When selling to a prospect it can be tempting to try to force the prospect to see things from your prospective. This is known as “painting seagulls in your prospects picture”. This name refers to attempting to forcefully add something to the prospect’s “picture”. This is not an ideal sales method because if a prospect doesn’t see the need for this new addition to their picture, forcing them to see from your perspective will simply not work. The correct approach to sales is not forcing perspectives or ideas, as sales should be a process of discovery leading to a mutually agreed upon set of truths. Introducing these “seagull statements” while usually well intended, can introduce red-herrings and unnecessary distractions, taking away from the question process that leads to mutual agreement.
Some examples of these seagull statements are:
You know what might be nice…
You may want to think about…
Picture this…
What I didn’t tell you yet is that you have the ability to…
What if I told you…
Some questions that would be much better for introducing your perspective to your prospect would be questions like:
Do you think that ___ would allow you to do this more effectively?
I don’t suppose ____ would be of any value, do you?
You didn’t mention ____; is that important?
With these questions you can arrive at that mutual agreement of truths and introduce your perspective without forcing your perspective on them and trying to paint a seagull in their picture that they don’t see there.
testacr22
This example that Sweet brought up in class was really informative and helped paint this picture. I think what you wrote about the correct approach to sales is not forcing perspectives or ideas, as sales should be a process of discovery leading to a mutually agreed upon set of truths incapsulates this perfectly.
I def did this in my sales pitch. I should have allowed her to come to the conclusion that she needed the product on her own rather than forcing it on her.
its really intriguing how easily a conversation can turn. even just stating a comment or question in the slightest way off turns the entire conversation. The examples really help you see the difference between seagull statements and ones that aren’t seagull statements
This is super true and I think this comes from the lack of understanding the customer. A lot of times we just want the prospective customer to be on the same page instead of asking them the right questions to really gain their trust.