.  If she shows any hesitation about accepting the offer, the rainmaker backs off immediately.  More commonly, he client accepts, and a sales meeting begins.

 

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 7th, 2008 at 2:30 pm and is filed under Rain making, Sales Strategy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.