How Do You Develop a SOLUTION
With Your Prospect?
by
Philippe Lavie, president, KeyRoad Enterprises and a CustomerCentric
Selling® affiliate
Contact
Philippe by email
or phone at 415-934-1449
Decide which of the following people loves you the most:
your spouse, your mother, or a significant other. Then, the
next time you see her, tell her within a few minutes: "You
need to do this. You also need to do that. And finally, you
need to do this third thing". To ensure you really drive the
point home, make sure to point your finger at her when telling
her what she really needs to do. I wonder how long it will
take before (s)he tells you what YOU need to do, and I am
sure it will not be in such polite language.
What I find fascinating, is that this is the most common
behavior I have seen with sales people when talking to their
prospects. Let me see if you can relate. How often have you
heard a sales rep say: "You need to have a look at my product".
If the person that loves you the most won't take this kind
of talk, why do you think your prospect who knows very little
if anything about you would?
There are two classes of sales people:
The first category will:
- Offer you opinions.
- Present all the features of his product with the hope
that one or more would stick (like spaghetti when cooked).
- Assume he knows what your situation is and make statements
to that effect.
- Make presentations and standard demos at the first call.
You hear this behavior often labeled as "show up and throw
up" or "spray and pray". Unfortunately, the buyer's opinion
of the sales person resides somewhere between swimming among
sharks and swallowing flaming swords. In simple terms, they
don't trust these opinions.
The second category will:
- Ask questions to understand the prospect situation.
- Ask questions about how they do business today and why
they want to change.
- Ask questions to identify a problem to solve, a need to
satisfy, or a goal to achieve with a bias towards his offering.
- Identify the cost of doing business the way the prospect
is doing it today.
- Withhold his opinions and judgments to fully understand
from the prospect's lips what the situation is really about.
In this instance, through the conversation that these questions
initiate, the seller will be able to align with the buyer.
Doing so will allow a more meaningful, competent, and sincere
conversation that will benefit both parties.
How to develop a vision in the mind of your prospect with
a bias towards your offering
Marketing is responsible for delivering the messages, content,
and collateral sales people use in their interactions with
customers. One of the marketing groups, product marketing,
is very product focused and fairly technical in the way it
describes your offering. Most "sales training" is really product
training delivered by the product (marketing) managers. Does
it come as a great surprise then if the first words out of
sales people's mouths are feature function descriptions of
what they sell? An easy test is to look at your web site and
your marketing collateral and evaluate if it includes phrases
such as: fully integrated, cutting edge, leading provider,
and state of the art, or words like seamless, fastest robust,
elegant, and dynamic. If they do, are you presenting self-serving
opinions about your products? Can a prospect understand how
to use your product to help her address her needs? Can she
relate her situation with others that may face similar challenges?
How different are your descriptions compared to your competitors?
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