How do you solicit negative feedback?
Getting real value from negative information
Whenever customers decline your offer and interrupt the sales conversation, sellers rightfully experience conditions of disappointment and distress. Indeed, overcoming the pain of failure is one of the most difficult challenges for sellers. It is tempting to just leave the room without collecting feedback on the reasons why the deal did not close.
However, collecting negative information on the reasons why the deal did not close is of extremely high relevance. It can help you reinforce the sales conversation so that you increase the likelihood of closing the next sale. Whether you like it or not, you need to explicitly ask for the reason why the customers rejected your product or service.
However, here comes a dreaded problem. The customers will never tell you the real reason. They will tell you something convenient for them. They will tell you, most likely, that the product was great but the pricing was too high, that there is no budget, that it wasn’t their decision but that of a superior, or that the company has shifted its focus to other issues and the product is no longer high on the priority list.
Why don’t they just tell you the truth? It’s simple. Because they are afraid that you are not really asking for negative feedback with the goal of improvement. They are worried you are asking for negative feedback to find a way to challenge it and continue the sales conversation. Asking for feedback is utilized as a tactic to pursue the sales conversation and hopefully get a chance to reopen the discussion. In this regard, asking for negative feedback is often perceived as a high-pressure tactic, which rarely yields a high return.
How to overcome this problem and get real information that could bring value to the company? You have to explicitly state upfront that you respect their decision, and you have no intention to reopen the conversation unless they ask for it. You are only asking because it will give you precious information to improve your sales conversation with future customers. Just a couple of well-crafted sentences will send a signal to your buyer that you have no high-pressure, manipulative intention and will increase the likelihood that they give you valuable information you can actually use for future customers.
