Although salesmen have a lot of product knowledge and personal opinions on their product, Sandler tells them to keep it to themselves in his rule number eight-teen “Don’t paint seagulls in your prospects picture”
This is a weird way of saying don’t force your customer to see the product the way you do. Although you may believe it’s the best way it just doesn’t matter. Customers, most likely, already have a vision of what they want, and they do not need you painting over them.
This Sandler rule seems to stem from another Sandler Rule: “Don’t answer any unasked questions”. There is no need to introduce red herrings into the conversation. If the customer wants to know about something they will ask.
Instead of showing the prospect the picture you have painted of your product, it is important to figure out what their picture looks like. Through a simple line of questioning it is easy to figure out how the customer currently views the product. Once the sales person sees the product from the seller’s point of view they will be able to answer and ask dummy questions, that allow the customer to paint in what is missing from the picture of their perfect product.
Therefore, the seller does not take the brush and paint the customer a picture, the salesman gives the customer the proper information and technique to finish the painting themselves.
BoweryJE22
This is very true. You have to let the prospect feel they are in control, and to a certain extent give them that crucial control by not stepping over boundaries.