He who asks, wins
One of the most common mistakes that sales people and their managers make is focusing on what they will “say” to a prospect. If the prospect objects to price, then we say why it is justifiable because of our superingenious technological… If the prospect says that he’s considering using company X, then, you explain how we are better because… If they’re not taking your phone calls, it’s because your script isn’t perfect, you need to say…
I understand that sales people need to communicate - but, they need to communicate from a position of understanding, and from a position of finding needs and meeting them - not cramming “square” products into “round” holes.
The most effective b-to-b sales professionals I have met are the best, most insightful question-askerers. They ask questions about the prospect’s business objectives, their investment objectives, their team’s productivity goals, their current telecom provider’s service levels, their logistical constraints, their political hurdles. In short, they understand. And, that’s the master key that unlocks the sale.
I was in a meeting recently where the “salesperson” (and, I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt on that one), began his presentation with, “I don’t know how many of you (there were six of us) have ever used [product name hidden to protect the innocent], but…” and on he went. I thought to myself - there are only six other human beings in this room, and our prior experience with this product will dramatically impact how we receive this guy’s claims - he should open the floor…but, on he went.
Why didn’t he just stop and ask us, either collectively, or one-by-one (did I mention that there were only six of us?), about our familiarity or prior experience with the product?
I’ll tell you why - because he didn’t really care what our experience really had been like - he was about to tell us how to think about the product - our currently held beliefs notwithstanding. Either that, or he did know what our experience was like, and he was afraid of our answers.
Understanding, awareness, a search for reality and truth, the ability to ask effective questions - if these are foreign concepts to you, either get to know them, or stay out of sales.
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sales-mol-ogy (seylz-MOL-uh-jee) - noun: the science of simplified, practical application techniques and principles for highly effective 2 to 50 person revenue generation teams.
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Posted by salesmologist on May 2nd, 2008 filed in Sales - general |
July 11th, 2007 at 9:18 pm
I cannot agree more with this.
By the time I talk with a salesperson, I have a problem, and a budget and want the solution.
I contacted a vendor for some very specific software I needed, and set a time for them to call me.
The vendor started reading from the script….and just kept on reading.
Now I had asked them to call me, left a detailed description of what I wanted; and this was their prime opportunity.
I actually stopped them and asked the following questions:
“What is my name?
no answer, continued reading script
“What company do I work for?”
no answer, continued reading script
“Why do I want your software?”
no answer, continued reading script
Finally, I told her, “I am going to hang up on you unless you actually talk to me, and stop reading that script”
no answer, and yes continued reading the script.
“Please hold for dial tone”.
So I went online, found their major competitor and award a contract that week.
Their CEO actually called me and asked how it was going.
I told him the entire script story, and he blamed….wait now….me.
Because that was a great script, and I should have listened.
Hah!