My friend Jen Ward wrote a post the other day about how to change behavior. It had this great quote in it;
“sales reps need to become comfortable with making others uncomfortable.”
I agree with her.
Someone also agreed with her and left this comment.
“This makes sense. I rarely ever push for a sale from a client, yet I routinely see companies who do a lower level of quality take sales away from me because they push the clients really hard. I’ve ended up with many clients who went with someone else to build their site and then a year later came back to me to fix what the first company did. Pretty much, all of my business comes from recommendations from previous clients or people I have already worked with.
I have a client today that is struggling with the decision to rebuild his 8 year old simplistic website (and poor artwork) with a well designed site able to handle all of the features he wants. Money doesn’t seem to be a factor. He is nervous with change. It’s summed up with “The unknown is scary”.
There are tons of “opportunities” in this comment. My coaching side just wants to take over. I can see a bunch of ways “Toff” could improve the way she sells.
What about you?
Based on the comment, how would you coach her?
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Sure you need to ask for the sale, but frankly if you have done your job of finding out the prospects pain (i.e. finding out why they are already uncomfortable), the deal will close itself with a simple nudge.
I am mostly startled by the comment that focuses on superior quality as a selling advantage.
Note to commentor: No one really buys based on superior quality anymore. It's too intangible. They will buy based on you showing them that the competitors might not have enough quality to meet the expectations that the customer just shared with them.
I'll get off my soapbox before i get too wound up…..
Comment by Daniel Waldschmidt — February 6, 2010 @ 10:04 am
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great point Daniel,
Superior quality is subjective at best, without a vision, data and a mapping to the prospects motivations and needs it superfluous
Thanks for chiming in Daniel
Comment by Keenan — February 6, 2010 @ 10:57 am
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There are about 10 other things that you want to jump on with her comment as well… but that really popped out to me.
Comment by Daniel Waldschmidt — February 6, 2010 @ 11:00 am
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Then “job on” no holding back here
That's what makes you so good, you ain't shy!
Comment by Keenan — February 6, 2010 @ 11:16 am
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I think I would coach the commenter to sell the change, not the quality. That customer is terrified of change. The only way to get that prospect to say, “yes” is to convenience them it is scarier to not change.
I'm sure if that prospect has an 8 year old website you could show them their own declining (or probably more likely non-existing) web traffic. Then compare the results you have delivered to other clients.
Now the discussion is about how much money they are losing every month. Very scary conversation in this economy. Now you're not competing with anyone your a change agent for their organization.
That is the kind of uncomfortable I like to dish out. And it doesn't really take that much to get comfortable with an approach like that. Sometimes getting the prospect uncomfortable on a sales call doesn't have to sound like the Sham-Wow guy.
Comment by Bill Rice — February 6, 2010 @ 1:41 pm
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I like where you are going with this. Jen, (author) of the post gave similar advice.
I really like the idea of making your customers uncomfortable. Some of the most instructive and unique perspective I've heard in a while.
Comment by Keenan — February 6, 2010 @ 1:46 pm
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I'd encourage “Toff” to make sure she's asking the three most important questions: “What?”, “Why?” and “How?”: “What's most important to you in this project?”, “Why is that important?” and “How will you know when you've got it right?”
Once she's got the answer to those questions, she should build a solution (not pitch a standard solution) that incorporates the prospects answers to the three questions.
I think this is the big problem a lot of salespeople have: they think they know what the customer needs, and they pitch their idea instead of taking the time to find out what the customer wants by asking great questions and engaging in a conversation.
Want to make yourself and your customers uncomfortable? Try having a conversation. It will feel really weird to you both at first. Once you get past that initial discomfort, though, you'll realize this is the only way to enjoy sales as a career.
What say you, Keenan? This is a preview of what I'll be bringing to the table on Tuesday's Sales Smack call. Because I do think salespeople have gotten lazy, and I offer as evidence the fact that most of them are still pitching instead of conversing.
Comment by Jerry Kennedy — February 7, 2010 @ 2:59 pm
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I say, you are correct. The challenge for many is knowing what questions to ask, where to take the conversation etc. This is were knowledge and expertise come in.
Try having a conversation about improving a Dr.'s surgical techniques if you don't know anything about anatomy, surgery etc.
You have to know what to ask, before you can ask. It takes commitment. This is the lazy piece folks are talking about.
It will make for a good discussion tomorrow night.
Comment by Keenan — February 8, 2010 @ 11:05 am
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Selling is not about pushing the sale; it's about pushing the prospect's agenda…which leads to the sale. So my coaching session with the commenter might start like this: “In what ways do you think successful salespeople push the prospect for a sale?” From there, the discussion can continue to assess the commenter's preconceived notions about the essence of selling, and I can then reframe those notions that I believe are inaccurate to help create a new paradigm (salespeople's behavior will always be consistent with their mental sales paradigm of what they believe they can and should do, so if you want to change the behavior, you have to change the thinking behind the behavior first).
I agree that salespeople need to get comfortable with making the client uncomfortable. This is great.
But that discomfort should be framed by the clients needs, or “agenda”. Then it's not about the salesperson trying to push for a deal, it's about the salesperson trying to push for the well-being of the prospect.
Comment by SkipAnderson — February 9, 2010 @ 6:16 am
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behavior is consistent with mental state, great perspective, I like this and will use it.
Nice!
Thanks for jumping in. I really like this forum and hope to get it some momentum. I think a lot of people could benefit from it.
Comment by Keenan — February 9, 2010 @ 7:43 am
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Selling is not about pushing the sale; it's about pushing the prospect's agenda…which leads to the sale. So my coaching session with the commenter might start like this: “In what ways do you think successful salespeople push the prospect for a sale?” From there, the discussion can continue to assess the commenter's preconceived notions about the essence of selling, and I can then reframe those notions that I believe are inaccurate to help create a new paradigm (salespeople's behavior will always be consistent with their mental sales paradigm of what they believe they can and should do, so if you want to change the behavior, you have to change the thinking behind the behavior first).
I agree that salespeople need to get comfortable with making the client uncomfortable. This is great.
But that discomfort should be framed by the clients needs, or “agenda”. Then it's not about the salesperson trying to push for a deal, it's about the salesperson trying to push for the well-being of the prospect.
Comment by SkipAnderson — February 9, 2010 @ 1:16 pm
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behavior is consistent with mental state, great perspective, I like this and will use it.
Nice!
Thanks for jumping in. I really like this forum and hope to get it some momentum. I think a lot of people could benefit from it.
Comment by Keenan — February 9, 2010 @ 2:43 pm