June 30, 2009
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If They Touch It, They Own It.
Matt Nettleton
Recently, a five-year veteran of selling called the other day for some coaching. He said that he had just completed a fact finding meeting with one of his top opportunities. He explained that he had experienced difficulty getting his solutions to match with problems his prospect would admit to having.
Unfortunately, I had to tell my client some tough news, he lacked an effective way to quickly get the buyer involved in the process. Many salespeople are anxious to "show off" their products to the buyer (enough about me what do you think of me). Without an effective approach to transition from “let’s be friends” to a meaningful conversation on business problems and priorities, he spent too much time discussing inconsequential issues and many times experienced premature presentation.
I asked him to add a new wrinkle to his sales process. I suggested that he help the buyer take ownership and get involved by giving them some homework before the appointment. He began saying the following, “Mr. Buyer, in order to make our meeting as productive as possible, would you make a list of the two or three most challenging issues you are having with respect to our product? Then we can really focus our discussion on your issues and try to develop a solution. Does that make sense?” Not surprisingly the idea of personal focus made sense to his prospects and clients.
Now when he shows up for sales calls, he simply reminds the buyers about the list and asks what the issues were. From there, the problems and priorities conversation are simpler to find and discuss. His discovery sessions are more effective and he is able to qualify in greater depth.
If you are running sales call unaffected by your prospects actual issues you may need to implement a Pain Primer process, you may need to assign the task of improving your sales calls to your prospects and surprisingly enough you may discover that once they touch your sales calls they become much more likely to participate and to buy.
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Indianapolis, IN 46250
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