Break the 4th wall early on a sales call

How to build trust early in a selling situation

Every salesperson can build trust faster, show more empathy, and develop deeper customer relationships by breaking the 4^th wall on a sales call.

What is the 4^th wall, and how do I break it?

The 4^th wall term originates from the acting world. Whether on stage, TV, or the movie screen, there are three walls: stage right, stage left, and the back wall. The 4^th wall is the imaginary wall between the actors and the audience.

When an actor breaks the 4^th wall, it means they are breaking from their character role and speaking to the audience. It’s a risky technique, but it has clear benefits. It shakes up the normal routine of a show. It is typically comedic, but it has one important benefit of developing a connection. For example, Ryan Reynolds in Deadpool breaks the 4^th wall throughout the movie by talking to the camera (the audience).

That’s great, but what does this have to do with selling to farmers and livestock producers?

Imagine for just a moment that you are one of your average customers. Maybe you’re a row crop producer in the Midwest growing corn and beans. How many times a day or week does a salesperson come down the driveway and try to sell you on agronomy products, services, farm buildings, Ag lending, crop insurance, farm equipment, or Ag software? Add livestock to this average customer, and now you have doubled or tripled the number of salespeople calling on them.

Soon, your average customer is burned out and calloused to the drone of a sales call. They get really good at either getting rid of salespeople or allow a very brief sales pitch, followed by a Ron Burgundy reply: “Thanks for stopping by, I gotta go”

Most salespeople I train or coach find this a difficult part of prospecting. Their typical reaction is to not sell on a sales call. Strange but true. They tell me that they go out to the farm and just, “get to know them”. I get it and I’ve done it before as well.

The problem is that it comes across as disingenuous to the customer and is blaringly obvious. You drive out in a white pick up with your company logo on the door, wearing a company polo shirt/hat, and introduce yourself as that company’s salesperson for the area. And you think the customer is not clear on why you are there? You think he is unaware of who paid for you to be there and why they are paying you?

Of course, the customer knows exactly why you are there. So, break the 4^th wall and tell them.

Ways to break the 4^th wall:

Corn seed salesperson: When getting out of your car and approaching a farmer prospect, “I bet you were just waiting for another seed corn salesperson to stop out and improve your yields by 5 bushels!”
Dairy nutritionist: When meeting a new producer: “I’ll bet you’ve never had a nutritionist stop out to help you get more milk out of your cows!”
Any prospect: Any salesperson, when making morning sales calls: “Well, am I the first salesperson of the day?” Or, when making afternoon sales calls: “Well, is it too late in the day to see a salesperson who thinks their products are the best thing since sliced bread?”

The benefit of this type of comment is that it lets the customer know that you know they know the deal. In other words, it tells your customer that this might be a slightly different sales call than most. In other words, the gig is up. You know the gig. Your customer knows the gig. You are just putting it out there from the beginning of the sales call.

First benefit: Empathy

This small throw-away comment expresses empathy towards your customer. That empathy demonstrates that this conversation is all about them and not you. The comment focuses on them.

Most salespeople will step out of their truck, cards and brochures in hand, and introduce themselves. Sounds reasonable, as that’s how we meet and greet people in this world. The struggle is that wary farmers have already established a first impression of you by the way you look. So, breaking that first impression with an empathetic comment like those above can help you change the conversation and put it completely on the customer.

Second Benefit: Trust

Think about yourself. Sitting in your house and a door-to-door salesperson knocks. You answer the door, and they strike up a conversation “just to get to know you.” My first thought is, they are either being deceptive or they are too scared to sell their own products. Neither is a good message to send.

When you break the 4^th wall and “address the elephant in the room”, customers have a tendency to see it as honesty, which leads to trust. It shows you’re not hiding, and you’re not so biased that you think you are the only one with great products.

Talking with horse owners for four straight days every year at a large trade show, I was frequently asked how our senior horse feed compared to our competitors.

Now, you know they asked that same question at every feed company booth. I could have immediately jumped into answering with our advantages from a product technology standpoint. However, that would make me appear overly biased. Was I biased? Certainly. However, there are other companies and products on the market. And, believe it or not, they worked for senior horses as well.

My reply became fairly standard to a request to compare our products: “Well, of course, we like to think we are better than all our competitors.” If I see that they are flowing with that reply, then I might add a bit more comedy with a comment like, “Those horses that eat it and live, do really well”. Again, if that strikes them as fun and flowing with their mood, then I will ask what they are currently feeding their senior horse. If it’s one of my competitor’s senior horse feeds, my reply might be, “You know, if you keep feeding your horse that product, it’s going to die!”

It takes a few seconds for that joke to sink in, and then I answer their question on comparing our products. By having a thorough background on all the products in the market it makes you seem knowledgeable and less biased towards only your product.

So, take a chance today on opening up a sales call with a little levity. State the obvious (the elephant in the room) to break through the fourth wall.