Are you Spilling your Candy in the Lobby, or are you catching their attention with a Hook?

When we spoke of sales people spilling their candy in the lobby, the first question that popped into my head was, “How do you tell the difference between your Hook, and spilling your candy?” Sales and Marketing will always have a hook line, benefit, or feature–but how do you know that what you’re using as a hook isn’t all of your candy? What is the difference between the two? According to SmallBusiness.Chron.com, a Hook is…

… a jingle, a catchy phrase, or a description of a special offer. The hook may give information about the company or its products, or it may describe certain positive traits, such as reliability, that consumers should associate with the company.

Well according to Sandler’s website, a salesman shouldn’t be pitching a “hook” per say. Instead he should focus on getting as much information from the prospective client as is possible, and following up with a more formal demonstration or presentation.

If you’re routinely dropping off information, proposals, and marketing materials without really understanding your customer’s buying motives – you are making a habit out of spilling your candy in the lobby.  Ask yourself:  Once they have your information and pricing, do they really need you anymore?  Your prospects wouldn’t shop your information to your competitors – would they?  Instead, gather enough facts to qualify the opportunity fully.  If you get far enough along in the development cycle to make a presentation, then you can open the candy box.  Yes – you can and should help the prospect.  The best way to help early on in the game, however, is by asking questions.  Say as little as possible and get the prospect to talk as much as possible.  Your job is to get information not give it.  Save your goodies for later.

So the way that I try to think about it is this; our traditional view of a sales situation is that a salesman must lay out the information on his product, and the customer judges the product/information to see if it is a good fit. The way that we’re learning in class is the reverse. The salesperson needs to evaluate the customer, judge the product and customer’s need to see if they match, then guide the customer through the process of fulfilling their need. A need which is hopefully best fulfilled by the salesperson’s product.