In our most recent blogs, we have been reviewing Negative Reverse Sell and how it is very effective in building a great bond and rapport with sales prospects. The negative reverse sell is a way of saying and doing the opposite of what the prospect expects from a salesperson, disarming him and building trust with him. One of his most convincing techniques is called strip-lining, a method of using reverse questions to get the prospect to talk, and you keep going. “throw more line and let them swim”. However, you must do this step correctly or it could backfire on you. When done correctly, prospects feel in control of the conversation and you have a better chance of making a sale. Practice this step frequently in low-risk situations before using it on your biggest and best prospects.

What should you practice? Getting the correct fit means doing the following:

• Neutral prospects get very hard lines, such as, “It sounds like you’re very happy and I should go. Before I go, what do you like about who you’re doing business with now?”

• Negative prospects get hard parting lines, but not as hard as neutral prospects. For example, “Based on what you just said about your current provider, it makes sense to me why you’re not interested in switching your business to another company. We also get great feedback from our customers, but your provider sounds great at what they do. I don’t know if you can do better than that.There don’t seem to be many opportunities for us to work together here, right?

• Positive prospects get fine lines that are just a slight pull: “Thank you for reaching out to us. I have to say, your friend Bronwyn gets most of the credit for having a great experience with us. She was great at explaining the application issue, and that really helped her have a happy outcome with us.” … As I don’t know your application, I’m not sure I can help you on this point. Could you be kind enough to tell me about it?”

In all three examples, you will find three components. Look at each of them and you will see how the stripe line responses are structured.

1. The first component is a build-up (a compliment or validation of the prospect’s point of view). In the above, an example of that was, “It seems that you are very happy.”

2. The second component is a takeaway (a conclusion that goes in the opposite direction of what the prospect expects). In the above, an example was, “…and I must go.”

3. The third component is a question (a continuation of the discussion). In the above, an example was: “Before I go, what do you like about who you are doing business with now?”

Looking at the positive lead example above, notice that the rollup portion of the response validates how well things went “with Bronwyn” and gives most of the credit to her: “Thank you for reaching out to us. I have to say, your friend Bronwyn gets most of the credit for having a great experience with us. She was great at explaining the application issue, and that really helped her have a happy outcome with us.” . .”

The take away portion includes words to the effect that you are not yet convinced that you can help the prospect. “Since I don’t know about your request, I’m not sure I can help you as well at this time.”

The third part, the question, is pretty obvious; asks a question to begin to understand the application, the problem, and ultimately the pain of the prospect: “Could you be kind enough to tell me?”

When you outline a prospect using all three components of the technique, you are more likely to uncover the most significant information. Now you know what a good fit looks like. What does a bad fit look like? Suppose a potential client calls his office and says: “I have heard great things about your company. A friend of mine, Bronwyn, told me about you and I am very interested in doing business with you.” Obviously, that’s a positive outlook. It would not be appropriate for you to make a hard takeoff line since the prospect is almost ready to buy. Telling the prospect, “You must have used other vendors in our space. Why wouldn’t you want to use them now?” It will not only confuse the prospect, but it will probably ruin the sale. So that’s a bad fit. Instead, you’ll want to use the approach I shared with you earlier, the one that starts with “Thanks for reaching out.”

Sometimes the prospect says something that more or less sets you up. In that case, you don’t need to, but he still has to do the takeout and ask the question. For example, if the prospect says, “I heard very good things about your company”, you could undress saying, “That’s good to hear, but we’re not for everyone. Would you like to tell me why you thought it might have been a good idea to call, and hopefully we’ll find out that we’re a good fit?”

Bottom line: Take a very hard line with neutral prospects, even by sounding like you’re preparing to leave the sales call or implying that you think the sales call is over; strip-line hard with negative outlook; strip-line slightly with positive outlook.

Strip lining is a great way to uncover pain because it is extremely disarming and helps build confidence. When you do it right, it doesn’t look like you’re selling. Prospects feel that you truly accept and care about their goals and their pain. (As, of course, do you!) If you don’t uncover pain with striplining, then maybe that particular prospect isn’t in enough pain to do business with you. Stripping combined with Sandler’s other approaches to finding pain will put you in a different league from all those other salespeople who traditionally start with the hard sell, list features and benefits, and offer free quotes to prospects.