One Bad Apple Does NOT Spoil the Bunch

A bad apple spoils the bunch? Not so fast.

I often hear one of these familiar whines:

• “Colleen, it’s different around here…”
• “Colleen, what you need to know about our market is…”
• “Colleen, it’s unique here…”

And then they go on to list all the same things I hear about every market from a variety of sellers globally.

1. Our clients are price sensitive.
2. Our targets are too high.
3. Our clients shop around.
4. The competition is bottom feeding/slashing prices/buying market share.

You get the picture.

The truth is that they are all right, and they are all wrong.

They’re right because they do face these challenges. They’re wrong because they are not unique, nor are the problems ubiquitous.

Challenging competition and challenging prospects appear in every market. But only in pockets. Not all of your market behaves this way, and not every competitor is a bottom feeder.

Yet, far too many sellers see one instance of poor behaviour and jump to the conclusion that everything is rotten. They generalize from a specific negative.

They encounter one customer that wants a discount and suddenly ALL customers in the market are price sensitive.

You cannot succeed with this attitude. My best advice is to change your perspective to recognize that your specific negative is exactly that: a specific negative. And, at the same time, start generalizing from a specific POSITIVE.

Choose something good that happened in your market today and state that this positive interaction is the way all your customers behave. Select a win, and share that your market is on the upswing. You get the picture.

Who you sell to is your choice. When you assume they’re good, you will win.

When you assume they are all bad, you lose.

Choose to win.