He Picked the Worst Time to Pitch to Me
A cautionary tale:
Earlier this week, I was helping a client move a website. He registered his domain with GoDaddy, and I spoke to their customer support before moving the site.
Everything GoDaddy told me was wrong, and when we moved the site it came crashing down.
I launched a chat with GoDaddy support and got the run-around. Denials. Deflections. Delays.
While on the chat, I quickly undid the changes I’d made so the site was back up quickly. But I had to continue the chat to craft a less temporary solution.
After 45 minutes, the support rep figured it out.
The rep apologized for my trouble and then said this…
“May I interest you in our premium email solution so you can have email accounts associated with your domain?”
I started laughing and I replied in the chat…
“Kind of an awkward moment to try to upsell me, don’t you think?”
He didn’t catch my drift. Silence on his end. So I continued…
“My website crashed because your rep gave me the wrong information. Then you denied it was GoDaddy’s fault. I spent 45 minutes working on this with you (time I could have been working on something else). And after all that, you try to upsell me an email service? I know you’re working from some kind of instruction manual or script and you’re supposed to pitch the email service. But…No I’m not interested in buying your email service. I’m interested in finding a new domain registrar.”
Now he got it.
“I’m sorry I tried to upsell to you,” he wrote.
A few days ago, I shared this story about a sales rep who couldn’t divert from her “nurture first, sell later” script — even when a prospect was giving her obvious buying signals.
The GoDaddy rep was on the other end of the spectrum.
I had spent 45 minutes saying things like, “This is so frustrating…” and “Why won’t you take responsibility for your mistake…” No buying signals there.
The moral of these stories: Read your prospect. Adjust. If the prospect is waving the credit card at you, it’s time to sell. If the prospect is saying, “I’m frustrated with you,” choose another time for the upsell.
Don't go away yet..
p.s. Coaches, authors, and consultants hire me to power-up their creative content and storytelling to captivate prospects, stand-out and book more business.
Whenever you're ready, here are several ways I can help you become a storytelling stand-out so you'll land more clients without pitching and prodding:
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