No Worries, Mate

I was originally going to be in Australia these first few weeks of May, but not enough students signed up on the Study Abroad trip so I bowed out so that the other students would not incur the added cost of an extra faculty member. The 16 students and the 2 faculty are in Sydney right now, hopefully having a grand time. Well actually I hope they are sleeping as it is before 6am in Sydney!

But, to the point of this post......

The national saying in AUS is "No Worries" and it is not just a catchy saying it really typifies their lifestyle and approach to living. It makes visiting there wonderful. However, as a salesperson and a sales trainer I have a love / hate relationship with such a philosophy.

The love part is the reminder that not everything needs to be an emergency and most things will work out fine in the end. And even if there is a problem, if we go about solving it with calmness and competence we can quickly restore ourselves to a "no worries" state. So from a mental health standpoint, I love it.

It is when the customer is involved that I think this philosophy has its problems. We American are known in Australia as serious worriers, and it is said we are too anal and stressed about things. However, the reality I have experienced is that this intensiveness is often only on the surface and that in practice the "no worries" approach is the problem response mode very typical among salespeople. In their day to day interactions, too many salespeople basically tell the customer "don't worry about it!" and think this reassurance is enough to get them by. The fact is the customer is ALREADY worrying about it and simply telling them not to worry will often worsen the situation instead of calm them.

Instead of telling them not to worry your approach should be showing them that they need not worry. How? By crafting an action plan that addresses their worry and executing the tasks necessary to removing their worry. The ultimate "no worries" state is when you truly don't have worries, not when you simply are told to ignore them. And achieving a true "no worries" state involves removing the source of the worries. It wouldn't make for a tourism slogan, but it does make for a very strong customer oriented approach.

This plays out in selling mainly with objections and post sale problems. lets look at both.

OBJECTIONS: these are simply issues that are causing your buyer to say "not yet" to you. They are opportunities to turn a "not yet" into a "let's do it." So in essence, an objection is a worry the buyer has. What if the product is unreliable? What if I over spend for it? Will it really solve my problem? Will the change involved in switching to this new product really be worth it? In each of these cases you can C-R-C your way to removing the worry.

C-Clarify: dig with questions until you really understand the source of the worry. For example, when faced with the objection, "I think this will be a painful change," many salespeople will immediately jump into their "don't worry" speech without understanding why the worry exists in the first place. They will tell the buyer how this has worked so well in the past and how they have many happy customers. Instead, they should be isolating the root cause of this objection. For instance they could ask, "you are worried about the change, what specific problems do you foresee?" In this case, not only is the "don't worry" approach a poor response, it is premature. It is really saying "even though I don't really understand your worry, don't worry about it!" When said that way it doesn't sound so good, does it?

R-Respond: This is when the no worries approach will really fail you, yet is very common. You should recognize how weak a response is when it can basically be broken down to: Customer: "I am worried about the change" You: "Don't worry about it!" Now most of the time there are many more words spoken, but they only add up to that. The strong response directly addresses the issue and backs up what you have to say with support or action. There is a huge difference between "It works all the time, I have many happy customers who are glad they made the shift" and "well, let me walk you through how we minimize the pain and let me get you in contact with a couple past customers that had similar worries..... then go about and do it. This takes longer, but it goes directly after removing the worry, instead of glazing it over. In the long run, removing the hesitancy will shorten the time to decision, and that is a better outcome in the end.

C-Confirm: You can think of this as asking "are you still worried?" Many salespeople use the worst response you could possibly design here: "any other concerns or questions?" This is what I call a moving-on question. It says to the buyer, I am done with this issue so I am asking you about other possible concerns. Instead you need to ask a straightforward "confirming" (or closing) question such as "does that remove your concern about the change?" Salespeople wimp out on this question because they don't want to hear the answer if it is negative, but the reality is silence here can hurt you. Save your silence for AFTER you ask the direct confirming question and then deal with the answer from the buyer.

Put the C-R-C approach fully into action and you won't need to do a "no worries" song and dance, you will actually be removing the worry and the buyer will achieve a "no worries" state all on their own.

The next time this often rears its ugly head is.....

POST-SALE ISSUES: Your buyer calls you and yells at you because of problems. You cannot take a "no worries" approach. The customer is well beyond not worrying. In fact she is knee deep in worry. She needs a solution, not an empty reassurance not to worry. Now I think the reassurance is great as long as it is tightly tied to a written, action oriented recovery plan. And that is what you have to do, work with the buyer and openly craft a solution plan that will remove the problem. Then your reassurance will have some teeth to it and will be a positive thing.

I just made this mistake with my wife. She was worried about the credit card bill that has our airline flights to Germany on it (over $5000 of flights!). I kept saying "don't worry, I will get paid by the German University!" She wasn't calmed. But today I showed her the expected income flows and specifically how that balance will disappear and she was much calmer about it. I always had the plan in my head, but it needed to be more openly and directly shared to remove her worries. I didn't want her to worry about it, so I took a "I have it under control" approach, yet that approach only deepened her worries. As I was reminded today, an action plan speaks much louder then the "no worries" speech I had been giving her.

I think salespeople do this to their customers more often then we want to admit. We don't want to worry the customer with the details, just "Wow" them with the outcome. But before we get to the outcome, their worry has driven them further away. The lesson is to involve your buyer in the solution, or at least inform them of the steps that will take place. Remove the worry in full view of the buyer and her worry will dissipate faster and more completely. And that will lead you and her back to a true "no worries" state.