Escape Route

Hey, Scott from The Sales Mastermind here. Today’s edition only takes 2 minutes.

Sun Tzu said, "When you surround an army, leave an outlet free [escape route]. Do not press a desperate foe too hard." *

Pushy sellers, leaving no escape route, turn buyers off.

The alternative is to highlight the escape route while making it undesirable.

(*To clarify, buyers and elite sellers aren't enemies)

Spam Folders

By checking your email spam folder or LinkedIn messages, you'll immediately see 1-10-100 sellers trying too hard to push for "Yes."

Sometimes they try to guilt you into meeting them.

"I've been reaching out for weeks."
But a buyer doesn't owe a seller anything.

Sometimes they ask redundant and condescending questions.

"I guess you don't want to triple your revenue in 30 days or less."
But buyers don't believe sellers who say such outlandish statements.

And the worst…

"There's no risk involved for you." 🤮
There may not be any financial risk, but there is reputational risk, opportunity cost, and other forms of risk.

Buyers are wise to these tactics, so elite sellers know - when everyone is zigging, they should zag.

Buyers are already thinking it

It's an interesting quirk of human nature that we prefer people who don't need us. This is as true in sales as anywhere else.

So when a seller is too pushy, trying too hard, or simply coming across as desperate - instinctively, buyers will pull away.

It might feel clever and psychologically astute to ask questions that an honest buyer must agree with. But that is precisely the problem.

By asking a question and forcing the buyer to agree, sellers remove the buyer's autonomy.

But buyers know they have autonomy and take it back by refusing to play that game.

Weighted emotion

Instead, flip the script.

Show the buyer they have options. Present the path you want them to take while also calling out the path they could use to escape.

And add heavy emotion to the escape path so it appears undesirable.

Cold Calling Example:
Hi, this is a cold call. Would you like to hang up or give me 30 seconds to explain why I called?

Why it works: A buyer could hang up anytime, which is rude. And most people don't want to be rude.

By offering the buyer the option to hang up, almost all will be intrigued and give you 30 seconds.

I taught a variation of this script to an SDR in 2021. In the three months we worked together, out of 100+ conversations, only one person hung up.

Qualification Example:
Next, I'll show you a few elements of our *insert product details*. There are two outcomes from here.
Either we book a follow-up meeting to discuss this further, or you tell me, "Scott, that's terrible. I never want to speak to you again," and we end the call. Sound fair?

Why it works: By presenting two options, one as the default (booking a follow-up) and the other meaning the buyer has to tell me—to my face—that they don't like what I am selling, almost everyone will choose the default, emotionless option.

When selling, elite sellers proactively discuss escape routes. This allows buyers to relax and drop their guard, as the seller is not forcing them into anything.

Try it in your next sale; you might get the below, a real example from a real person when I offered to pitch my June Case Study Group on LinkedIn:

Let me know what you think! it to a friend

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PS If you want to see how/if I can help with your sales efforts, consider Booking a Call.

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