Chip Koons did a fantastic job articulating the reality of competition and sales by discussing take-away business for a little. We talk about finding a new or unresolved pain in an entrepreneurial context, but what about the pain experienced by a company who doesn’t have the right partner, supplier, manufacturer, etc. This could be a pain that may not even be recognized because they are unfamiliar with a new process available. A business may also have become accustomed to dealing with the pain and have not been told it shouldn’t be an issue they encounter. In any case, it is the job of the sales person to uncover this type of pain and eventually address it. The word eventually should be emphasized because, as Chip Koons said, it is important to wait a little before you jump in. He talked about the advantage of allowing the prospect to develop their feelings toward the pain they’re experiencing. If you jump in immediately, you risk not fully understanding the problem and not creating separation or as much separation from your competition. A sales person can direct a prospect to elaborate by asking a good open-ended question such as “Could you improve anything?”. This allows the sales person to listen to the nuances of the pain and how they can really distinguish their company from the competition or increase the gap. This is the point where a sales person can finally talk. Ideally, as Mr. Koons mentioned, you have set the right tone for the meeting and the prospect doesn’t feel any pressure. In this way, you can naturally move towards closing and both parties feel comfortable with addressing the changes that need to be made.
BoweryJE22
Chip presented us with a lot of great content today and all of it can be applied in sales and I fully trust that everything we have been told works fantastic. I particularly liked when he said “If you’re not failing then you’re not trying”, this shows that you must sometimes fail to win. Chip also mentioned a great deal about being able to bounce back from rejection and not taking it personally, this is clearly something a lot of salespeople struggle with and it’s important to remember that it’s not you personally who’s being denied.
Phenomenal post! I never thought of a sales meeting that started with asking, “what is the best thing that they do?”. This question seems to put your competition at an advantage from the get-go, but in reality, it merely breaks barriers down between you and the potential client. In doing so, you can ask the client a multitude of follow up questions that lead them to become another business in your portfolio.