Falling On The Sword

The concept of falling on the sword in sales fits perfectly into the psychology of allowing your prospect to feel safe, secure and non-threatened. The idea is to honor and take 100% responsibility not only for your actions but how prospects respond to you. When prospects are upset, justified or not, falling on the sword and being the fall guy allows you to quickly diffuse conflict and disagreement.

Often prospects are angrier about how they haven’t been heard or how they have been invalidated when they are actually in the negative incident itself. Prospects are too frequently bombarded with salespeople who do not take responsibility, make vain excuses and are not polite or considerate in resolving the conflict. It is so refreshing when a salesperson takes the bull by its horn and preempts conflict by falling on the sword and taking responsibility. It is even more effective when the salesperson becomes the fall guy when the customer knows deep in their heart that they’re truly at fault. Only a very secure salesperson who has strong inner confidence and fortitude will be able to carry this off. Because your self-concept is intact, you will have no qualms about losing the battle with the potential prize of winning the war.

The following are examples of taking the fall. Notice that the language is humbling, nurturing and gives the prospect the idea that they are firmly in the driver’s seat and in control:

• “I think your anger is justified. We definitely dropped the ball on this one. What, if anything, can we do to regain your confidence?”
• “If I were you, I’d be seriously questioning if you want to do business with us.”
• “I wouldn’t blame you if you decided to take your business elsewhere. We certainly fell short of your expectations and ours.”
• “I promised to get back to you on Friday with an answer. I didn’t. I won’t bore you with any excuses. I hope I didn’t cause too much inconvenience. Can we try to reschedule?”
• “If we fall short again on delivery, we will rebate you on your costs and graciously resign your account. The last thing we want is a customer who is dissatisfied.”
• “We had a fiasco with your company three years ago where we really messed up. I was calling to see if the timing was right to try to make amends.”

An allied tactic to falling on the sword is ”starting over”. The following are useful tactics to employ when there has been a changing of the guard (new decision makers) or you are trying to up-sell a new opportunity with a new product or expanding an existing product. Build rapport and honor the prospect and allow them the freedom to decide on their own regardless of your selling agenda:

• “I believe we’ve done a superb job for your company for the past five years. Since you are in charge of reevaluating your purchasing worldwide, we know you may have different objectives, ideas and past business relationships that you may want to use. So let’s start at the beginning as if we’ve never done business with your company and see if we can earn your business in the future.”
• “We’ve done business solely in the U.S. with you and we greatly appreciate your business. We’ve never have had a chance to extend that internationally. Let’s start at the beginning to see if we have anything to offer you in addition to what you already have going. Then we can decide if you should add on doing business with us for international purposes.”

Whether you are resolving a conflicting situation or trying to add on new business for your company, it is always wise to give your customer the benefit of believing they are firmly in the drivers’ seat and in control. By honoring their superior posture, you will give them less incentive to flex their muscles and extend their will.