Your Prospect Needs To Know Your Value

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It seems that the very thing we are looking for – the motive – is something we should study extensively, but we don’t.  Buyer motives are tricky.  Motives are usually in some form of “pain” or “problem” with the prospect’s current reality, or “unexploited opportunity” (a brighter future that they can realize with your solution).

If we don’t understand their motives, how can we sell to them?

Most salespeople think motives have to do with their products.  But that is a myth. Your value is tied to problems you solve or opportunities you help people create by being in their lives. Your clients buy from you because you solve a problem better or differently from anyone else.

How do you articulate that to your prospect?

Rule #7: Always Stay Behind the Prospect

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This means to be slightly less positive than your prospect. This might go against everything you’ve heard about professional sales….”be enthusiastic…it’s contagious.” I don’t find that to be the case.

If you’re going to be Selling From Strength, you have to create space for the prospect to convince you that they have a problem worth solving…and you can’t do that when you’re more positive than they are.

A few examples to demonstrate the idea of staying behind your prospect:

  • If a prospect says, “I’m not sure we’re interested,” then you say, “I’m not sure you should be.”
  • If a prospect says, “We already have a current supplier,” then you say, “Maybe you should stay with them.”
  • If the prospect says,”Your solution is great, I want a proposal by tomorrow” that’s equally as dangerous…especially if it transgresses your process.

Here is where you have to slow them down by getting behind them.

“Wow, that sounds kind of quick…I’m still not sure I fully understand what you’re trying to fix. And if I don’t understand it yet, how am I going to be able to recommend the best solution? Can we take a step back for a moment?”

A Great Man Is Always Willing to Be Little

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“A great man is always willing to be little.”

Not sure where I heard that first, but it makes sense in sales.

Rather than playing the game of ‘impressing’ the prospect (which we all do, albeit unintentionally), why don’t you be insignificant. Let their pains and dreams take center stage, instead of yours.

It just might be that they develop so much rapport with you from being heard, they actually buy something.

Does Our Sales Incompetence Prevent Us from Seeing Our Sales Incompetence?

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This is reflective of a case in New York where a bank robber went in as ‘himself’ to rob a bank.  When the police asked him why he didn’t wear any disguise he said that he put lemon juice on his face, took a Polaroid picture of himself and he was nowhere in the picture, thus he concluded that lemon juice made his face disappear.  Click here to read the article The Anosognosic’s Dilemma: Something’s Wrong but You’ll Never Know What It Is by Errol Morris.

A couple of psychologists got a hold of that interesting fact/story and decided to look at it from a “competency” standpoint. They have concluded that our incompetence precludes us from seeing our incompetence. 

The reverse of that is why the highest achievers among us rate themselves the poorest when it comes to self-assessing a skill.  The reason is that they see where they could be and where they are and detect a major gap.

A less competent person rates themselves higher because they don’t see much of a gap between where they are and where they could be. They don’t think they can be any better than where they are.

So the next time someone asks you about a skill that’s a core skill for your success, make sure that you think about your answer and be cautious about self-0assessing too high.  If you do, that may be an indication that there’s a lot of room to grow.

Prospect Pains

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What kinds of pains/problems do you help people solve? Do you have a list of those? No? Shame on you.

How can you be a problem solver if you don’t even have a menu of the kind of problems you fix?

Start that list today.

You Choose Your Position. No One Else

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POSITION YOURSELF!
NO ONE ELSE CAN DO IT FOR YOU

We believe that frequently, the sale is won or lost based on your “position.” And no one (especially the prospect) will position your value in quite the same way you will.

So you get one shot at it…usually in the first call.

Position yourself as a PROBLEM FINDER/SOLVER – not as an amateur sales person.

One Minute Sales Process Rants

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Bill and Brooke bring their ‘rant faces’ to this episode. They’ve each been through some sales processes where they’ve experienced life as the buyer. And they bring these up to with a word of caution: ‘Check out yourself’ to see if you make these errors…

  • How you introduce yourself to people,
  • How you introduce others in a meeting, and
  • Whether you use the words ‘less’ or ‘fewer’ correctly. (That’s Bill’s and he acknowledge that has nothing to do with anything…he just got on a roll and couldn’t stop.)

There are some lessons here amidst the emotion. Check these out and see if they bother you as much as they do them.

Setbacks Have Great Lessons In Them

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Obstacles and roadblocks…we all have them. You’ve heard the saying, “Kites rise against the wind, not with it.”

And yet, we do all we can to avoid setbacks. Not saying you should look for failure, but it’s just a big universal feedback mechanism that should signal that you may be off track.  Use it as such.

The Bittersweetness of Sending Your Baby To College

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I don’t normally use this blog for this kind of personal revelations but the fact is I’m hurting today.

Because it’s the day that I’ve been dreading for 18 years…the day I send my little girl, Kara, to college.

Yes, I know one 1.5 million other kids are going to college this fall and Bill Caskey is not alone in the void he’s fearing this will
leave in his life going forward. It’s just a fact of life…we birth them…we nourish them…we teach them…and we kick them out of the nest. It must be that way.

But it leaves me no less sad.

Why is it bitter?

In a weird way, even though they depend on you for nurturing, food, coaching and support, interestingly it’s you that depends on them as they grow older.

You depend on them for their enthusiasm – their humor – their energy for life – their mischievousness.

You depend upon them for feedback on how you’re doing as a parent.

You depend on them, in some odd way, to live out your unfinished business…or on things you feel like you missed when you were their age. (It’s one of those things no parent admits, but I’m afraid we all do it.)

Right about the time you see a glimpse of excellence, when they become older, more mature and can carry on conversations with you (and actually seem to care about some of the things you’re doing) you kick them out of the nest.

It’s bitter because of the void they leave.

Why is it sweet?

Because you get to see your creation, 18 years in the making, begin to make their mark in the world.

You see them interact with new people who will have an impact on their lives forever.

You observe them study things they want to, rather than things they have to.

You watch them make some tough life decisions that are impossible to train them for–until they must make them on their own.

It’s sweet because you remember you (38 years ago when I walked on the very same campus she’s walking on.) And I remember how important it was for me to begin a new life, independent of the parents raised me. I recall my excitement for this new era.

And it’s sweet because it’s “new chapters” all around. For them, for you, for their friends and the parents of their friends.

So for me, it’s in no way a broken heart because I’m so proud of the young lady she’s become.

It’s just a heart with a bit of a void in it for now. It will heal in time …. and likely become stronger because of it.

But for today, when my baby goes to college, I will cry.