Hey guys.
This is Steli Efti with Close.io.
Let me tell you a secret that might seem counter-intuitive in sales.
Pissing people off can be a good thing.
It can actually help you close more deals.
Now, everybody in sales talks about how important it is to build rapport, to be likable, to
be friendly, to be professional, to make people like you and I don’t disagree.
I think all these things are really crucial and I like to be liked.
I’m a very likable guy I hope most of the times and by design and by purpose I want
to be liked.
I want people to like me.
I want to like people and I do most of the time.
But once in a while, pissing people off can be an effective strategy.
I don’t mean just pissing them off for no purpose.
But what I want to say is that salespeople are so afraid of negative emotions on the
other side of the line, somebody getting pissed, somebody being angry, somebody getting loud
on the phone while you’re trying to cold call them or while you’re negotiating a
deal with them.
I want to tell you that when you get some body’s strong reaction, you can take that
energy and channel it in something productive and many times that energy, if you keep calm
and you channel it, that energy can move mountains.
So what I mean by that is that – you know, let’s take the example of a cold call, right?
So let’s say you cold call somebody.
That person picks up.
You make your spiel, whatever you do.
It’s usually, hey, my name is so and so.
I’m calling from this and this company.
Here’s what we do and how this might be of interest or value to you.
Do you have a moment to chitchat about this?
The other person on the line goes, “Yeah.
No, I don’t think this is for us.”
Usually what sales people do here is they just keep their fake smile, happiness, then
go, “Yeah.
Well, why isn’t it for you?
Here’s what we do,” and blah, blah, blah and this and that.
Maybe you will get the person a little engaged, right?
They’re not crazy engaged but a little engaged.
The person goes, “Well, can you just send me more material?”
and at that point, the salesperson typically – to keep the niceness, the fake niceness
going, they will say, “Yeah, I’m going to send you the information.
Anything else that I can do?
Can I follow up with you in a few days?”
Yeah, yeah, sure, sure.
Bye and the person hangs up, right?
This was a call that was completely worthless.
But you didn’t piss off anyone.
You told the sales guy, hey, when somebody – on a call like this, when somebody is
like, “Yeah, yeah, just send me some information,” how about telling them no?
How about telling them, “Sorry.
Let me ask you.
If I send you that information, how likely is it that you’re never going to look at
it?”
Well, it’s very likely, right?
Most people actually tell you that it’s – they’re going to say, “Well, it’s
likely that I’m never going to look at it,” right?
Because you’re asking an honest, authentic question.
But let’s say you’re even bolder than that and you go, “No, I can’t send you
an email, sorry.”
The person goes, “Well, if you can’t send me an email, then don’t fucking call me.
It’s not my problem.”
Most salespeople would think this is the worst dynamic in the call than what I – than prior
which was the, “Yeah, send me more information.”
Yeah, sure, I will send it to you.
OK, good-bye.
It’s not.
Now, somebody is a little pissed or angry at you.
Well, at least now you have their full attention.
A moment ago, this person was still browsing Facebook and Twitter and kind of half-listening,
trying to see how quickly he or she can get off the phone and now, you have their full
attention.
Now, that like this is an outrage.
What?
You’re cold calling me.
Why can’t you send me more information?
They get pissed.
They get angry.
That’s a good thing.
You got their attention and you got a little bit of energy out of their half-asleep body.
Now, all you have to do is know how to utilize these things and channel them into something
productive.
So instead of getting like all afraid and scared and hurt and instead of being angry
back and trying to hit back on their attack, both these things not that productive, what
you can do is now you can utilize that energy and just channel it the right way.
So somebody tells you, “Hey, can you send me more information?
Well, just send me more information about this.”
You go, “Sorry.
I definitely will not send you more information about this.”
The person goes, “Well, then why are you wasting my time?
Why are you giving me a call?
This is an outrage.
First, you’re wasting my time with the cold call.
Now you’re telling me you can’t send me information?”
You say, “Yeah.
You know what?
I definitely can’t send you information because I know you’re not going to look
at it.
You know what?
You might be a little angry at me and it might seem like I’m pissing you off right now.
I’ve wasted your time.
But I can tell you I appreciate your energy.
Listen, the only reason I called you is because I want to figure out if you can make this
work.
We won’t figure that out in email and we surely won’t figure it out in some brochure
that’s super generic.
So I find it insulting when you ask me for something like this and I would find it an
insult to you if I sent you a generic email or some generic brochure.
Let’s not waste each other’s time.
Let’s just take two minutes.
We’ve already taken two minutes.
Let’s take another just two minutes, 120 seconds and get the answers to two simple
questions I have.
After that, we will know if this is a waste of time or if you should invest more time
in it and if I should send you any email with any information.”
Now, honestly, this may or may not work.
But it doesn’t matter.
It doesn’t matter because what you did prior, which was just being nicey-nicey and sending
them whatever and they – you can tell on the phone they don’t really care, they just
want to get off the phone, that’s a waste of time.
At least take a risk and have a little bit more of a challenging, engaging, interesting
conversation.
Sometimes this might not work out and somebody just gets really angry at you and hangs up.
So what?
Nothing happened.
Nobody died, right?
At least now, as I said, you’ve woken them up.
It’s like free Starbucks coffee.
It’s a little negative.
So I’m not a big proponent of being provocative just for the sake of it.
But many times, you’re going to be able to take that energy and utilize something
else.
Sometimes you can just tell people, “Hey, I know that you are angry right now at me.
But I appreciate the energy.
I appreciate that you have some passion and let’s utilize that for something that’s
productive for your business.”
You know how this is going to blow peoples’ minds?
I’ve said this to somebody before.
It blew their mind.
This morning, one of our sales guys had a call with somebody and they started a shouting
match.
It was quite a spectacle.
At the end, the salesperson hung up the phone and was like, “I don’t know if this guy
is going to become a customer but I think chances are pretty good.”
We all started laughing and just a few minutes before – that chat update inspired me to
make this video.
We saw – we have a company chat and every time a new customer signs up for our product
and puts in their credit card, we get a little information about that.
Sure enough, 30 minutes later, after their call, there’s a little pop-up in our chat
and it says blah-blah-blah corporation, new customer, tons of money for your business.
We all high-fived each other and I actually listened to the call and the great thing was
that the shouting match, it was not that serious.
It was just that the guy, the person on the other – the side of the line was outraged
about something that really does not need any outrage and our sales guy didn’t take
that shit.
The guy was like, “This is outrageous!”
blah, blah, blah and our sales guy was like, “Wait a second, my man!
What about it is outrageous?
Your outrage is outrageous to me.
Let’s be honest.
You guys know this is the best thing.
I said X to you.
I’m keeping that promise.
Where exactly did you discover this outrage?”
Well, you blah, blah, blah and our sales guy goes, “No, you’re wrong, my man.
You’re wrong!
But I still like you and I understand where you’re coming from.”
They started shouting.
You can see that – you can shout at people and still be positive and still have a little
bit of a smile on your face or you can shout because you’re angry and pissed.
I’m not proposing that.
But what I want to tell you is that don’t be afraid of rattling the cage.
Don’t be afraid of people once in a while getting upset at you and don’t think that
just because a customer gets upset at you that they’re not going to buy.
Just because somebody is pissed at you for a moment does not mean they’re not going
to buy from you.
As long as you’re honest, as long as you’re keeping your word, as long as you’re creating
a ton of value for them, chances are they’re going to buy.
Maybe they are upset for a moment emotionally or for whatever.
Maybe they had a bad day that day.
A customer doesn’t always have to like you, to buy from you.
They don’t.
But they will always have to respect you.
A customer or prospect doesn’t have to always like you to buy from you, but they always
have to respect you.
They always have to believe you.
They have to think that you’re honest and they have to believe that you are successful
and you know what you’re talking about and you’re an expert.
But they don’t have to think that you’re going to be their best friend and they’re
going to be drinking beer with you every night.
They don’t.
So stop optimizing for being the most likable, the most sensitive person in the room and
never making anyone upset about anything.
Start caring more about getting people engaged, getting people energetic, getting people to
wake up, getting people to be involved.
Once in a while, that means that people get pissed at you or people are a little angry
for a moment.
Don’t get emotionally involved in that.
Stay your ground.
Don’t take shit from people if they’re unreasonable.
Stay your ground.
Keep an eye-to-eye level and tell them that they’re crazy or tell them that you are
– funny enough, you’re happy they’re pissed at you at this moment.
See if that doesn’t transform the psychology and the mood and the mindset of the person
that you’re talking to.
All right.
I hope this was helpful.
At least it inspired some original thoughts in you next time somebody screams at you.
You might want to take a different route instead of just caving in and being defeated.
Maybe you want to have some fun with it.
Maybe you want to challenge it and shout back and see what happens.
Either way, make sure that you serve your prospects and customers.
Make sure that you go out there and you hustle hard every single day and now that you know
that, go out there and get ‘em.