Negative Selling - Does It Work? by Dan Adams

Dan:



It is election season, so I'm seeing quite a few negative ads on TV in which political candidates criticize each other. It seems it must work because the negativity is used frequently in both political arenas and in the traditional B2B selling world. 



What are your thoughts?



Kathleen - St. Paul, MN





Kathleen:



Great question!!



I am certainly no political expert, but it seems that we can draw parallels to the business world. In my experience (with large investment, long buying process, B2B high technology sales to educated senior executives) it does not work. In fact, it accentuates the traditional negative perceptions of the selling profession. Now some may say it does work. I would argue that any success enjoyed as a result of negative selling was sheer luck and probability at work. The negative sellers only drew the conclusion that their negative methods worked. This reasoning might be as accurate as predicting the gender of an unborn child by way of a coin toss. Anyone will be correct 50% of the time! 



In my workshops and book I stress that reps need to understand that their needs as well as the needs of their company and client are best served over the long term by utilizing a highly consultative approach. That approach has TRUST as its core foundation. Negative selling results in withdrawals from the bank of trust versus deposits. See First National Bank of Trust.



What should be done if there is a feature or characteristic about my competition that I want my customer to be aware of? Here is the first question you ask yourself: "Is that issue related to one of my customer's key purchase criteria?" You may recall from an earlier email that one of the key BMPCC account qualification questions results in a thorough understanding of your client's purchase criteria. If the issue is not currently on of your client's purchase criteria then you can use a Change the Game Strategy to help the customer to add it to her criteria. 



If and only if this issue is one of your client's key criteria, you may highlight your positive rather than your competitor's negative. For example, let's say your system has better quality that your competition. You simply accentuate your quality and invite a comparison to others.



Another approach is to utilize the statement: "There is no perfect solution. Each of the offerings you are considering has tradeoffs". If the customer invites further discussion, you can highlight the positive aspects of the competitive offering and then, in a balanced approach, discuss the "tradeoff" of their offering. The key here is balance. Focusing only on the negative, or spending more time on the negative versus the positive, will result in less trust.



In summary, I believe that people buy from whom they trust. Negative selling decreases trust rather than increases trust.



Good Luck, and Close 'Em!

About
the Author:

Daniel Adams, author of Building Trust, Growing Sales,
and creator of Trust Triangle Selling™ helps corporations
improve their profits by optimizing the performance of their sales
teams. He is a frequent and popular speaker at national sales
meetings, workshops and association events. You can visit his
web site and read his other articles at www.trusttriangleselling.com.