Missy Elliott is right.

Missy Elliott is right: in her song ‘Work It’ she says: “…flip it and reverse it”.

One of the best sales tactics I have learned in my career is the art of the opposite.

Sandler sales training in particular is what helped me “get” this tactic, which I believe is called “reversing”. (Thank you, Rich Isaac!)

Like most things in communication: the idea is simple, the execution is difficult.

It goes like this: When in the flow of a conversation with your prospect, and you want to know what they like about you/ your product, don’t ask them “what do you like best?” Instead, when you want to know positives, go negative. Try saying this: “… it sounds like it’s a real long shot for us to actually work together here…/or\…it seems like a long shot for this to actually happen.”

What you’ll get is either:

1) confirmation, and boom! Now you know you have a long shot

2) they correct you and tell you exactly why you would win, and what other challenges you might face in the days ahead

Lastly, note that this approach doesn’t just work on sales calls — it works in all forms of communications. Take for example a work meeting: Eg — you need something from Product to close a deal and Product is already backlogged. Instead of asking them for it, explain the situation and say something like:: “it seems like this would actually be a horrible deal for us right now” and see what they say. (You want the positive, so you go negative.) There’s a good chance they will tell you “no” and find a path to making something work.