Do you have the courage to uncover what your clients or prospects perceive to be your biggest weakness?
If you do, opening by admitting these weaknesses in your next meeting can be a very powerful strategy.
While everyone else claims to be number one, or the best buy, opening with what the client perceives to be your perceived weakness sets you apart from the pack, and is a great way to anticipate and diffuse an objection.
In his latest book, What Clients Love, best-selling author Harry Beckwith says “Revealing a weakness also charms and disarms a prospect, and helps establish the common ground upon which good relationships are built.”
Psychologists explain this phenomenon by suggesting that we assume people who openly reveal a weakness are inclined to tell the truth and therefore we trust them.
Admitting a weakness the client already perceives is even more powerful.
But here’s the real kicker….in every weakness there is a strength.
For example, if a prospect says, “I need to reach everyone and not everyone listens to your station” you know she has a concern about your reach.
Instead of claiming to be number one, why not start your next meeting with “Not everyone listens to our station”…the client will immediately be disarmed and begin agreeing with you.
While she is in this agreeing mood you have set up, you continue with , “That’s what makes our commercials so powerful. You see, everyone who listens to us, listens for one reason and one reason only….they like us. We’re not thrown at your door whether you want us or not like a coupon envelop or penny-saver. Our listeners have a choice and have chosen us. What a perfect environment to make sure your message gets through.”
You see, literally every one of your perceived weaknesses has a corresponding strength. So here are some action steps for you to take;
1. Have the courage to uncover what your client perceives to be your biggest weakness.
2. Build an arsenal of your weaknesses and identify their corresponding strengths
3. Begin your presentation by agreeing with the perceived weakness, then turn that weakness into a strength.
“You’ve got to go through the negative before you can get to the positive” – Willard L Burson