Nothing is more entertaining than watching a movie or TV show where 2 skilled attorneys battle in front of a jury. One of the most powerful scenes comes from the 1992 movie “A Few Good Men *” when Navy Lieutenant J.G. Daniel Kaffe, played by Tom Cruise, takes on witness Marine Colonel Nathan R. Jessep, played by Jack Nicholson. A lot of people can close their eyes and hear Kaffe badger the Colonel into providing unwanted testimony.
Not unlike arguments that take place in other venues, participants verbally wrestle each other attempting to reveal flaws, omitted facts, and ultimately inconsistent testimony. Questioning strategies are used specifically to achieve those ends.
What truly confuses me are sales people who must secretly want to be attorneys, because they conduct sales calls like the customer is the opposing attorney. They seem intent on proving the customer wrong, revealing flaws in their plans, ignoring their objections, and ultimately winning the argument. You can see great satisfaction in their faces when they “score one” on the customer.
Are you in denial? Come on now, you have seen this behavior haven’t you? Often it is subtle – the customer refers to a meeting that took place last Tuesday and the Sales Rep corrects them pointing out the meeting was on Wednesday.
At times it can be more obvious – the customer says they use the FIFO inventory method and the Sales Rep says – no, you use the LIFO method.
Sometimes it can be openly argumentative – the customer begins to soften on a past commitment and without pursuing the reasons, the Sales Rep attempts to badger the customer into sticking with the original plan.
This confrontational court room like approach is never successful long term in a sales environment. Customers want their sales reps to be advocates for them. They understand you are a sales person, representing your employer. They trust that as a professional you can balance the needs of both. They desparately want you to be successful, just not doing it with high pressure interrogation like tactics.
Leave the court room to the attorneys.
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