NLCS

Become unforgettable in any customer meeting with ChatGPT's prompts and communication frameworks.

This Week's Digest At-A-Glance

Read time 4 minutes

✏️ Brain Booster: The power of planting doubt, an effective negotiation strategy that most people ignore (Example Dialogue Included)

🤓 Post-Sale Breakdown: Instead of a customer, practice your negotiating skills with ChatGPT (Prompt included)

🛠 Tool: LearnLingo (Like having your digital pen-pal to learn a new language for free)

💡 To Ponder: How can you apply what you learned today in a real-life situation?

✏️ Brain Booster

I used to be a terrible negotiator.

If a client threatened to cancel, I'd break out in a cold sweat. But now that I've realized it's normal, I've established a technique to deal with the situation. By structuring my pitch in a way that makes them reconsider, I'm able to turn a potentially difficult interaction into a positive one. This new technique has been really beneficial to me, and I am now more at ease while talking with clients.

Example:

Client: “We’re canceling”

Me (in a low, calm voice): “Thanks for being transparent with us. I know its not an easy thing to do. How’d you arrive at this decision?”

Client: “Your reporting is limited. Your competition provided a lower price.”

Me: “Sounds like you weren’t too pleased with our value.” (Identify and validate their feelings)

Client: “No, its not that, its just budget. It’s nothing personal. We are just deciding something else better suits our needs.”

Me (in a slight inflection): “Suits your needs better? What do you mean?” (I’m now in discovery mode. I want to understand, and gain the right information)

Client: “Well, we want to do X, Y, and Z. This doesn’t have that, and you’re more expensive.”

Me: “Got it. If I understand you well, the team is 100% committed to signing over. And you're ready to tear down what we have, gut this process, and install something new?” (Look at my word choices such as “rip and replace, gut, 110%)

Client: “I suppose. We haven't signed anything. But yeah...”

Me: “And what’s stopped you from signing on the dotted lines and using them today?”

Client: “Well, there’s a process. We are still evaluating. Things need to get aligned”

Me: “Gotcha. And, perhaps this is a silly question, but how did the team react when competitor X said the process to get up and running would take a long time? How did you all react to that?”

Client: “Well, I mean, we know this will be difficult. It’s a big change…”

Me: “And have you asked them to add anything to their contract that ensures you'll get the same value from them as you get from us? Since this is a big change, I want to help and ensure you can keep competitor X honest.” (Notice how I say "us" and build an us-versus-them position)

Client: “No, that’s a good idea. We haven’t…”

Me: ““Have they sent any reference customers? Customers that are crushing it for them?" ”

Client: “No…”

Me: “Can I share something uncomfortable? I'm worried we're making the wrong choice. Here's why. You're analyzing and committing time and resources in hopes that this new plan will work perfectly, with little to no promises from them in their contracts. It wastes time and money if it doesn't work. It's losing 3–4 steps back that terrifies me. We know your business. These are simple fixes. “Onboarding" is unnecessary for us. We can start immediately, and most importantly, we'll set you on pace to reach your goals sooner. But up to you though, if you’d rather be a lap behind in a race or keep our momentum. What’s going to put you in a better spot”

Client: “I don’t know… it’s just we’re skeptical…”

Me: “I’m ruthlessly transparent. Sometimes to a fault. You won’t shock me by your answer. What’s it going to take from us to keep your business?”

Client: “Can you lower the price? Give us anything to stay?”

They're now contemplating their decision. They'll make suggestions. You're now bargaining from a position of strength. Most people attempt to arrive too quickly and make mistakes.

This is the power of doubt.

🤓 Post-Sale Breakdown

Instead of using these strategies on a real consumer and losing the sale, try practicing it first with ChatGPT.

I love doing this before a negotiation call.

Doing so has helped me:

• Build confidence and reduce my anxiety

• Experiment with different approaches and techniques

• Anticipate and prepare for potential challenges and objections

Use this as a prompt (Zoom in if needed):

Output (Zoom in if needed):

A few things to note:

1) Copy the question to get ChatGPT to engage in a dialogue as you see below. You can read “Never Split The Difference” and use ChatGPT to apply the things you’re learning

2) Pretend the responses are from a live call with a customer and ask your follow-up questions.

3) Read the questions aloud to improve your tone and delivery.

🛠 Tool + Resource

LearnLingo is a conversational tool that helps people practice and improve their language skills through personalized, realistic conversations that mimic real-world situations. It’s like a digital foreign pen-pal. It’s pretty cool. Might be helpful if you’re planning on taking a vacation sometime soon. 🙂 

💡 To Ponder (“Knowledge is nothing without action”)

How can you apply what you learned today in a real-life situation? Feel free to reply back with your thoughts.

And whenever you're ready, there are 2 ways I can help you:

1. Keep an eye out for our soon-to-be-released database of hundreds of ChatGPT prompts and templates you can use to work smarter with ChatGPT and future-proof your skills. It's affordable and expensable with your learning and development budget. Prepare to succeed as a CSM without the stress or worry by crushing your workday with ease! Basically, if you are tired of being seen as your customer's personal assistant and eager to lead while working less, this database is for you. [Coming Soon - Stay Tuned]

2. Advertisers: Promote yourself to my devoted readers. [Coming Soon - Stay Tuned]

Want to win 45 minutes of free consulting? Share this message on LinkedIn, tag me, and we'll schedule a 45-minute call to discuss whatever issue I can help you with the most. (Career, Work, CSM Strategy, Life, Get to Know Me etc)

And if you have an idea for a future issue, send 'em my way.

Until next time, happy advising

NLCS