“Oh, you’re recording this Zoom? I was just on another call where people were recording, and the one before that had a note-taking app installed. I think it’s weird and creepy, but it’s fine, I guess.”

That’s how a prospect started a call with a client of mine. (I know, because I saw the video.) My client rightly said “no problem, I can turn off the recording” — and did so. And I absolutely respect the right of a prospect not to want to be recorded; that’s fair and reasonable. But this was a case of a prospect coming in hot.

I saw another call where a potential customer was throwing my client a lot of questions — which, again, is reasonable! — but was doing so aggressively: cutting her off mid-sentence, barking out cutting feedback, and so on. This prospect had done the math and was pointing out the per-month price based on the annual price… which of course wasn’t a secret, but the prospect was treating as a gotcha! moment.

Whether consciously or not, this prospect’s goal was to put the seller on the defensive. Couldn’t this be cheaper? Doesn’t X just mean Y? How much harder could it be to add this in?

There’s definitely a careful-what-you-wish-for lesson in closing deals with potential customers like these. In my own business, I’d likely pass; I don’t need to sign a difficult customer. But sometimes we don’t have the luxury of turning away business, and it’s even true that sometimes prospects who are difficult in this phase can (surprisingly) turn into great, lovable customers. (You’ve handled them at their worst, so…)

My approach if I do hope to close business with the know-it-all is simply this: Let them do the talking. They want to talk, they feel at their smartest when they’re talking, and it’s typically important to them that everyone know they’re the smartest person on the call. So I sit back and let them take the wheel.

They don’t get carte blanche, though: My time is valuable. That’s why I try to tee up the know-it-all with specific questions to which they can then monologue responses. The crux of my question is simply this:

What do you want?

What’s your desired outcome? Tell me what you think the price should be and what you should get for that price. Explain to me where you think we should land. What does this look like?

Once I’ve heard that, if it makes sense for my business, I’ll tell you so, and we’re potentially good to go. But if it doesn’t make sense, I’ll tell you that, too:

• I can offer everything you’re looking for, but it costs 50 percent more than the price you floated.

• We don’t actually offer service X, so if that’s important to you, we might not be the right fit. But we can do Y and Z that you’re after, and we do it better than anyone else.

• It sounds like you want premium services for budget prices. I’m never going to win on price alone, because I don’t compete on price. My advantage is how I outperform my competition.

The know-it-all wants to be heard. The know-it-all doesn’t want to be sold to. And the know-it-all wants you to know that they’re smart, they can’t be fooled, and that they know what they want. So let them tell you what they want, and then tell them whether you can do it, and how much it costs. But make sure you let them be heard first; that’s the best way to get them in good spirits.