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So, let me be clear. The customer is right often.

If a buyer doesn’t perceive something as high on their list, they’re right about that. No persuasion will change their mind. If the customer isn’t satisfied with your support once they start working with you, they’re right about that, too. Their perception is their reality.

But when it comes to the sales cycle, prospects can be misguided.

Here's a common one: buyers often speed ahead and want to see the product within the first ten minutes of a sales call. It’s what they want at the moment, but it’s not actually what’s best for them. And it certainly isn’t what’s best for you.

When a customer gets a demo too early, the seller isn’t able to properly contextualize the product around the buyer’s needs and desires because they haven't gained enough insight to do so yet. The prospect then receives a lackluster demo that doesn’t fully connect. Instead of gaining excitement, they lose conviction about how the product will help them at all. They stop responding to follow-up emails, and the deal dies.

This is why we don’t want to blindly fulfill every ask from a prospect.

As a leader of an early-stage startup, your job isn’t to close deals, per se. It’s actually to extract key insights about your market out of every sales call and close the deals that fit with your ideal customer hypothesis.

By controlling your deal, you’ll maximize critical learnings about the market, keep the opportunity moving forward, and show up to calls with a confident process that respects the buyer's time.

If you’re feeling unclear on how to redirect a prospect who wants something that isn’t best for them, what I recommend is… telling them it’s not best for them!

Them: “Hey, nice to meet you, I was hoping to just dive in and see the demo straight away.”

You: “Totally understand. I want to make sure a product demo is worth your time. I’d like to ask you a few questions to understand what’s going on, and if I think you might benefit from what we do, we’ll move on to the demo.”

This kind of approach to any request that you can’t or shouldn’t accommodate can accomplish a few things. It:

• Demonstrates that you have their best interest in mind
• Shows you're confident in the process that works best for buyers and that you're a trustworthy guide through the sales journey
• Proves you're not afraid to acknowledge that they may not be a good fit, which builds even more trust and affinity

The customer isn't always right, but guiding them toward what will actually benefit them (and you) is always the right approach.

This is Extra Extra, a newsletter about the tactics and mindsets that drive early sales. I’m Caroline Fay, an exited social impact founder who’s spent my career launching and selling new products. I help non-traditional tech founders build sustainable, recurring revenue.

Caroline Fay

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