Rule #38 Walk-Away Power

I am now going to share with you a simple observation; I am not, however,

going to advocate it. In fact, I am going to caution you strongly to

treat it like nuclear material: extremely dangerous except in the hands of

experts—but extremely powerful nonetheless. I put it here at the end of

the book because, in order to use it, you must master everything else that

came before it.

In complex selling environments, I have observed that elite sales professionals

are often regarded by their customers as being a member of the

team, a true partner in business. Very often customers comment that this

individual is distinguished by exemplary behavior and is described as honest,

ethical, and not being a “high-pressure salesman.”

One of the best salespeople I have been privileged to know had this said

about him by a surgeon customer:

I wanted to follow up with you regarding Ben B. I think that

Ben is a very genuine person who believes in the products that

he sells. This is palpable when you meet with him and in the

way he presents his products/data/information. He focuses on

the strengths of his own product without slinging mud at his

competitors, which is a rarity in the medical device/pharm

industries. He is not a high-pressure salesman, but he is persistent—

being both of those things is not easy [emphasis added].

He is extremely available and reliable—especially in the beginning

stages of an in-office program—[and] this was very important.

As Dr. _____ mentioned, Ben seems to anticipate our

needs both relating to our day-to-day operations and our future

plans that incorporate your technology. He is good at sharing

technical pearls and information that he gleans from other practices

that have been [using his product] for a longer period of

time, which has been great.”

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I challenge the assessment of Ben as a low-pressure salesman. I challenge

it because in a complex-solution, disruptive-technology market (with a real

paradigm shift required to change behavior in big ways), enormous

amounts of pressure must be brought to bear on customers and their markets

in order to achieve any level of adoption of a new product or service.

In analyzing the most successful salespeople, I have concluded that what is

really behind the comment about these top performers not being highpressure

salespeople is something I call walk-away power. All the best

salespeople have it and can tell stories about having walked away from a

prospective customer. You see, if the customer doesn’t feel they need what

you have, then all the bargaining power is on their side. We scratch and

claw just to get in front of our prospects, and we feel that everything rests

on this brief time together, which may not come again. The harder a

prospect is to reach, or the larger their potential sales volume, the more

pressure we put on ourselves to close the deal. This acts counterproductively

against us when it manifests itself in the form of desperation.

What is the difference between aggressiveness and assertiveness?

Confidence.

When someone is behind on their quota or is in jeopardy of losing their

job, what happens? They get aggressive. When someone has the quota in

the bag in the first week of the month and is being considered for a promotion

or selected for unique and prestigious opportunity, what happens?

They get confident and begin to be very assertive with their customers,

consulting them as the experts they are at implementing their solutions.

The confident sales person can insist on certain prerequisites, a predetermined

protocol, or simply a premium price.

Taken together, this person is no longer selling but is teaching. And at

some point in the course of time, they begin to transition from teaching to

consulting. And at some further point in time, they enjoy recognition by

and access to their customers as part of the team.

If you can’t walk away, you will never understand what sales leverage is and

how it works. This is not a tactic or manipulation of customers; it is the

understanding of what it takes to set your customer up for successful adoption

and utilization of your solution and a confidence and commitment

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based on experience to walk away if the customer commitment to your

stated requirements cannot be obtained.

Your customers always feel like they can take it or leave it. They use that

against you in various ways to obtain concessions from you. A great salesperson

ensures that a customer feels like they must have the solution and

cannot afford to be without it. The argument you make, the excitement

you generate, and the market forces you bring to bear are so strong that

the customers believe they would make a fatal error by not acquiring and

implementing your solution.

If you can assure yourself that you have mastered every other rule I have

listed, then you should look for opportunities when walking away is actually

the best thing to do. By taking the long-term view, you actually induce

more immediate results.

As an example, when I would call a prospect for a meeting, I would request

forty-five minutes, to which they would routinely say, “I can give you

twenty minutes on Tuesday.” I would then decline and ask them to call me

when they had at least forty-five minutes.

Why? Because it was my experience with that particular product that the

introductory meeting would last from forty-five to seventy-five minutes,

and I knew I could not present the product and answer the customer’s

questions in less time.

Interestingly, the response I got from asking for forty-five minutes was

always some variation of, “Oh, you’re serious. Well, I guess I can clear my

lunchtime for Thursday. Would that work for you?”

You say, “Well, that’s just an appointment. You wouldn’t walk away from

a deal.”

Yes, I would. Yes, I have.

Jeff Hancher is a one of the best salespeople I have ever met. While

attempting to achieve his first of seven president’s club awards, he was

faced with two weeks left to go in the year and only two accounts with the

potential to close the gap in his prospect funnel. Sure enough, his efforts

at prospecting and presenting paid off, and he received a call from the coal

mine prospect, inviting Jeff to come back and discuss final considerations.

Upon arrival Jeff was informed that he was more expensive than the competitors

being evaluated and was induced to discount his price 10% to

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make his deal more attractive. Jeff summarized his offer’s differentiating

benefits and shared his conviction based on experience: “There is a cost to

get and a cost to use. When you appreciate the difference between us and

our competitor, which explains why so many of our customers gladly pay

the higher price, as I have outlined in my proposal, I would appreciate the

opportunity to serve you.”

He then shook the prospect’s hand and left.

Two days later the contact called back and informed Jeff that he had spoken

to his boss and that against his better judgment, the decision had been

made to move forward with Jeff, who was then asked to install the products

as soon as possible.

The other prospect, however, didn’t close before the end of the year. Jeff

spent the last week of the year personally overseeing the installation to

ensure the revenue was booked in time. It was a $300-a-week account. Jeff

made the president’s club by just $11. A 10% discount of $30 would have

caused him to miss his goal.

He found out later that the company leadership at the coal mine had

already decided to move forward with Jeff on another larger purchase after

the new year but wanted this smaller piece implemented quickly before the

end of the year. The customer contact, as any purchasing manager worth

his salt would, had pushed Jeff for a price concession, knowing full well

that the leadership team had already made the decision to go with Cintas.

Jeff stuck to his guns in the knowledge that he had done his job well—

without knowing just how well!

I also know of other examples where a salesperson would recommend that

the prospective customer stay with their current vendor or product in light

of real implementation issues the new solution would create based on inadequacies

with the customer. When done professionally and carefully, this

would motivate the customer to make the necessary changes on their end

to implement the new solution out of the recognition that they were losing

the benefits of the new option—and feared getting left behind in the

marketplace.

Frankly, in one instance, Ben B. had a prospect at the outer edge of his territory

that was never going to produce a great ROI but would certainly kill

productivity by gobbling up large chunks of time and effort driving to and

from the customer, not to mention the customer’s lack of proficiency with

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the tools that would also be time-consuming. He was content to make a

strategic decision to walk away and encourage that customer to stay with

the competitor so as to keep the competition occupied far from his major

market. That may sound extreme, but for a given period of time while a

market develops, it’s a good example of strategic planning.

Walk-away power is real. But don’t kid yourself. If you don’t really have

the skills to get the job done when you are in front of the prospect customer

and you walk away, you will never hear from them again, and you

will be the butt of a bad joke your competitor will tell other prospective

customers. Don’t delude yourself. If you don’t have it, don’t try it.

By the same token, if you don’t have it, build it. Again, this is an observation

about what the best of the best have. I am just a guide along the road

of your career in sales, pointing you to your destination.

Walk-away power is the knowledge that walking away today is not walking

away forever. And the goal is to make the customer realize they need

you more than you need them. Great salespeople do a great job of strategically

targeting, charismatically presenting, logically reasoning, effectively

teaching, thoughtfully double-clicking, and selectively apologizing

in order to redefine fine and inspire prospective customers.

After forty-five minutes of all that, elite salespeople have the confidence in

themselves to know that, when necessary, if someone doesn’t take their

offer, they either aren’t ready or really don’t have the money—because it

just doesn’t get any better than that.

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