It’s the holiday season and after a long day of pounding the pavement and making sales presentations you finally get home.  After hanging up your coat, you pour yourself a little bit of holiday cheer, sit down and go through your mail.  Lo and behold you find a Christmas card from someone you hadn’t even thought of sending one to.  You probably feel bad and guilty for ignoring them and will pop one in the mail to them ASAP.

That’s reciprocity.  How does it work in sales?

You’ve scheduled three appointments with a prospect and he has begged off on all of them.  While the reasons for breaking those meetings may be legitimate ones, the meetings were cancelled nonetheless.  You’re starting to wonder if it’s worth the time and effort to keep pursuing this person and if anything will ever come of it.  Maybe it’s time to walk.

Don’t.

The prospect is fully cognizant that he’s been putting you off and deep down inside he knows that probably one of those appointments could have been kept. That means when you do meet he’s going to feel obligated to be a more attentive.

Take advantage. Be more aggressive.  Spend a little more time asking questions to uncover needs.  Suggest some options that you may not have felt comfortable bringing up on one of the “kept” meetings.  Dare to do some trail closes or even take a stab at cross selling.

Keep your eyes open for opportunities to utilize the rule of reciprocity.  I heard a sales consultant tell the story of when he first started selling insurance he was having a hard time closing.  A mentor told him that the problem was that he was accepting compliments at the end of his presentation and this allowed prospects to discharge their obligation and get off the hook.  The advice was when faced with the “You did a great presentation and I appreciate you taking the time to talk to me but…” comment to reply with, “If I did such a great presentation why aren’t you going to buy this policy?” By not accepting the complement, the prospect still owed him, which meant he could re-open the sales cycle which increased the closing ratio.

William F. Kendy – TBS