“When we miss expectations and the journey looks like it will be more difficult than you anticipated, the reward itself looks like less of a reward.” – Todd Caponi in today’s Tip 774
Do you set proper expectations right from the beginning?
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Transcript
Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today my Transparent friend Todd Caponi is back. Todd is the author of the 3x award-winning & best-selling book, The Transparency Sale, and a top-rated keynote speaker & trainer as Principal of Sales Melon LLC. Here he is:
Todd Caponi: Hey everybody. I want you to picture this for a second. It’s circumstance, where there was something you wanted, there was something you were excited about. And then when you got there or when you discovered what the journey was going to be like to actually acquire that reward or that thing that you really wanted, you decided, not worth it. Like I’m just going to move on with my life. I’m cool, without it. We are biased in many cases by the journey to a reward, meaning that if the journey is harder than expected, the reward itself will look like less of a reward. I mean, that just happened last week, we were out and about with my two kids who are eight and nine, they wanted ice cream. We went to Culvers. I love the frozen yogurt and the cars were wrapped around the building, the drive-through. And on the other side, at the pickup window, there was a bunch of cars that had their little stickers on it. They were still waiting for their food and we’re like, ah, this looks awful. We get in line. And very soon into it, both of my kids agreed. They’re like, can we just go home? Like we don’t need ice cream that bad, right? Ice cream is like the greatest thing ever to them. And because the journey to that reward looked like it was going to be difficult. They opted out. And so we see that an awful lot in our sales pursuits, we’ve got customers that are excited about what we’re offering, what we have to sell. They’re excited about us over a competitor and guess what happens. They opt for the status quo. And you’re just like, what happened?
Well, in many cases, it’s not them. It’s you? It’s the journey. It’s missing expectations. When we miss expectations and the journey looks like it will be more difficult than you anticipated, the reward itself looks like less of a reward. And how do we do that? A lot of times we do that through our own sales processes where we’ve, customer fills out a lead form and we don’t respond right away. And then when we do, we put the prospect on the jury stand and read them the inquisition of qualification questions before they earn the right to get a demo, right? Different steps that we put in the process that add friction that maybe other organizations don’t have, that sets you apart from them in a negative way.
My advice to you is two things. Number one. Set proper expectations right from the beginning. Again, obviously embracing transparency in what you do, but what you don’t do and what competitors potentially do better than you. Again, that’s why negative reviews on a website, help those products out it’s because expectations have been set properly, but set expectations in term of what the journey is going to be like. That’s why I’m such a huge advocate for mutual decision plans, right? Lay out the journey with the customer so they know what to expect. And if they want to opt-out, they opt out early, right? If you’re going to lose, lose fast.
And then number two, again, is look at your own buying journey and look for ways to remove friction. Where can you optimize the journey to help the customer make the right decision for them both in the short term and the longterm. Do those two things together and you know what? The customers will still view the reward in the same light they did when they first engaged. And that means faster sales cycles, higher win rates. And as a result, you’ll qualify deals in faster that you should win and qualify deals out faster that you’re going to lose anyway.
So give that a try to skip that some thought. If you’ve got questions I’m here, I’m happy to answer any questions that you’ve got and also would love to hear how it goes. So thank you and look forward to engaging with all of you. Thanks!
Scott Ingram: The video version of this tip and more about Todd Caponi and his book The Transparency Sale are all at DailySales.Tips/774 for you.
Once you’ve checked that out, be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!