A good salesperson will be able to communicate the news professionally. When you are selling business-to-business, it is essential to be able to deliver bad news without compromising the relationships that you have built with your customer. When dealing with problems, you must be flexible and responsive to build trust.
The most important thing for business decision-makers is the post-sales behavior of a salesperson. Problem responsiveness is what they are looking for when granting trust.
1. Information urgent
If you don’t want to upset your buyer, they can find out the bad news from someone other than you. You should be bold and honest when you tell the buyer the bad news. Your buyer will be looking for answers quickly, so make sure you have a list of all the information.
2. There are many options
Buyers love options. Give them as many as you can. Make sure you have a list of options ready to go before you make the dreaded phone call. It doesn’t matter how terrible it is; it shows your boss that you care about their business and are trying to solve the problem, rather than leaving them hanging in the winds.
3. Find out the reasons for the problem and what steps were taken to prevent it from happening again.
Your company will show the buyer that it has taken the necessary steps to prevent the same mistake from happening again. Make it clear that your company has considered the situation. Your solution. Demonstrate that your company is trying to minimize the buyer’s impact. If possible, waive or delay buyer costs; if necessary, get cost breaks. Give suggestions on how to position this news to other employees.
4. Sincere apology and a request to clemency
You can apologize and then just hush. Do not go on, but give the buyer the opportunity to take in your sincere apology. Then ask the buyer to continue the support.
Jim, I would like to know if you can accept my apology and work with me to continue our business relationship.
Then, zip your lip. Do not speak, however difficult it may be, until the buyer has digested what you have said and has given a response.
What does it really matter what you say? If you do it right, buyers will eventually stop seeing the good news.
In a problematic situation, buyers want honesty and salespeople who are able to handle problems with integrity. These tips are great for trusted business-to-business sellers because they emphasize being responsive and adaptive.
Mark Bishop is the president of WhatBuyersWant. He also wrote “The Trusted Seller.” Mark Bishop’s training philosophy teaches salespeople how to sell to buyers. It focuses on relationship-building strategies and longer sales cycles when selling business professionals.
