Sales as a Discussion - Or, the Consultant's Approach
Third time’s a charm, eh? I originally tried writing this rebuttal on the original LinkedIn post, but LinkedIn apparently limits responses to 1200 or so characters. Then, I decided to type out my response on Google+ (where I will probably post this), but each time I came back to the Plus in my browser, the context box disappeared taking with it everything I’d already typed.
Can you say: “frustrating?”
So, I’m going to try typing it out here and then posting it where it needs to be posted.
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It began with a LinkedIn post:
“Buyers don't complain when salespeople approach them about a TOP-5 PRIORITY. You see a bunch of complaints about salespeople, but they come from folks who don't need anything...those in need, buy, without you ever hearing anything.”
And then along came the comments, a few of which I’ll showcase here:
“Agreed. I complain when sales people ASK me cold what my top priorities are. I’m don’t have time to tell someone else what I’m working on and wait for them to try to tell me how their product/service will help. Salespeople need to do their research about me and my business. Show me what you can do for me. Fast.” - Ryan Zilker
“... you should consider looking at both a target prospect's LinkedIn account and website (if applicable). There's also a general web search and Twitter. The company website is also critical, as you need to correctly determine the industry, as well as the products & services that company offers. And all of this is more than just looking at the surface. "oh, I see you do xyz". No, boring, delete. Everyone's "research" goes that far. With many companies, you can see exactly where they operate, what markets they play in, who their partners and potentially their competitors are. On top of this, you should have an idea of the top 2-3 problems others in my industry are facing, and you need to be able to relate your solution to one of those problems (if there's no relation, move on).” - Sean Masters
“Spot on! Bring me a solution to one of my key problems and I will listen.” - Robin Mar
“Cory, you're the first person I've seen to highlight what to me is one of the most important facets of sales - understanding the prospect's top priorities and working out how what you sell can help them achieve them.So yes, spot on.” - Steve Hall
There are, of course, more comments, but these represent of a vast majority of them and it’s these I have decided to use as an example.
First of all, sales should never be a one-way discussion. A proper sale professional will not, or rather, should not, inform a prospect what they need. It’s not appropriate and does nothing to develop a trusting relationship between the two parties. I’m not the first person to come up with this idea and I won’t be the last to talk about it, but I am the one writing about it today, so keep on reading.
Trust is important.
Trust is important.
There are two main methodologies to sales. First, the Peddler:
Peddlers push a product. They talk about it's features, show you how shiny it is and demonstrates to the prospective buyer it's functionality. One can always tell a Peddler by how few questions they ask. Sure, they might ask, "Is this right for you?" or "Can you see yourself using this? or some variation thereof, but they don't bother to ask you if you need their product or service. They appeal to emotion and the natural inclination to impulse by because, "this deal won't be as good tomorrow."
We see this often in the trope about used-car salesmen or the boutique stores along the glitzy and glamorous shopping districts or even in your local bog box store. "Here, let me show you this ..." is a common refrain among Peddlers.
Sales Consultants - or, Sales Professionals - spend time developing the relationship. They ask you what your current status is, how your current method is working out for you and then qualify whether or not you need what they're selling.
For example, you walk into a car lot and the sales person approaches you. If s/he's a Peddler s/he'll try to convince you to purchase a vehicle you're not interested in buying. On the other hand, if they're a Sales Consultant, the sales person will ask you very basic qualifying questions:
Peddlers push a product. They talk about it's features, show you how shiny it is and demonstrates to the prospective buyer it's functionality. One can always tell a Peddler by how few questions they ask. Sure, they might ask, "Is this right for you?" or "Can you see yourself using this? or some variation thereof, but they don't bother to ask you if you need their product or service. They appeal to emotion and the natural inclination to impulse by because, "this deal won't be as good tomorrow."
We see this often in the trope about used-car salesmen or the boutique stores along the glitzy and glamorous shopping districts or even in your local bog box store. "Here, let me show you this ..." is a common refrain among Peddlers.
Sales Consultants - or, Sales Professionals - spend time developing the relationship. They ask you what your current status is, how your current method is working out for you and then qualify whether or not you need what they're selling.
For example, you walk into a car lot and the sales person approaches you. If s/he's a Peddler s/he'll try to convince you to purchase a vehicle you're not interested in buying. On the other hand, if they're a Sales Consultant, the sales person will ask you very basic qualifying questions:
- What kind of car do you have now?
- Why are you looking for a new one?
- Do you have kids? How many?
- Do you drive in the snow? Long distances?
With each question they should be narrowing down the individual models they need to show. Have five kids? Obviously a compact car isn't going to work. Have a long commute? Okay, the V8 SUV isn't an option. Go camping? Tow a boat? Need off-roading clearance? That sedan isn't going to fit the bill.
You see, there is a strong and powerful difference between the Peddler and the Sales Professional. The Peddler peddles and the Sales Professional consults. When you find yourself regretting a purchasing decision you can probably guess you just bought from a peddler, but when you're comfortable and confident in your purchase, chances are you worked with a sales consultant.
And what do we mean by “consults”? It’s simple, we mean that simple back-and-forth that occurs when you’re having a discussion about a specific topic. Imagine, for a second, you’re busy at work and a sales call comes in, “Hi, Sam, my Company, ABC, provides award winning software to solve your HR needs.” Well, that’s great, but has this sales professional identified an HR need you have? Or is s/he telling you about their product?
Ask yourself, have they qualified you as a buyer? Let’s be honest, there may not be a need for the new-fangled HR software … yet. But has the sales professional even bothered to ask? Or did they just tell you it’s better? Have they asked if you have HR software needs, such as how many people work for your company, what benefits you offer your employees, what your growth rate is, how many HR professionals work in the HR department?
A company of 5 people may not need advanced, or feature rich, HR software. A boot-strapped startup may not have the resources for a $4000 a month subscription. There are many reasons your product may not be a good fit. First and foremost: your competition may have already made the sale. I promise you, no matter how fancy your widget is, if a business just invested in a new widget they're not going to buy yours. Not today, anyway. In the future they may, which is why you want to leave the prospect with positive thoughts about you and your company.
Ask yourself, have they qualified you as a buyer? Let’s be honest, there may not be a need for the new-fangled HR software … yet. But has the sales professional even bothered to ask? Or did they just tell you it’s better? Have they asked if you have HR software needs, such as how many people work for your company, what benefits you offer your employees, what your growth rate is, how many HR professionals work in the HR department?
A company of 5 people may not need advanced, or feature rich, HR software. A boot-strapped startup may not have the resources for a $4000 a month subscription. There are many reasons your product may not be a good fit. First and foremost: your competition may have already made the sale. I promise you, no matter how fancy your widget is, if a business just invested in a new widget they're not going to buy yours. Not today, anyway. In the future they may, which is why you want to leave the prospect with positive thoughts about you and your company.
A sales professional cannot have the qualifying discussion without having a few tools in his or her tool belt.
Before a sales call is even initiated, a sales professional should know:
1 Their product/service
The sales professional should be able to answer 80% of the questions a prospect might ask about the product or service. I call this the 80/20 Rule. Ten percent of the remaining twenty will be those off-the-wall questions and the other ten percent will be those technical questions where research or a subject matter expert is needed. Regardless, the sales professional should be well acquainted with what they're selling, their market and their vertical. If they're selling to lawyers, they should understand the needs of lawyers. If they're selling to the auto industry, they should understand the needs of both large and small dealerships. There is nothing more disheartening to a sale professional than to have a prospect ask a basic question about functionality and the sales professional not be able to answer it quickly and confidently.
I once interviewed for a sales position and had the owner of the company tell me I didn’t need to know the product or service in order to make the sale. I’m certain shock spread across my face. How can you have a conversation about the prospect’s needs if you don’t understand what you’re selling? “You’re selling yourself,” he would say. No, I’m selling a product/service. Who I am is (mostly) inconsequential. What matters is showing the prospect a return on investment. If they give you X amount of money, what sort of gains should they expect to see? Pro tip: it had better be more than they’re giving you. If not, they may not need what you’re representing.
2 A Collaboration With Marketing
Sales teams/professionals should have a positive relationship with Marketing. It's the marketing department that will research sales verticals, identify how the product or service solves a need and will help develop strategies for the sales teams to properly sell their product. They will gather data on spending habits, at what growth stage you should be selling to and they will help develop a qualifying strategy the sales professional can then implement.
This means the sales department’s senior management needs to work closely with marketing.
3 A Plan of Action to Direct the Discussion
As mentioned before, the sales professional should never open a discussion by telling a prospect what they need. How would they know? Per some of the discussion points copied from LinkedIn above, some would-be customers want the sales professionals to have a crystal ball to identify their needs, or they believe social media posts and company websites can inform a sales professional as to the prospect’s aches and pains. And that may be so in some cases. In the past we called active pursuits of a solution: Requests for Proposals.
Yet, what happens when the prospect doesn’t know they have a need or know there are products/services on the market that can resolve and issue they haven’t identified? Sure, when a company needs a new widget they go shopping for a new widget, but what if the company didn’t know widget technology had moved on and they could purchase a new one with advanced features for the same price? Or cheaper? What if purchasing your widget would net them millions of dollars in gains over a year, but they believe they need the same widget they've always had?
In short, what if they didn't know there was a better mouse trap?
In short, what if they didn't know there was a better mouse trap?
This is where working with the marketing department comes into play. They have the answers. They understand the percentages of prospects out there who can use their product or service. The marketing department will have the stats and figures in regards to the industry the sales professional is targeting - enough to qualify that particular market opportunity. Should we be selling to large, medium or smaller companies? Companies with an annual income of a million dollars a year? More? Less? Companies with storefronts or companies that operate online? These, and more, qualifiers help reduce the sales professional’s time targeting companies and industries who don’t need their product or service.
For example, I know a business owner who, until 2010, still ran his business by hand. He’d perform inventory management by hand (on a pad of paper), his finances by hand (with his checkbook); he’d bank by hand (going to the bank when it was open), invoice by hand (a fax machine) and follow-up with clients by hand (either with phone calls or drop-ins). I tried to convince him to buy a computer but he didn’t see the point, telling me he had “ran his business for twenty years without a computer.” He finally relented and bought one when his clients started telling him they wouldn’t be receiving invoices over fax anymore. And it changed his life, freeing up more time to spend on the business and less time working by hand.
He didn’t understand how a computer - a simple computer - could drastically change his business habits and, left up to his own devices, he might have replaced his fax machine when it finally broke down. In 2010. Making his life easier was never a concern for this business owner because he didn’t know his life could be easier. Only afterwards did he realize how efficient a single computer made his business run.
The fact of the matter is, companies don’t always know what’s available to them as they’re busy being companies. The CSuite has their problems, department managers have theirs and business owners have theirs. Maybe they’re forward-thinking enough to keep an eye out for the latest and greatest technologies, but far too often they’re too busy running a business to think about alternative approaches. Do they know they can save money moving to a cloud-based solution? Do they understand how they can reduce costs moving to automated pipeline management system? Do they realize how much money they can save with your product/service versus how they’re operating now?
These are the questions the sales professional needs to ask.
If sales departments only targeted companies actively looking for their products or services they exempt a large segment of the market that could benefit from their product.
Ask questions. Have a discussion. You may not make the sale that day, but there is a chance the prospect will need your product or service eventually and who will they think has their best interests in heart, the pushy sales peddler or the professional who had a nice discussion with them?
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