Have you ever tried to jump a hurdle in track? Ever done a tough mudder, or savage race that has mud and obstacles scattered all throughout the course? These are the issues that we are facing in those two situations that are keeping us from the finish line.
A couple weeks back we talked about the situation that people are in. That is their current state that the customer, or employee is in. If not rectified can cause them to find a solution that may not be the best solution for them.
Today we are going to talk about the issues. Each person has a situation, issues, and ramifications. The issue are the items that are affecting the situation that the customer, or employee is currently in. What is stopping them from moving forward to the place they want to get to. The issues are the obstacles, or the hurdles they currently see before themselves.
We as sales professionals and leaders need to understand the situation and issues of those we come in contact with. Otherwise, we will not be able to help them get to that finish line. If we don’t help them, they will search out the solution they think is best and likely won’t stick with us.
It is our duty to understand what the issues are for those that we come in contact with so that we can help them. It affects our bottom line. If we think we can just replace a customer, or team member we can, but there will be a loss of time and money involved with this decision. This is an area that most businesses have had to focus on as they are hemorrhaging money affecting their profits.
Engagement is low when we treat customers and team members as just another cog in our machine. We need to place value on them and focus on understanding their issues to keep them engaged. By engaging them and showing these individuals that we care, they will open up to us.
How do we do this? We ask questions. Lots of good questions to understand what is going on and what are their perceived issues. Kind of like a therapist ask questions to understand the surface level issues and then quantifying questions to go deeper to find the real issues. If you have never been to a therapist, I recommend doing an initial session, but know that something will come up that you did not see coming
What kind of questions should we be asking? Sales people have been taught for years to ask only open-ended questions which are questions that cannot be answered with a yes / no answer. I use open and closed ended questions because conversations flow with both better. If we ask too many open-ended questions people get defensive. Maybe that is why people cringe when they think about sitting with a therapist.
We need to uncover the issues that people are facing if we will ever be able to think about helping them. If we just assume we know the answer then we risk making an ass our of u and me. Yes, that was a little profanity and I apologize, but it is literally how assume is spelled
Focus on understanding our customer and team members and we will begin to help them in the future.
Next week we will discuss the third part of how we can help and it will help you to focus better on figuring out the correct solution.
“Businesses wonder why it is still hard to be thought of as the brand of choice with customers. How can our business make more profitable transactions and stay out of the commodity battle with low profits? I equip your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate explosive revenues with greater profits!”
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lWIVasmkFsoYL4h0AqIZgH6LC3qaw_gI/view?usp=sharing – client profile sheet
https://www.amazon.com/Sales-Process-Uncovered-Success-Influence/dp/0578421518 - Book
https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/5AF12 - Sales Process Uncovered Online Training
https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/68N10 - Trustworthy Online Training