Asking For Ice Cream

It’s lamentably not too often I say something that I realise when I say it was actually fantastic and I must say again, but that happened Friday morning.  In with a prospect who loved what we do, he mentioned his boss (the MD) didn’t have a roaring track record of letting people buy stuff.

Earlier in the meeting we’d talked about his kids, triggered by his laptop desktop wallpaper featuring a photo taken of them at Colchester Zoo.

So I started with my usual response that owners/CEOs of businesses never say ‘yes’ to anything first time.  In fact, their response is deliberately a ‘no’ as they expect if it’s really important, they’ll be re-pitched and their action let’s the nonsense drift into the ether.

Then an analogy popped into my head.  “it’s a bit like when you went to the zoo that day, and early on your boy asked for an ice-cream – you probably said no first-time – then after being asked 3 or 4 times later, you gave in and bought one, and then he was quiet”

My prospect chuckled at this and we agreed to discuss ways of handling the MD should he indeed knock us back first time round.