Switch Points
- Dan Greenberg
- 6 days ago
- 7 min read
I have written about switch points in the past, usually in the context of control, and how to keep it and leverage it. I want to take some time here to specifically focus on switch points and why they are so dangerous for the seller when it comes to the seller’s ability to remain in control of interactions.
First, let’s define “switch points” since it is a term I made up, and I want to make sure to be clear about what I am talking about. Switch points are those times in a sales or business interaction where the tone, or demeanor, or feeling of the meeting changes, usually from less formal to more formal, and the expectation for the next phase of the meeting becomes much more about structure and presentation. Every salesperson reading this knows what I am talking about. You just exchanged pleasentries and had a five minute casual conversation with a few people on the client side that covered their business, more generally, and some of their concerns with the status quo. Now, everyone has finally arrived and taken their seats and the alpha on the client side looks at you and says, “So, you have some slides to present, right?”
Some version of this is very common, but the situation is also a sneaky and insidious trap that can lead to a number of bad outcomes. There are other versions of switch points; simply switching from discovery to presentation, or even from pleasantries on a cold call to the substance of the call. Regardless of the exact nature of it, at the switch point, the client switches from active conversational partner to receiver of information. Consciously or not, they want to position themselves as the receiver so that they can be in control. They become the all knowing judge, who has control of the money, and control of the decision. Where does that leave you, the seller? You are the presenter, the one who needs the money, the one who is being judged. And, what happens when the dynamics of the interaction change in this way?
I’ll tell you what happens; you LOSE all the power.
Before the switch, the power was equal. You needed money and the client had a problem and needed your solution. You were talking like equals. After the switch, you are presenting to them, and you need them to make a favorable decision in order to get the money that they have. You are no longer talking about a thing they need (your solution) and a thing you need (money), you are now talking about a thing they are judging the viability of (your presentation), and a thing you need (money). That is a very different situation.
Many switch points happen early in interactions so the first 10 minutes of any meeting are very challenging. Not only are most of the challenges to your power and control usually attempted early on, but you also usually come across the switch points in these early stages.
Whenever possible it is best to stay in active and equal discussions with your prospect and avoid any potential switch points. If you never have to present, and the entire meeting is completely conversational, and evolves naturally from social conversation to a discussion of problems and ideal outcomes, then you win. You never had to switch, and you were able to do a lot of discovery, a lot of relationship building and align yourself with the client in mutual pursuit of the answer. But this is just not feasible much of the time.
In most cases, you have asked for the buyer’s time, and the buyer has an expectation of some kind of presentation of your solutions so it becomes socially and behaviorally untenable to deny that reality. In these cases, you have to switch. You have to switch from social to business, or you have to switch from conversation to presentation, or you simply have to switch from standing and discussing pleasantries, to sitting and discussing their situation and problems. If the situation you are in calls for a switch, it is not a good idea to fight it. If the meeting progresses with your desired agenda, and noticeable resistance to your deviation from what is situationally acceptable, you will lose control quickly. The buyer wants you to present so that they can assume their comfortable role as the all knowing judge who gets to evaluate you against your competitors, so resistance can lead to awkwardness, and even potentially relationship resistance and animosity. It is good to know when you will have to switch so that you can own it, and do it in a way that preserves as much control as possible.
The first thing that is important is to lead the transition from small talk, or social activity to the business conversation. You don’t want the client to suggest it, because then you will be following their lead, and that is a signal to the whole room that you are not in control. Look for language and body language clues from the client that they are ready to get started and preemptively state something like, “I’m sure we all have packed schedules today, I certainly do, so I want to respect your time and talk through the agenda so we can get down to business and discuss what we need to”. Notice that you have done a few important things with this statement. You have led the conversation and kept control. You have also framed yourself as a prize by stating that you have other things going on that day and don’t have all day for this client. However, at the same time, you have shown respect for their busy schedules and time, and put the client and yourself on equal ground. You have framed the steps of the meeting, and insinuated that you can come to agreement on the agenda and then cover all of the important matters. This is assumptive, but you have not made any assumptions about how they will feel at the end of it all; those can come off as heavy handed, and cause the client to feel trapped.
After you have made this proactive statement, you then have the opportunity to set the objective and the agenda. It is a good idea to get them both on the table at once because if either are agreed to, you can converse about bringing the other in line with the point of agreement. Laying out the objective and the agenda, and including how long the meeting will take, shows that you have a plan for the meeting, and will inspire fewer challenges to your control.
After the objective and agenda it is important to tell the client what the next steps are, and what the decision at the end of the meeting will be. Say something like “OK, so once we cover all of those topics, it should be pretty clear to all of us if it makes sense to get the solutions engineers on our side together with the implementation engineers on your side to evaluate the technical part of the process”.
Lastly, get buy in. Make sure everyone is on the same page about the objective, the agenda, and the next steps decision. This is one of those scenarios where you are giving up control to get more control. Did you happen to watch James Holzhauer play Jeopardy? He always worked hard to find a daily double square about 15–20 clues into the game at which point he would always bet all of the money he accumulated on the 15 to 20 clues before it. If something went wrong (rare as that reality was), he still had 40–45 clues remaining in the game to make up for losing all his money. If he got daily doubles later in games, he often bet a much smaller percentage of his money (unless he was already so far ahead that it didn’t matter), because he had much less time to recover if something were to go wrong later in the game.
The “Holzhauer strategy” is the key here. If there is going to be a problem, get to it early in the meeting. This is the time to ask the completely open ended questions and let the client tell you if the objective, the agenda, and the next steps don’t make sense. You don’t want this challenge coming up at the end of the meeting when you are trying to solidify next steps because if it does come up then, you likely won’t recover. If this does happen at the end of the meeting, the buyer will say something like, “Well, looks like we have more to work through and we can’t really come to a decision on that now, but we can discuss it more later”. Translation; “We are not on the same page, and there is no need for me to continue this process because that meeting was a waste of my time and I don’t see us getting to the right place anyway”.
The idea of getting everything out on the table early in the meeting is really important here because it allows you space. Once you have voluntarily ceded control to a person or persons of your choosing, the real decision maker or makers on the other side of the table, and you all come to an agreement on objective, agenda, and next steps, then it becomes significantly harder for you to lose control later in the meeting, since they have already agreed to your terms, and steps. Then it just becomes about you executing and keeping things on track, both in terms of topics, and timing.
This also allows you to pose the next steps conversation in a much more closed manner as the meeting is wrapping up. Since you have already established buy-in and agreement, it makes it much harder for the client to move the finish line at the end of the meeting without looking bad or paying a social cost. This means that when you are rehashing next steps at the end of the meeting, you can be very assumptive about the plan for the next meeting, and buy-in that you secured early on. Sure, you have to ask for it one more time, but it can be a closed question that really only calls for a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer, and you can simply lay out the terms as an exact repetition of what was agreed upon at the very beginning of the meeting.
Focusing on the first 10 minutes of a meeting and formulating a clear plan for how to deal with switch points can have major and positive effects on your ability to attain, retain, and maintain control in sales settings. And, so long as you have control, your job becomes infinitely easier and much more likely to be a success.
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