Many salespeople never get to hear the word, “no” instead they are provided with the ambivalent response of, “maybe”.

Your job as an elite (or developing) salesperson is to circumvent the murky fog of “maybe” and get to either a “yes” or a “no”. Anything in-between suggests you haven’t done your job properly.

There are, of course, always exceptions to every rule, but “no” always means “no” and in my world the word “maybe” also means, “no”. Anyone who has been in sales long enough and applied the necessary lessons will attest that chasing dead-ends is a waste of time and energy.

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Down-selling is the art of narrowing a customer’s expectations and matching them more effectively with a solution that best fulfils their needs or desires.

Too often I see salespeople praying on their customer’s ignorance and up-selling even though there is no extra value being created for customer. In this instance the salesperson is simply meeting their own agenda and getting the customer to pay for it.

Recently my company was in the market for a new office.  I dealt with a leasing company who tried diligently to persuade me to take a larger space with more features, even though I didn’t need them.  I explained on numerous occasions what my very specific needs were; but these seemed to take a backseat to the salesperson’s own needs.

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