One of the most powerful sales tactics is the sales takeaway. This refers to the sales tactic where you actually take away what you are trying to sell to either motivate the prospect to move forward or to fully disqualify the prospect and move on. But while this is a great sales tactic to use, it is critical to use it only at certain times and we explain exactly when to use it in this sales training video.

Don’t Takeaway When the Prospect is Communicating Interest
In order to have clarity around when to perform a sales takeaway, it can help to look at when not to. There are some very clear moments where it does not make sense and one of those is when the prospect is showing or expressing interest.

If the prospect is asking questions, sharing information, calling you, or taking your calls and meetings, then it would not make sense to take away what you are trying to sell. Just go with the momentum and move forward until things slow down or stall out.

Don’t Takeaway When the Prospect is Communicating a Lack of Interest
Another time where the sales takeaway does not make sense is when the prospect is clearly showing a lack of interest. An example of this might be when a prospect verbally confirms that they are not interested. Or the prospect may be communicating a lack of interest by not returning any of your calls or emails.

You could do a takeaway at this point without causing any damage but it almost does not fit or is not needed. The prospect is already going away so there is no need to take away what you are trying to sell.

Takeaway When the Prospect is “On the Fence”
The time when you will want to do a sales takeaway is when the prospect is “on the fence”. This is when a prospect has shown some level of interest or fit but is slow to move forward and is also not going away or confirming that they are not interested.

The reason that this is the optimum moment for this sales tactic is that if you try to get the prospect to move forward by selling more or pushing them harder, you may push them away because they are in this neutral “on the fence” position. And if you don’t do anything, they might stall out and not progress forward to purchase.

But if you deliver a takeaway at this particular time, if the prospect is genuinely interested, this may trigger them to move forward and through whatever has slowed them down. And if they confirm the sales takeaway attempt and let you take it away, then you could feel confident that they were not a qualified prospect and probably would not have purchased anyways.