Episode 89: When Walking Away is the Best Way to Make a Sales Comeback
So how do you know when it might be time to walk away here are a few key signs. If the client is making unreasonable demands, they're not maybe going to be an appropriate partner. There's a misalignment of values or expectations. That's a biggie. And then if you realize that you can't truly meet the client's needs, and this is where we're going to focus on for this episode.
Hello and welcome to Prospecting on Purpose. I'm Sara Murray. And today we're diving into a crucial topic for anyone in sales or business. And that is the art of walking away from a sale. Now I know what you're thinking. Wait a minute. Isn't it the goal to close deals, not walk away from them? Well, yes, but by the end of this episode, you'll understand why sometimes the most powerful move you can make is to walk away.
So let's talk a little bit about why this can be so valuable. First and foremost, it really comes down to maintaining your integrity and your reputation, both for you as the salesperson, but also for the organization, which you represent in the long run. These are far more important than any single sale.
Walking away also helps you avoid bad deals, and problematic clients, and these things can really Sometimes cost you more than what they're worth. It can strengthen your negotiating position by showing that you're not desperate for the sale. And then perhaps most importantly, it demonstrates confidence in your product or service and that you're a consultative resource for your client.
Even if it means saying my product or my service isn't a fit for you right now, Mr. Client. And perhaps most importantly, it demonstrates confidence in your product or service. And you're demonstrating that you're a consultative resource for your client, even if it means saying my product isn't a fit for you right now for this opportunity.
And there's a lot of strength in showing that because it also sets you up as an expert for their next project. So how do you know when it might be time to walk away? Here are a few key signs. If the client is making unreasonable demands, they're not maybe going to be an appropriate partner. There's a misalignment of values or expectations.
That's a biggie. And then if you realize that you can't truly meet the client's needs, and this is where we're going to focus on for this episode. But if you spot any of these red flags, it might be time to consider stepping back or finding an alternate way through. And if you choose to try to just push the sale through, uh, there can be real consequences.
Your reputation and brand can take a hit. You might find yourself stressed out and heading for burnout. Uh, it may result in financial losses from unprofitable deals, and potential legal or ethical complications. And then there are the opportunity costs of the time and resources you waste on a bad deal that could have been spent on better opportunities.
Whenever we say yes to something, it means we say no to something else. And ultimately, if we push something through and it's not fit, it's usually both parties that suffer. But when the client suffers, it almost never results in a repeat sale. But if we're able to walk away professionally, that leaves the door open for us to sell future opportunities that are more of an appropriate fit.
So now you've decided to walk away. How do we do it without burning bridges? Communicate clearly what your reasons are and be honest and tactful. Definitely leave the door open for future opportunities. You never know what might change down the road. Of course, always we're respectful. We're maintaining a professional tone.
And then if possible, we're going to talk about this a little bit more at the end. I'll Offer alternative resources or referrals. So this shows you still want to help even if you can't be the one to do it. So here's a quick example. I used to sell fire features that used an alcohol-based fuel, which burned clean.
That meant that you could add a fire element to a design without piping in a gas line without needing to vent it. And all of that is awesome. Architects loved the technology. And I was working on a football stadium with a really high-profile architect. Angeles and talking to the top guy and they wanted an 11-foot linear fire feature designed into this football stadium and I could totally do it.
I mean, it would have been an awesome sale for me and I would have been able to sell future fuel to the stadium. Which would have been reoccurring revenue, but ultimately I ended up telling the architect that I didn't think my product was a correct fit because I didn't think that the end user who is the architect's client and our mutual client, I didn't think they would be happy with the final installation.
I knew from my experience with other existing sports venues that the facilities teams almost always forgot to order fuel until the day before game day. And since the fuel was flammable, there was no way to overnight it or get it to the property or the stadium. Quickly, it had to go ground transport also with a fire element that large, the heat output would be very significant.
And this stadium was in a warm weather environment. They did not need extra heat in that stadium. They'd also have to design storage space for the fuel because the application was so large. I gave some pricing on what the hourly operational cost would be. And it's really important for my client, the architect to make sure he has all of the necessary items because the last thing I want for him is to look bad to his client because now he put something in their stadium that cost them X dollars a month.
Right. And so all of these things in the end just ended up not being a match. And so I walked away with the project. I told him, I just didn't think it was a fit. I gave all those reasons why. Fast forward 18 months. I had changed companies and was representing a different product and I had one of our VPs traveling in my territory.
He asked me to set up meetings and obviously you have to set up high-profile meetings with the vice president. So I asked this architect to lunch. He said, yes. And as we're at our lunch, he looked at my vice president and said, he would always do business with me because I operate with integrity. He remembered me.
He did me a favor by saying yes to the lunch. He gave me kudos to the big boss, and I got to work on his next stadium project in a much larger capacity. So the ability to walk away demonstrates our expertise. It builds trust with our clients and it leaves the door open for larger, bigger, next opportunities.
If I had pushed that sale through. I don't think the end user would have been happy with the final product, which makes the architect look bad, and makes our relationship not functional. If you do have to walk away from something because your product isn't a fit, it's tempting to not want to offer alternatives because you don't necessarily want to hand your client details about a competitor or an alternate solution that they might just default to in the future.
So this is a bit of a delicate balancing act here, but one thing you can do is if you know of a solution, I would recommend offering it, even if it's potentially vendor agnostic, but maybe just pointing your client in a direction that they can resource on their own by giving them the right. Lingo and potential to how they can execute that.
So that's one way to handle it. If you don't want to give specific names, excuse me, or specific companies. But the other thing that works really well, depending on how your business model is structured is oftentimes we have channel partners, a lot of B2B businesses don't always sell directly to the client.
So in this case, maybe you work with multiline reps or distributors or resellers or dealers. If I have a client who can't use my product, I always try to pivot them to a friendly reseller or a friendly channel partner who can offer an alternative product because they have access to that, not offer other options because I was the person bringing it to them.
And when you look at this and zoom out a little bit, it ends up being a win, win, win, because that dealer wins the project. This means I have an emotional bank account with that dealer or that reseller, even if it's not my product, I still brought them a project or a client. And then ideally the dealer is not going to flip future opportunities because we've established that guardrail.
I'm bringing you a project, you know, respect, respect the work that I'm doing. The client usually ends up being happy because I gave them a path to solve their problem, which means I have a stronger relationship now with all of these parties, which ensures I get first dibs on the next opportunity.
This is really how we do consultative relationship-based sales. We don't push things through at our own expense and everyone can tell when that's happening. And it's not a good feeling. It's not a good feeling. And it's not the way that we want to operate as professional salespeople. And really every time we walk away.
We can learn from experience. Every single no is an opportunity to improve your process or give feedback to product management. I give feedback to marketing, you know, wherever the gap happened, that gives us an opportunity to improve and get better. So to wrap this up, walking away from a sale is not about giving up.
It's about knowing your worth and protecting your business. And sometimes it's about playing the long game. Every time you say no to an opportunity, you're making space for the right one to come along. And you're doing this with integrity and protecting your reputation, which is our most valuable asset in business.
That wraps up today's episode. Thank you so much for tuning into Prospecting on Purpose. If you found this helpful, don't forget to subscribe to the show and leave a review. And until next time, keep selling with integrity. Thanks so much for tuning in. See you next week.
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