The Best Defense

In the competitive world of selling, one inevitably has what I call ‘Peterson days,’ times when you feel like the Norm Peterson character in the barroom comedy Cheers, who famously lamented, “it’s a dog-eat-dog world, and I’m wearing Milk Bone underwear.”

A common fear among salespeople is that if they are direct and honest with prospects, they, too, will be donning Milk Bone underwear. Though groundless this fear is understandable, as every salesperson has been burned by a deceptive buyer, or lost out to a competitor who used dirty tricks to get a sale.

Regrettably, these experiences leave such a strong impression that most salespeople mistake the exception for the rule and fail to grasp one of the greatest paradoxes in sales, which is that the best defense is no offense - a fancy way of saying that salespeople are least vulnerable to unscrupulous buyers and competitors, when they do not offend prospects by being manipulative, aggressive, or deceptive.

On the whole, buyers tend to treat salespeople the way salespeople treat them. Consequently, if you trust and respect prospects, there is a good - albeit not one hundred percent - chance that prospects will respond in kind.

And let's not forget wiggle room: MAD salespeople make it easy for buyers to renege on their promises, as they can later claim with justification that they were misled or buffaloed into a purchase. Sellers who are honest and direct, on the other hand, obtain firm commitments (unambiguous and unequivocal agreements) that can only be broken, something most buyers won't do.

So when it comes to armoring yourself against bad actors, how better to do it than by being blatantly honest, utterly straightforward, and pressure-free?

© Bradley P. Simpson 2009