Keeping a customer requires being careful with your words.

Talking about politics, religion or football

The goal of the sales appointment is to generate empathy with your prospect. However, you should be careful about the topics you address, making sure you do not create any uncomfortable situations.

Talking about politics, religion, and football are topics that will hardly reach an agreement, use these topics only if you are sure that they share the same philosophy, otherwise, you will only deviate from the objective of your meeting: "selling your product" and you will be associated as a person of the "opposing team".

"That which should never be done in public is to talk about sex, politics or religion." - Winston Churchill

Minimizing the importance of your time

What I am about to share with you applies to sales appointments and conferences. I have heard countless times salespeople who start the conversation by saying "thank you very much for having me" or "thank you for giving me a few minutes of your time". Be careful: what you are saying between the lines is "you are more important than me, thank you very much for having me, my time is not important".

Instead of saying thank you, you can say " I am glad to meet you" or " it's a pleasure to do business with you, I'm sure we will get to do great things". the difference is noticeable and the message is powerful.

Make the influencer feel less

You know that the key to a successful sale is to reach the decision-maker, but the influencer plays a key role. I learned this by losing a client, would you like it not to happen to you?

I will tell you the story that happened to me: I had a first appointment with the influencer, in this case we will call her Anny, I convinced her that my product was ideal and I achieved the first objective: an appointment with the decision maker, let's say his name Mr. Rodriguez.

In that first appointment, I did not give the price to the influencer, in my process it was key that only Mr. Rodriguez could see it.  Anny made the appointment with Mr. Rodriguez and he could not make it that day, so Anny asked me to present her with the final quote.  In a "polite" way I told her no, that her boss had to be there, to which Anny felt offended.

Result: When I called Mr. Rodriguez by mobile phone to reschedule the appointment, he told me that he did not want to work with me because I had been very rude to Anny.

I never intended to make Anny feel bad, and from that day on I present part of the proposal to influencers when the decision maker doesn't show up for the appointment. I do not give the price, and I get a third appointment explaining that all three of us have to be there: the influencer, the decision maker, and me.

Always remember what Sophocles said: "One word can make or break a man's fortune".