Good morning everyone,
I hope you all have had a good fourth of July celebration here in the states and are enjoying the last weekend of it. People say that it is horrible when the 4th falls in the middle of the week, but I beg to differ. It allows you to take off a few days either before or after and have a nice long weekend. The issue is that some people take the beginning half of the week off while others take the later part of the week so no work will get done. Some might like that though…
Today I want to talk about the first meeting with your potential customer. I want to focus on the fact that most sales people focus on telling people why they are so great, their history, how they have done awesome, and why the potential customer needs to do business with them. If you are presenting to a large organization it typically starts with a slide deck of your company’s overview, locations, number of employees, etc. This is all well and good, except that the potential customer is dreading this and counting the seconds until you hopefully get to a good point that they can take away from the interaction, so they don’t find it a total loss of their time.
Have you ever been there when listening to a sales person ramble on about how they are so important that you need to do business with them? If not, I dare you to call in a potential supplier and listen. Chances are they will launch into why they are so great that you will get the picture. I have been apart of organizations that started with this and it drove me crazy when the management said, “No this is how you do it. You need to show them that you are creditable” when I challenged their thought process. I would then ask how many business deals have you won because of how big you are and those slides? They would look confused and then I would say look in the mirror because that is the face your potential customer makes when they see another slide deck like this. They are wondering why they said yes to another boring meeting that will put them further behind in their daily grind.
When I created the steps of the sales process I started by asking questions. Not using a shot gun saying I was great and hoping something would stick. So why do so many organizations and sales people start into why they are so great? Is it because they believe that they are just supposed to do it this way? Is it how its always been done? Do they believe that customer needs to hear this? If it is a returning customer, they do not!
When I first meet with a potential customer, or existing for a new project I like to ask them questions about their needs and show them the market data of where their competition is going. Here is the trend and where the business is going. Then I ask them where they would like to be going. With the competition or in a different direction. I ask them questions that will allow me to narrow in on if I can help them or if I need to offer them someone else that can help them on their needs. I do not want to waste either of our time just to make a small amount of money.
I would rather spend more energy with a smaller list of customers that I can help more with more products that align with their needs than tons of customers that only need small items and take up more time. I focus on the fact that 80 percent of the business is done on 20 percent of the customer base. That way I can give them the full attention they need and not have to worry about returning multiple phone calls and emails to the customers that do not need my services.
To reiterate the question, why do so many sales people immediately jump into details about why they are so great and show off who they do business with? Do they think that creditability is why they need to do this? Chances are if you are creditable the potential customer already knows it because the truth is they are investigating you before they meet with you. With the internet, it is very easy for someone to investigate you. Why launch into why you are so great o and why not focus on learning about their needs first?
Have a good weekend and enjoy the weather. Winter will be here before we know it 😊
Sincerely,
Kevin Sidebottom
Sales and Leadership Enterprises