Last Fall I received a call from a CEO who was looking for a company to deliver a time management training session.
He seemed pretty certain that this training would help to get his salespeople to become more focused.
During the conversation I was tempted on more than one occasion to tell him all about the great results that my time management seminar had produced for other clients, but then I heard a little voice from within that simply asked, "What's the real issue?" Stopping myself from launching into "solution mode", I asked the prospective client what he was looking for his salespeople to do more of, if time wasn't an issue.
His response was that he would like for them to focus on getting business from new clients.
After a few more clarifying questions, we came to learn that the reason why his sales team was not prospecting was due to a few factors; the first was that they weren't sure how to go about getting new business, the second was that they were not comfortable with rejection and most importantly, we came to the discovery that the existing compensation plan was designed to reward their efforts equally for existing business as it would for new business.
So what was the real issue? After a few more questions, the conversation shifted towards compensation planning, creating prospecting plans and training sessions on effective outreach strategies.
What started as a simple time management training session turned into a series of training programs on compensation, developing prospecting plans and cold calling techniques.
When you're in front of a prospect, are you getting to the underlying causes of your prospect's issue? Or are you jumping on the opportunity to solve the first problem you hear? If it's the latter, take a step back and remember this: your success in sales is determined more by your ability to diagnose the problem than it is to provide the solution.
The buyers of today come to the table, already armed with a lot of information.
In many cases they are pretty sure that they know what they want, and this conviction on their part can hook us into jumping into "solution mode" all too quickly.
The quicker into the interaction you are offering your solution, the more it is just that - YOUR solution.
To create an effective "win-win" and establish yourself as a trusted advisor, your goal is to work with your prospect on developing the solution together.
The greater that they are involved with the solution, the more likely they will OWN it.
In order to get to the real issue with your prospect, you should be prepared with a series of questions to determine the following: How long has this been an issue? What have they done in the past to try and fix it? How well did that work? Why? Why not? How is the problem impacting their business? How is the problem impacting them personally? Is doing nothing an option? How committed are they to fixing the problem? Your value as a salesperson lies more in your ability to get information, than your ability to give it.
As you are prepping for your next sales interaction, you should spend just as much time planning out the questions that you want ask your prospect as you do the presentation you plan to deliver.
Ultimately what people buy is trust and conviction that your product or service is going to get them to where they need to be.
You'll know that you're developing that trust when you hear "great question" more often than "great presentation.
"
He seemed pretty certain that this training would help to get his salespeople to become more focused.
During the conversation I was tempted on more than one occasion to tell him all about the great results that my time management seminar had produced for other clients, but then I heard a little voice from within that simply asked, "What's the real issue?" Stopping myself from launching into "solution mode", I asked the prospective client what he was looking for his salespeople to do more of, if time wasn't an issue.
His response was that he would like for them to focus on getting business from new clients.
After a few more clarifying questions, we came to learn that the reason why his sales team was not prospecting was due to a few factors; the first was that they weren't sure how to go about getting new business, the second was that they were not comfortable with rejection and most importantly, we came to the discovery that the existing compensation plan was designed to reward their efforts equally for existing business as it would for new business.
So what was the real issue? After a few more questions, the conversation shifted towards compensation planning, creating prospecting plans and training sessions on effective outreach strategies.
What started as a simple time management training session turned into a series of training programs on compensation, developing prospecting plans and cold calling techniques.
When you're in front of a prospect, are you getting to the underlying causes of your prospect's issue? Or are you jumping on the opportunity to solve the first problem you hear? If it's the latter, take a step back and remember this: your success in sales is determined more by your ability to diagnose the problem than it is to provide the solution.
The buyers of today come to the table, already armed with a lot of information.
In many cases they are pretty sure that they know what they want, and this conviction on their part can hook us into jumping into "solution mode" all too quickly.
The quicker into the interaction you are offering your solution, the more it is just that - YOUR solution.
To create an effective "win-win" and establish yourself as a trusted advisor, your goal is to work with your prospect on developing the solution together.
The greater that they are involved with the solution, the more likely they will OWN it.
In order to get to the real issue with your prospect, you should be prepared with a series of questions to determine the following: How long has this been an issue? What have they done in the past to try and fix it? How well did that work? Why? Why not? How is the problem impacting their business? How is the problem impacting them personally? Is doing nothing an option? How committed are they to fixing the problem? Your value as a salesperson lies more in your ability to get information, than your ability to give it.
As you are prepping for your next sales interaction, you should spend just as much time planning out the questions that you want ask your prospect as you do the presentation you plan to deliver.
Ultimately what people buy is trust and conviction that your product or service is going to get them to where they need to be.
You'll know that you're developing that trust when you hear "great question" more often than "great presentation.
"