Do I like you?
Do I trust you?
How can you Help me?
These three questions are asked in our subconscious every time we interact with someone. Our bodies are hardwired to want to know if we like, trust, and can be helped by the other person. These questions have been embedded into our survival since the beginning of mankind. We also are programmed to know if we are safe in an environment, or if we need to run (fight or flight response). Think about that when you are in the grocery line and someone coughs…
In business, if we are not answering these questions for our customers then we are not helping our customers. It’s about answering these questions that gets us into meetings to discuss larger topics that the customer needs answers to. They need us to help them get to a better place. If they didn’t need us then we would not be in the conversation.
The great thing that we have going for us if they are interacting with us, then they are actively searching for solutions. Even if they don’t currently know it yet! That is right sometimes the customer does not know what they need before they meet with us. We need to study them and their needs so that we can support them with the best option available to them.
Have you ever been talking to someone about a topic and a great idea pops into your head? Most of the time though we forget about these ideas 15 minutes after we have thought about them. The same thing happens with our customers when we are talking with them. When they do this, we need to take notes and keep asking deeper questions. At the end of our time we need to summarize the major topics and see which ones the customer really wants to dive deeper into for the next conversation?
Now for an exercise. I want you to sit back and think of an interaction with a recent customer that did not buy from you and ask the three questions from the customer’s point of view: Do I like you, Do I trust you, and how can you help me? During that interaction, where could you have done something more that would have likely resulted in an opportunity? What might you have missed answering for the customer out of the three questions? Chances are we get comfortable with customers and our sales process and we forget the most crucial buying decision “us” that the customer has to decide on.
In the coming weeks we will dive deeper into each of the three questions, but for this week I want you to ask those three questions at each interaction. You don’t have to be selling them something either. It could be a family member, neighbor, coworker, mail carrier, etc. Focus on answering each of those three questions to the best of your ability, even if you are talking to them while in quarantine via phone call, or web meetings.
Have a great weekend and stay healthy!
Sincerely,
Kevin Sidebottom
P.S. if you have a need for sales or leadership keynotes / trainings follow the link below.