Having sales conversations with clients and potential customers can be a really difficult job.

They say all kinds of things and sometimes we don’t know for sure what is the truth and when they are lying.

Sometimes it looks like they want our products and services, it looks like there’s a definite need for it, they seem interested, but then again it sounds like they are coming up with all manner of excuses to stop themselves from buying!

What the #$%&! is going on here?

The older guys in the business used to tell me things like “don’t mind them... go hard and collect your money!”, “these people are unserious, they don’t know what they want”, and “buyers are liars... time wasters”.

Is it true that all the complaints they come up with at the end of the day are not valid?

That’s possible! Because none of us are mind readers.

Should we take our potential customers at face value? Or is there a way to find out who is serious and who is just coming up with bovine faeces?

Yes there is a way!

Every time the customer comes up with a complaint, we have to find a way of validating that complaint or concern before we know what to do about it.

The customer might say, “it makes sense but let me talk to my wife about it first... give me two weeks and I’ll get back to you”.

As always we should be agreeable so it wouldn’t be out of place to respond, “I agree with you bro! I don’t make these kind of huge purchases without talking to madam first”.

Both of you might laugh over that and build some rapport as young men on the grind who respect their wives and like to “take them along”.

After that you start asking questions and get more details about their concerns, because if you don’t know it, you can’t address it.

You could say, “by the way I’m curious, if wifey was here what wouldn’t she like about this deal?”

You guys might enter into a conversation about his wife’s concerns on how household items tie in with the overall style choice of the house.

Maybe they are currently working on some other projects as a family and so they want to see how it would affect their budget?

Or maybe you’ll discover that he is going to buy it anyway, but he just wants to “toast” his wife first so it doesn’t come as a surprise.

Whatever the reason, you now have practical intel that you can use to move the sale forward.

This is really helpful because if you had said, “no problem sir, call me when you are ready” ...anything could have happened in the two week period.

In the first scenario you could respond by asking questions about the decor she has already chosen for the house.

With this new information you can then share options you have in store that might match that.

You then move things along by calling madam on the spot to book an appointment to come in tomorrow herself and explore the other options available.

It doesn’t mean that they will buy at the end of the day, but so far money doesn’t look like a problem and at least this way you are keeping things within your control.

For the second option, if it looks like they’re definitely going ahead with the purchase, then it’s a matter of letting them know that you have financing available or that you accept flexible payment terms.

You could also move things along by calling madam on the spot to see if they can come in on Wednesday to agree to a payment plan.

In the final example, it’s clear that Oga is going to buy but he wants to smooth things over with the Queen first.

In that case you could propose that he pays 10% now so that you hold the item in store for him for the next two weeks while he is handling domestic affairs.

If he makes a commitment now, then the chances are that he will be back to finalize things when he promised.

Either way these examples show that you don’t have to be a mind reader to know if the customer is lying or not.

You just have to be good at asking questions. The answers you get will determine the next course of action.

In case you haven’t figured it out yet, to be good at sales you don’t have to get good at “reading people”.

You just have to get better at asking questions.