What You Hear and What Isn’t Being Said

Sometimes what your prospective client says isn’t the whole truth.

When a prospective client says they are being “nickeled and dimed” by your competitor, it often means that your competitor is charging them appropriately for what they want. You know that sometimes giving your client what they want also requires that they make a greater investment.

Where you hear dissatisfaction, what is really being said may be different.

Your prospective client complains that your competitor hasn’t solved their problems, despite their complaints, and despite having been given a number of chances to do so. What you don’t hear is that your prospective client isn’t willing to make the changes on their side that are necessary to remedying their problems.

Where you hear a compelling reason to change, what isn’t being said is as important as what is.

The words you hear fall easily out of your prospective client’s mouth suggest that what they want is exactly what you deliver. They appear to be right in your sweet spot. You agree to execute and deliver the outcomes they need. What isn’t said is that their are certain things you need that are going to be difficult and expensive to deliver.

After you agree to serve them, they move the goal post and tell you that you need to do things differently.

Be careful believing that your prospect’s complaints about your competitor are the whole truth. Don’t assume your competitors are inept, that they don’t care, or that they don’t want to retain their clients.

The faster a prospect is to bury your competitor, the more likely you are hearing only one side of a story that has another side that isn’t being shared. The more mature a prospect is, the less likely they will be to criticize your competitor.