We’ve all been there. We walk onto the lot, looking for a new car, a salesman engages us, asks us some questions, and shows us some cars. We indicate that we like one, and the salesman starts the ball rolling to “close” the sale. He wants you to say “yes” today, before you say those immortal words that all salespeople dread hearing: “We want to think about it.”

The salesman starts using all their tricks and tools of the trade to pressure, coerce, or just plain trick you into making a decision and finalising a purchase right then and there. It’s uncomfortable, unpleasant, and worst of all, the salesman often gets his way, and we sometimes make a purchase that we later regret.

There are understandable reasons behind the salesperson’s behaviour. Firstly, they’re worried of course that if you leave the lot without buying, then you’re going to find a better deal elsewhere. Secondly, there is the principle of “The Law of Diminishing Returns.” This law states that, when a customer likes a product, sees a value in purchasing it, etc, but waits to buy it, over time the perceived value the customer originally saw in purchasing the product diminishes. Even if the purchase was indeed a great deal, for the right product or service for that customer, the longer the customer waits and thinks about it, the less they feel right about it, and the likelihood that they end up buying decreases.

Your salesperson has been taught this principle, and they understand that if you leave the lot without buying, then the chances of their getting a sale go down significantly. And they would be right. So they are pressured by their employers, to pressure you, the customer, into making a decision on the day.

Whilst I do believe in the principle of “The Law of Diminishing Returns,” I disagree with the tactics that most salespeople employ to push customers into buying on the day. It destroys the trust that the salesperson has hopefully built up with the customer during their interactions. It makes for an unpleasant buying experience for the customer and reduces the chance that the customer will buy from that salesperson again in the future. Not to mention, it can often result in the customer not getting the best or right product or service for them (which should ultimately be the goal of the salesperson in the first place).

And yet, when I meet with a prospective coaching client (that might be you someday perhaps), I will ask for a decision on the day. By the end of that meeting, I want my prospect to say either “Yes, let’s get started” or “No thanks, it’s not for me.” Either of those answers is fine with me (although, I will say that I only meet with people who are serious about getting coaching to help them grow their business, so I really only expect a “yes” answer.) I refuse to pressure anybody into saying yes to coaching, but I absolutely will pressure you into saying yes or no.

How can I justify doing that, if after everything I’ve just written in the previous paragraphs about pressurising salespeople? Well, for a few reasons:

  • Before you meet with me, I’m going to tell you that I’m going to ask for a decision at our meeting, and I’m going to ask you if that’s okay. In short, I’m going to get your permission first.
  • I’m not pressuring for a sale, I’m pushing for a decision. There’s a difference.
  • As a coach – as your coach – my job is to teach you how to make better, faster decisions. It’s perhaps one of the most important and effective ways I get results for my clients: by getting you to say yes or no faster. “Let’s do it.” “Let’s not do it.” “Let’s do this instead.” Whatever, by making faster decisions, we move faster, and get faster results.
  • If we get to the stage of actually meeting face-to-face and investing ninety minutes or two hours together (you will have already invested some time researching me, and I will have already invested some time researching you), then that means we agree there is likely a very good fit here already, and that you are serious about investing in coaching. Because frankly, if you weren’t, then why are we investing this time together?
  • In my prospective coaching meetings, I don’t have a sales pitch. I don’t show any slides. My only purpose is to give you as much value as I possibly can in our time together, in the hopes that you see the value in engaging my services. And you will see tremendous value, guaranteed. (I’m pretty confident; I’ve been doing this a long time.) But if you wait to make your decision, then that ever-present Law of Diminishing Returns will kick in, and each day you wait, the tremendous value that you saw when we met will appear less and less valuable. It’ll end up just looking like a lot of work. And the shame of it is, instead of getting a win-win (I get a new terrific client, and you get amazing results in your business), we get the opposite: a lose-lose. Not to mention the loss of time we’d invested in getting to this point, all wasted, all for nothing.

So yes, I do ask for and expect a decision on the day that we meet, right there at the end of the meeting. I will not pressure you to say yes, because if I had to do that, you probably wouldn’t be a great client anyway. I’d be forever pressuring you to do things. But I pressure for the yes-or-no decision so that our time is not wasted, so that you will get the results you were looking for when you agreed to meet with me in the first place, and to put the pressure on myself to make sure you are getting great value on the day.

Find out more about what ActionCOACH can do for your business. Or if you simply have a question about something you’ve read here, don’t hesitate to get in touch. Email me at andrewgoldberg@actioncoach.com.