Mattson is very clear that as a salesperson you must dig in order to find the heart of customer pain. “Answer every question with a question” so you refrain from boxing yourself in through answering smoke screen questions (those that hide intent). Do not feel compelled to answer every initial question right away until you discover the intention behind them. Only when you find the true intention, can you produce effective answers that will sell to the pain.
“No mind reading” so that you do not assume facts not in evidence and misread between the lines. Find evidence that backs up statements of fact that the prospect makes. Once again, you must ask questions and probe in order to get past the layers that cover up the real issues.
“All prospects lie, all the time” is another phenomenon that requires the salesperson to ask questions. Prospects often lie to protect themselves from the overeager salesperson or to cover up vulnerable areas. They do not lie all the time, but asking questions in order to confirm statements as if they were lying will give you a more accurate picture of the selling opportunity.
Lastly, “the problem the prospect brings you is never the real problem” so an effective salesperson once again must ask a series of probing questions. Prospect’s fail from expressing the real problem initially either because they are trying to protect vulnerabilities or they simply do not know themselves what the heart of the issue is. Therefore, the salesperson must have knowledge on the issues that his or her product is trying to solve and the symptoms that are tied to those issues. An effective salesperson must also dig past the prospect’s perceived problems with – you guessed it – asking more questions.
All of these sales techniques have one thing in common, ask questions. Effective salespeople must ask questions in order to dig to the heart of the issue, to peel back the layers that to uncover the real pain. If we fail to ask questions and listen, really listen, we will either lose the sale, or perhaps worse, provide them with solutions that are entirely inappropriate.
BoweryJE22
I like all the points you bring up! It reminds me of what coach Didonato was saying about asking quality questions, it seems backwards that the less you are talking the more likely you are to get the sale, but in practice is very effective. Not only does it make it seem like your not selling them the product it often allows the customer to sell the product to themselves.