Again Habib asked, "If you were to have one of these beautiful carpets to enjoy in your home and pass on to your children, which style would you like?" His assistants moved carpets around until we had agreed on basic style we liked. The process of elimination continued with up to three cousins flying rugs in and out of display area until only four were left. Habib said, "Do you have a favorite among these?" We made our final choice and cousins removed all except our favorite rug. Habib complimented our choice and assured us that we had picked Rolls Royce of carpets. Knowing what a Rolls costs, I knew we were in trouble!

Now came price. Habib opened his calculator and started entering numbers. In a few seconds he turned to us and said, "In US dollars, this carpet is $5,300." Now I was prepared for a shock, but that was way out of line with our expectations, so let games begin.

After many cycles of offer and counter offer, we finally set our firm price at $2,000. Habib said, $2,500? I apologized and assured him that my offer had nothing to do with quality of his carpets but simply our budget and $2,000 was already $500 over our budget. We settled on $2,000 and walked out with our new rug.

But what had I learned? First, that Habib, Azad and his family were willing to spend a great deal of time with us before we ever talked price. The tour of Mosque, dozens of rugs, and wonderful tea all added value to sale.

We had also seen a great example of Team Selling. Azad did prospecting, cousins made presentations and Habib was closer. They worked together like they had rehearsed it a hundred times. In fact they had, and as a result their communications were flawless. Azad brings in 10 prospects each day and Habib has a 70% closing ratio.

We can learn a lot from real pros in this world.

For a free copy of "5 Steps to Building a Great Sales Team", please email article6@waterhousegroup.com and ask for article #6.

Stephen Waterhouse is Principal and Founder of Waterhouse Group. They specialize in helping companies increase their sales and profits. He can be reached at 1-800-57-LEARN or steve@waterhousegroup.com.

Re-Print Permission This article may be reprinted in it's entirety if following conditions are met:

The complete tag with author's name and contact information is included immediately after article. A copy of printed article is mailed to author at 1467 Walnut Creek Drive, Orange Park, FL 32003 within 30 days of publication. The article is presented in a positive light as part of an appropriate business related publication.

Third, panic early, is my favorite step. Don’t wait until you are standing there in a flop-sweat to decide what to do. When everyone is in room and demo system is clearly not having a good day, move to your screen shots in PowerPoint or call whole thing off and reschedule. Better that than having your team looking like Three Stooges in front of client.

Fourth: If all else does fail, fail with grace. Keep your sense of humor, respect others time and move on. If you anticipated this situation, it’s easier to be cool, or at least fake it.

Finally, remember that world works on Law of Positive Negatives. In other words, world likes those who recover well. I’ve seen presenters who forgot their lines, get a standing ovation for way they handled it. I’ve seen customers award contracts to sales people after they recovered well from a disastrous demonstration. Why? Because we are all human and we connect with people who are real; like us!

The big thing to avoid is getting trapped in Blame Game. That’s where we blame everyone else for situation and take no ownership. Whenever you do, you’ll find yourself locked in a fight and rapidly moving further from a solution. That’s why I wrote my most popular book, Ending Blame Game. I had had it up to my ears with sales people whining about factory did this or my manager did that. Who cares? Not me. Not client. Certainly not your boss. The sooner we accept blame, sooner we see ourselves as solution. In end, it doesn’t matter whose fault it is. All that matters is who is going to fix it.

About my boss… He was sitting there in my chair at 7 am to tell me two words: We won! The buyer had faxed order in night before, after I was already on plane home. I was lucky, but I had learned a lesson that I will always remember.

BTW, Bill never charged me for car window. I guess he figured that his $10,000 commission on deal covered it.

For a free copy of "How to Leave a Voice Mail That Gets Results", please email article20@waterhousegroup.com and ask for article #20

Stephen Waterhouse is Principal and Founder of Waterhouse Group. They specialize in helping companies increase their sales and profits. He can be reached at 1-800-57-LEARN or steve@waterhousegroup.com.

Re-Print Permission This article may be reprinted in it's entirety if following conditions are met:

The complete tag with author's name and contact information is included immediately after article. A copy of printed article is mailed to author at 1467 Walnut Creek Drive, Orange Park, FL 32003 within 30 days of publication. The article is presented in a positive light as part of an appropriate business related publication.