Archives for May 2017

Value is in the eye of the prospect. Value propositions are typically written from the perspective of the seller.  At best a well thought out and written value proposition is a list of possible values to the prospect. It is up to the salesperson to uncover from the prospect what would be of value to her or him. If you lead with the company generated value proposition, you run the risk of being easily paired and put on the defensive by a simple statement from the prospect like “we really don’t have an issue with that” or “I am not that interested in having one of those”.  So use the value proposition to prepare for a sales call but don’t bring it up on the sales call directly. Rather, use it as a basis to ask whether or not the prospect has the problem that underlies the value proposition.

One of the biggest obstacles to uncovering the prospect’s compelling reason to buy is that the salesperson does not ask enough follow-up questions. They hear the prospect explain the problem in summary form, then quickly move to solving it or expounding on their capabilities to solve it based on their own vast experience with similar problems. The problem is that when you do that, you are implicitly assuming that you know what is behind the problem, what caused it, the downstream effects of the problem, the consequences of the problem to the prospect and other stake holders, the context the problem exists within which may affect the solution to the problem or at least how the prospect feels about the situation he or she is operating within. I could go on but you get the point. the interesting thing is that a rookie is less likely to make that mistake because he does not have the experience to “know” the situation. He hasn’t seen it 25 times in the past so he has to ask the questions. So today’s tip is don’t assume … ask … you may be surprised at the answer.

Speak in the prospect’s language. No … I don’t mean Spanish or Swahili. I mean use words they understand and examples that make sense to them. It is fatal to talk down to prospects or to talk in a condescending manner. But it is equally ineffective to speak over their heads trying to make what you are saying sound more important. If you take either of these approaches you will find your meetings cut short as the prospect will feel uncomfortable … and they may not even know why they feel that way.
The best approach is to speak at the level of language the prospect uses. This level might be different in the corporate board room than it is on a construction job site. For example, a car enthusiast might understand the phrase “take the software for a test drive” to describe a demo better than he might understand “experiencing the software’s intuitive menu format in a structured test environment”. That would be especially true if the prospect was not a person with an IT background or had no experience in purchasing complex software products.

Asking questions is good. Asking stupid questions can kill a sales call. So what questions qualify as stupid? In today’s world with easy access to the internet and everyone having an online presence, you can get basic information about a prospect with 2 minutes of research. Prospects expect you to do at least that much so you don’t have to waste a lot of precious time on a sales call getting the basics. Your conversation (even the initial one) should demonstrate that you thought enough of the person to spend a few minutes to do basic research. I know it is conventional wisdom that “there is no such thing as a stupid question”. However, even intelligent questions asked at the wrong time and with the wrong tonality will appear to be aggressive to the prospect and that is not a good approach. Be respectful of the prospect by doing basic research (but not too much), don’t be arrogant, and converse either the prospect and you will not be perceived as asking stupid questions.