The Switch Point Conundrum
- Dan Greenberg
- Jun 3
- 4 min read
There are essentially two types of interactions in the course of a sales process.
The Formal Presentation: The seller is expected to deliver information, and the buyer is expected to receive it.
The Informal Conversation: The seller and the buyer are expected to interact and exchange information in both directions.
Switch points are dangerous because they allow the buyer to reset the frame and assume the comfortable and familiar position of all-knowing-judge who is there to evaluate you against other vendors. In my article two weeks ago, called “Switch Points” I talked about the perils of switching between these two interaction types in a single setting and a bit about how to think about those switches. In this article we will inspect the transition itself and explore more tactical strategies for dealing with a reality that most sellers find themselves in during most client interactions, whether they realize it or not.
The problem, as I see it, is that sales people rarely think about the difference between these types of interactions, and even more rarely think about which one they should execute relative to the goals they are trying to accomplish. If you need to do heavy discovery, learn about the clients business, or get to know the client, or their business, or their company, or their process, it makes sense to plan for a more informal, conversational interaction. However, if your goals are more transactional, or the need is to position your solutions, or commercially teach the client, or demo your product, or to instigate a negotiation, it will make sense to plan for a more formal presentation, or similar type of interaction.
The ultimate aim when thinking through your goals and interaction types is to avoid switch points, and to select a type of interaction that suits your goals. However, the choice is not always yours, and it is not always easy to establish enough control to dictate the setting and meeting type, so in addition to thinking about the type of meeting you want to have, it is also important to define and execute strategies for confronting switch points when they inevitably occur.
The issue you will have with a conversation-only interaction is that buyers often push for a presentation, especially early in the relationship. The formal presentation-style meeting helps them impose the frame that they feel comfortable with; you as the vendor, and they as the judge. In order to pull off a conversation-only interaction, you will need to telegraph the plan well in advance and get buy-in from the client before the meeting is scheduled, otherwise they will expect you to present, and their expectation will likely cause your ‘conversation-only’ plan to feel forced and awkward if you stay true to it. Otherwise, you will have the option to abort it, and present, but that will be less likely to accomplish your goals for the interaction. In short, it is easier to schedule presentations, but in order for presentations to be successful, we need to have conversations, and clients don’t want to talk to us, and have conversations, especially early in the relationship.
If you noticed above, many of the goals mentioned that call for a conversational-type meeting are goals that generally need to be accomplished early in a sales cycle, as opposed to many of the goals that call for a presentation, which are generally goals that need to be accomplished later in the sales cycle. However, in order for a seller to gather the information they need and to build rapport, relationships and credibility with the buyer that would make for very successful presentations, social and conversational interactions are vital. This is the conundrum that all good sellers find themselves in early in a sales cycle. We need conversations, but we have not yet earned the right to have them, and buyers want presentations because they feel more comfortable in those settings.
There are essentially three ways to combat this conundrum:
Be really charming: Use social settings, and relationship dynamics to convince the client that they really want to spend time with you. Work commercially viable conversations into the social conversations so that you can establish credibility and gather the information you need for successful presentations later on in the sales cycle. This is rarely possible because even the most charming of us just don’t click with everyone right off the bat.
Commercial insight teaching: Instead of presenting your solutions, present your insights. Lean into the client request for a presentation, and allow yourself to go out of order in terms of what is most needed for you, but use those presentations about insights to help instigate conversations, and more importantly, to help you earn the right to set up and execute conversation-only interactions where you can gather information and build credibility for future presentations. This is easier to pull off, and the presentations themselves are credibility earners if done correctly.
Invert the order: Almost all meetings that have both conversational components and presentation components start with the conversation and discovery, and then move to the presentation. Why follow that pattern? Just switch the order. Lean into what the client wants and just give them a 5–10 minute presentation. Put that on the agenda and tell them what’s going to happen. But then, make The Switch Point your friend by switching away from the vendor / judge frame and into a conversational one where you can talk about insights and engage them on their problems and ideal outcomes. Tell them ahead of time that the presentation will only be 5 or 10 minutes and then stick to whatever you say. Once you switch to conversation as scheduled, you will have more license to focus on insights and questions as you have already satisfied their process oriented asks, and the agenda, as it was laid out.
None of these strategies is fool proof, but if executed well, all three can give you, the seller, the opportunity spend time on insights, problems, and desired outcomes for the buyer early in the sales cycle, which will help you accomplish the goals that you need to accomplish in order to be able to set the table for the more advanced stages of the sales process where the focus will be on more transactional interactions, solutions positioning, your commercially viable teaching, more in depth and targeted demos, working sessions, and detailed negotiations.
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