The Take It or Leave It Approach

There's something to be said for having enough pride in your product or service to tell the customer to either sign the contract or get lost. If your proposition is really good and you know it, you may be able to create enough demand to be indifferent as to whether or not any one particular customer takes your offering. You make your presentation and then leave it to the customer to decide. If the customer has any objections, you will not hestitate to look over the customer's shoulder and holler, "Next!"

I call this "the take it or leave it approach." It's a very gutsy move, but it does signal to your prospect that you aren't messing around. You have something extremely valuable and you know it. You don't need to use persuasion tactics to be convincing. You don't need to beg. Your product sells itself. You are just the messenger. If your prospect doesn't take you up on your offering, well, they are just stupid. The next person in line may just be smart enough to know what's good for them.

Many prospects, at least on the surface level, will like this approach. It's a "no-pressure" strategy. It puts the ball in the customers' court. You are leaving it up to them to decide. They don't feel like they are being pushed into anything. And we all know that customers hate pushy salespeople. However, I think that there is one problem with the "take it or leave it approach." There is one signal that may turn customers off and influence them negatively at a much deeper level.

What is the problem with this approach? It signals to the customers that you do not care. You don't bother handling objections, because you don't truly care about helping the customer. If the person sitting in front of you will not buy your product without a moment's hesitation, you know the next person will. Taking this approach, you don't ask questions. You don't digger deeper into the customer's problems. You don't try to understand how your solution can fit with their unique issues. You don't care. You are not really selling. You are just taking orders.

If there's one thing a customer hates more than a persistent salesperson, it is an apathetic salesperson. To not be able to find help when they need it is much worse than to be peppered with questions from passionate salesperson. Customers, I believe, do want to feel like they are in charge. But they also want to feel like you are concerned about the decision they make. Otherwise, why are they wasting their time with you? Salespeople walk a fine line between pressure and indifference. The customer doesn't want to be pushed, but neither do they want to be ignored.

I say to throw the "take it or leave it approach" out the window. Dig deeper and try to understand your customer better than that. You may truly have something great to offer. But your customers are still too important to be written off. You are not an order-taker. You are a salesperson.