Have you ever met a salesperson who seems compelled to present an entire dog-and-pony show to everyone they meet? They’ve been schooled to:

• Establish rapport, which can take forever. (“Hasn’t this weather been something?’)
• Anticipate and disarm your objections.  (“You can’t afford not to own a deluxe Salad Shooter!”)
• Keep the conversation going for as long as possible before disclosing to you the one thing you really want to know – the price.

I actually like to converse, to get to know someone, and to find out about a solution to a problem. In other words, like most people, I like being sold to.

The deal-killer for me is when someone acts like their time is more valuable than your time. That feels like an insult.

And feeling insulted pushes my “I’m not buying” button.

If you’re in sales, how do you avoid this? I’m not entirely sure, but how about some common courtesy? How about abandoning the script and actually listening  to a person, reading their body language, changing course, and when necessary, giving up.

Sometimes you can save a lot of time and energy when you realize that your ideal client is not in front of you. That’s when you stop talking, cut your losses and move on.

Is  that so hard?