Weekly Tip: Playing Like You Have Nothing to Lose

Playing Like You Have Nothing to Lose

“So, I figure, I’ve got nothing to lose, so I just tell the guy….”

So many of the re-telling of winning sales calls start with a variation of the opening above as told by the sales person. We all have a story like this in our history, if not many. What happens in the shift from our initial approach to the “nothing to lose” approach?

• We play guarded until we realize we are losing, then we drop our pretense and get to the real information, unfiltered and without its political correctness.
• When we have nothing to lose, we become more natural and treat the other party as a peer, not as a superior.
• We shorten up the entire conversation to its raw essence – the few things that really make a difference to that prospect from our perspective and experience.

You can start your conversations like this rather than have to play come-from-behind. Here’s what to do:

Write out your, “If I were you…” statement in advance. When you start speaking from that angle, you have mentally moved yourself into a position of peer and adviser, making your commentary more valuable. You may not choose to say it in that way, but you will have the tone and terms set.

The nothing to lose approach works because it is raw, real and usually framed from what is in the buyer’s best interest. It’s easy to see why it works.