5 Things a Salesperson Should Never Say to a Prospect - And What to Say Instead

Let’s start with an easy one.

Salespeople are coming to prospects to demonstrate that they are knowledgeable, trustworthy, and invested in buyers’ success. If you kick off the conversation asking for information you can easily look up yourself, that can damage your credibility from the start.

Fortunately, it’s easier than ever to find out what a company does, what their needs are, whether they’re expanding or acquiring another business, and more. You can check their company’s LinkedIn Page for updates, and set notifications on Sales Navigator for key account updates.

Armed with the right information, you can skip much of the discovery and get to solving.

Friends check in with each other to see how they’re doing. Hotel clerks check-in people who are staying at their establishment. Salespeople should never be “just checking in.”

We all know it: To a buyer, what you’re really saying is, “Just wanted to see if you’re ready to buy yet.” It’s asking for their attention without offering anything in return; the opposite of a buyer-first mentality.

Part of developing a healthy buyer relationship is investing in their success beyond offering your company’s solution. Keep an eye out for useful articles, news stories, blog posts, or videos — anything you can share that will help the prospect do better at their job or impress their boss. 

We’ve all been trapped in a conversation with someone who only wants to talk about themselves. It’s a situation we usually try to escape as quickly as possible. The sales equivalent is leading with your solution instead of the customer’s problems.

As we put it: “Solve, don’t sell.”

Combined with entry #1, you can turn the phrase around and lead with the problem. “I see your company is missing out on revenue because your contact forms are broken. What if you could automatically respond to most of these inquiries, and then have only the most promising leads delivered straight to your inbox?”

It’s a far more effective conversation starter than, “Our solution can accelerate your response time by 53.3%.”

Salespeople know that price can be a sticking point for B2B sales. We would much prefer to get the agreement to buy first, with the trust that the solution is worth the price tag, and then talk about money after the deal is all but done.

Of course, we can’t really get there — money is an object for virtually every company. Every buyer has a budget. Delaying the price conversation just hurts credibility and makes it hard to develop trust.

82% of buyers described being completely transparent about pricing as “important” or “very important” seller behaviors. Answer questions about cost thoroughly and honestly, then demonstrate why the solution is worth the investment.

In our B2B sales dreamworld, every deal would close at the end of the first prospect call. We’ve all spent time in the trenches of a long sales cycle, and may have envied the arm-twisters of old who would pile on the pressure until the deal got done.

But it’s crucial for buyer-first selling to dial back that pressure. Now, that doesn’t mean we’re shifting from “always be closing” to “never be closing.”

It doesn’t mean to sit back and wait for the prospect to find their way to a decision. But it does mean respecting their process and timeline and providing value instead of adding pressure.

One good way to keep things moving: Equip your prospect with what they need in order to convince internal stakeholders. That means coordinating with the marketing department to make sure you have a content library to pull from.