Avoid This Yucky Sales Tactic

A doctor friend of mine recently told me a story about how one of his sales reps tried a yucky sales tactic to try to pull in an order. 🩺

The salesperson explained that he was THIS close to getting a bonus.

This sales reps made the mistake of thinking that just because this doctor was kind to him, that the doctor was his friend and would care about his bonus. 💰

Unfortunately for him, the doctor did NOT care. At all. ❌

What he DID care about was helping his patients, and if the product did that, great. If not, that was too bad, and he wasn't going to change his buying habits just to help this guy make more money.

Instead of building their friendship, this exchange did serious damage to the trust and the partnership. ☄️

Sometimes, we are tempted to share all the gory details about WHY we need their order so badly, but here's the truth.

Customers don't care at all about our quotas.

They don't care that we promised our boss that we'd pull in the order this year.

They don't care that if we pull in the order, we will win the big trip to Puerto Rico.

I've spoken to lots of customers, and it's frightening how many sales people use these tactics to try to pull in orders at year-end.

Instead, politely call them for an update. Let them know you are there for them if they need you, and you're happy to make any changes to the order.

Find out if there is anything holding it up and offer to help.