Several months ago, I was working in New York State with a group of salespeople. During an exercise designed to identify what obstacles stood between the sales force and their number one prospect, a salesperson related a story about a major prospect who wouldn’t give him the time of day. The problem as the salesperson described it was that several years ago the company’s credit manager suspended the customer’s credit privileges because he was not paying his invoices on time.

As a result of the credit manager’s action, the decision maker swore that he would NEVER do business with my client again. The salesperson’s question to me was, “What do you recommend I do to turn this prospect’s thinking around?”

I don’t believe I have ever conducted a sales training program where someone didn’t offer PAST SINS as a key obstacle to doing business with a key prospect, so I know that this objection is prevalent in just about all markets.

So what are past sins, you may be thinking. A past sin is something that someone in your organization — not necessarily a salesperson — did perhaps several years ago that offended a customer, and in an attempt to get revenge, the customer made the decision to never do business with your company again.

A suspension of credit privileges can certainly sting; such action can certainly be embarrassing for a customer, but is it reasonable and logical to suspend all dealings with the offending company — FOREVER?

Well, in my opinion, of course not. But then again, we’re not dealing with a decision I made. We’re dealing with a decision maker who is a grudge holder. We’re dealing with someone who perhaps doesn’t know how to reverse his rather rigid position and while doing so, save face.

Haven’t you been guilty of making a similar statement? I know I certainly have. Just a few months ago I had a bad experience with a local camera shop. I had purchased a small camera that had a design defect, but because it was out of warranty, the camera shop said that it would cost more to have it repaired than it would cost to buy a new camera. So I took their advice and purchased a new camera.

After about three months had passed, the LED display clouded over on the second camera to the point that it was illegible. When I took the camera back to the camera shop, they told me that I needed to bring in my receipt or the manufacturer wouldn’t accept it. I looked in my receipt file, but I couldn’t find it anywhere. I did bring them my American Express bill that showed the amount and date of the purchase, but the manager told me that I had to have the original receipt or his hands were tied.

“You guys are a national chain,” I said in an attempt to persuade him to help me out. “Couldn’t you use your clout with this manufacturer (Canon)?”

“Nope, without an original receipt, I can’t help you.”

“I’ve done the last business I’ll ever do with that company,” I told my wife.

So I can certainly relate to how the customer felt when his credit privileges were suspended. I’ve been there, as have many of you reading this article. But the question is how do you deal with customers who have stayed angry for years?

Try this approach:

Step 1: Do your dead level best to divert the prospect’s anger away from your company and onto the specific individual who offended the prospect. It wasn’t the entire company that made the credit decision, it was one person — the credit manager. If the offending employee is no longer with the company, it makes the job a lot easier.

Step 2: Say something like, “I’m a human being. I’m also a salesperson. I make my living selling my company’s products. Please don’t penalize me for something another human being did to you.”

Step 3: Compliment the customer by explaining to him what a key “player” he or she is in the local market. Explain that your company is a major player, too, and that it seems reasonable that two major players would be better off burying the hatchet than they would allowing a single incident to fester to the point that the two companies can’t do business together, making you both lose out on potential win-win opportunities.

What you’re doing is playing upon his ability to be “reasonable.” But still to “save face,” it’s usually necessary for the angry customer to become convinced that there’s something in it for him if he does bite the bullet and acquiesce.

Is there any guarantee that this approach will convince the angry former customer to forget his vendetta with your company? No, there is not. There are few guarantees in sales, but this approach sure beats doing nothing.

As salespeople, we are paid by our companies to be persuasive. It’s our job to deal with customers at all levels and in all sets of circumstances.

If you have a prospect that is no longer doing business with your company because of a “past sin” that someone in your company committed at some time in the past, you might want to give this approach a try.

If it works for you, please send me an email to Bill@BillLeeOnLine.com with Past Sins in the subject line and fill me in with all of the details.

Bill Lee is author of 30 Ways Managers Shoot Themselves in the Foot ($21.95) and Gross Margin: 26 Factors Affecting Your Bottom Line ($29.95)plus $6 S&H for the first book and $1 for each additional book.