Now that TerraCycle is almost a decade old and operating in 22 countries, I have realized how much sales styles differ throughout the world, especially in Europe. While the American style of sales is typically gung ho – energetic and positive — the European style is quite different, much more conservative.
This hit me when, after a sales pitch in Germany, our client said, “Tom, we’d love for you to present TerraCycle to our leadership team, but please be less American. Please don’t be excited and just present the facts.” I thought to myself, Wow, how do you sell without being passionate about the product or service you are selling?
Whether you are selling to a new client or persuading an existing client to continue buying, sales is the critical driver of your business’s growth. Naturally, when selling, we spend most, if not all, of our time highlighting the positive attributes of our product or service. The golden rules of successful selling are to solve an existing problem for your client with a compelling proposition. Then communicate that proposition clearly, simply and passionately. And always be closing! But this raises a question: How much negative information should we volunteer?
When selling hamburgers, should the restaurant owner note that the meat came from a slaughterhouse and disclose any associated health issues? When selling public relations services, should a P.R. agency discuss its failed campaigns or only the good ones?
After a decade of successful sales, I do think that there is a place for disclosing negative information. But it should be done wisely and in moderation. Here are three things to keep in mind:
If you think the client may know of something negative, own it. The way to do this is to address it up front in your meeting, before the client raises it. And you should address it more aggressively than your client would, if he or she were bringing it up. When you do this, it’s best to have a solution ready to offer. Such action will show your client that you don’t shy away from challenges; you take responsibility for them. At TerraCycle, every time I have done this, it has been successful and built trust.
Always talk about your competition positively. Competition, while negative to your business, is a fact of life. My suggestion is to be fair and positive. This will play well with your clients as they see that you are looking out for their best interests. This, too, will build credibility and trust. TerraCycle doesn’t have competitors the way most businesses do, but there are other services that our clients perceive to be in the same “bucket” as TerraCycle.
One example is
RecycleBank, which manages recycling rewards programs. Whenever we are asked about RecycleBank,we always say positive things — they are indeed our friends. But we also try to explain the differences between our two propositions (we help brands recycle previously nonrecyclable products or packaging). Then we let the client decide. Look, clients can always get this information themselves; it builds credibility when, after a sales meeting, they do their own research and come up with the same facts.
Sprinkle some negatives during your pitch. We consider TerraCycle a premium service. For that reason, we always highlight that our cost is higher than other solutions — such as sending waste to landfill. But then we emphasize that the benefits of working with us may be worth the expense. Of course, there is a fine line — you can volunteer too much negative information and kill the deal. Negative information is like salt on one’s food. It should be applied in moderation.
In the 22 countries where we operate, I have found a wide range of approaches to handling negative information. While most of our sales teams do a great job with the first two points, they often struggle with the third. This is especially true of people with less sales experience, and the most striking example is in Europe. There, our sales teams typically volunteer too much negative information in their pitches. They cross that fine line, and when they do, their closing rates decline.
We’re trying to coach them to be a little more American in their approach.
