Calls and emails from a newly enrolled customer who wants to cancel their purchase/agreement can be devastating to a salesperson.

I have seen so many reps come in, check their voice mail and email, get one or more cancelation requests that were waiting for them, and their mindset is wrecked for the day.

I have watched this happen on a Monday morning, where the rep – on a weekly goal system – is now in the ‘hole’ with their sales, starting the week upside down in deal numbers and revenue, with a mountain they need to climb, potentially just to break even and get the week started.

It’s not that they are a bad salesperson, selling bad deals, and not following the process. It’s that humans get scared, and it can feel like it comes in waves of people wanting to cancel. 

The damaging effects for the day/week can be so impactful that I have worked for companies where we shield the reps from their cancels – not letting them know until the week is over.

Unfortunately, that doesn’t work well either, because it’s like telling a kid they are going to Disneyland but then taking them to the dentist. Whether they realize it or not in advance, the outcome is still bad.

What can you do as a leader to help your team avoid that disappointment?



1. Set Clear Expectations

First – set the right expectations with the team about the percentage of their sales that will cancel (or attempt to cancel). I wrote about it in Selling With Authentic Persuasion – if you are a sales professional, you will always have a certain amount of your sales that get hit with buyer’s remorse. If not, then you are an Order Taker just closing the easy sales of the people who know exactly what they want and why.

What is that % in your industry? 2%? 5%? 10%? There are some number of acceptable, expected cancel/return/refund customers. When you are in sales, you are helping someone buy something new which means they must jump outside of their comfort zone. Some of them will want to retreat back inside, and that’s okay.

Have the figure as something that the company is okay with and your team is aware of.

2. Train Reps to Address Buyer’s Remorse Early

Second – Ensure your team is using the strategy and scripting that I covered in the Selling Effectiveness blog [LINK] from this week. It is so important that you train and support them in bringing up buyer’s remorse to each new customer. It can feel scary and counterintuitive to bring up the potential for a new customer to cancel, but that is not what we are doing.

Our goal is to address the tricks that the human mind will play on that new customer in advance, so that when it happens your rep looks like a mind reader. Do your part as a leader to give your team the confidence to bring up things that weak salespeople would be afraid to do. This will be the difference maker that will bring down the volume of the cancelation/return/refund requests.

And note – like any part of the sales conversation that you know is critical, you will most likely need to make it a required component with a way to hold them accountable (audited phone calls, for example). Don’t just trust that since you told them how important this is and that you expect it, that they will do it each and every time. And if you don’t believe me (“my team always does what I tell them to do”) then watch your cancel/attempt numbers to see if they change and watch them on an individual rep basis – you will know who is doing and who isn’t.

3. Enforce Post-Sale Follow-Up Calls

Third – Require and hold them accountable for their post-sale follow up calls. Don’t just think they will happen because you told them how valuable they were (sound familiar…see above ;). They will most likely default to thinking that their job is done since the sale is closed. Your rep(s) will want to move on to the next lead/deal. And they will most likely think “I don’t get paid to make follow up calls.”

But they are so wrong – as I was taught a long time ago, “a deal saved is a deal earned.”

Don’t let them fall into the trap of thinking that they will just go close more deals if someone cancels. That is a dangerous game to play – to stay ahead of the curve of cancels. I have seen it enough times, there will come a point where the rep can’t outrun the wave of cancels/refunds that is coming for them, and they get crushed by a paycheck without any commission because they didn’t close more deals than they lost in the period.

Why Follow-Up Calls Matter

The key is the follow up calls – they must be done. It will show that new customer two very important things. First, that the rep cares enough to check in, and they didn’t just make the sale and move on. Second, it will give the rep a chance to speak with the new customer, address any concerns (buyer’s remorse thoughts) and help them stay on board with what they purchased.

As a sales leader, it’s your mission to help your team succeed. That means doing more than getting them to close deals today…it requires you to do all you can to support them on keeping those deals closed.