Transition To Sales

E52 - The Hardest Customer Conversations Aren’t Really About Sales

Heather Javier

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0:00 | 33:27

What do you do when a customer conversation doesn’t go the way you expected it to?

In this episode, Heather Javier shares what years of working through complex customer conversations have taught her about handling these moments without becoming defensive, over-explaining, or feeling like you need to have the perfect answer. 

Heather also shares real experiences from her career, including a difficult customer conversation where she found herself caught between the customer's expectations and her internal stakeholders, and what that experience taught her about stakeholder alignment, curiosity, and trust. 

If you're in sales, leading a team, managing customers, or regularly navigating conversations where people don't see eye to eye, this episode will give you a practical way to approach those moments differently.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • Why the hardest customer conversations often aren’t really about sales
  • Why you don’t need to have all the answers to build credibility
  • How to recognize what may be underneath a customer’s frustration
  • Why asking better questions can create more progress than defending your position
  • How to identify the roadblocks keeping an opportunity stuck
  • Why trust is often built inside difficult conversations
  • How to find the “win underneath the win”
  • Why empathy doesn’t mean agreement
  • How to prepare for important customer and leadership conversations
  • Why these are ultimately leadership skills, not just sales skills

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Looking for a simple place to start? Download the 5-Min Reset & Rise Starter Kit to reconnect with yourself and gain clarity.

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