Pay Attention

Between the guest speakers and Professor Sweet’s lectures for the past week, one topic really stands out to me that I want to write about in this blog: Knowing who you are speaking with.

It’s a cool concept to be able to get to know someone in a matter of minutes. Salespeople we’ve heard from this week seem like they can get to know information about a person that it would take others years to figure out. As a high school student, I could easily tell you that only a small handful of people knew where I wanted to be in five years, and what kind of interests I had. But, as coach demonstrated, by knowing a little information about the client, he could easily ask the right questions and he knew exactly what schools the person was interested in and what passions the person had.

His procedure started before he even met the client, what he called the “pre-call analysis”. Before meeting, he would see what information he could find about about the client. Information like grades, demographic, and interests might be easier to find than one would think. Even by google searching a name, we can find newspaper records and other helpful information to show us the character and interest of the clients.

Next, when he had met the customer, he would begin with a needs analysis. Should he and the client even be having a conversation? In this phase of the sales process it is important to ask general open ended questions. Really, let the other person guide the conversation to bringing up what they are interested in or fascinated about. Sometimes a student would tell coach they were interested in going to a party school, and coach would end the conversation there- if he isn’t able to help meet the needs of the client, then there isn’t a point in having a sale.

If the need analysis goes well, then we can move into need awareness. In this phase, you are getting the customer to hone in on what is really important to them. They are explaining the problem to you, but are also explaining the customer to themselves. It is good here to ask probing questions, questions that get them to talk in further depth about their needs and problems.

Finally, if there is a match in interests, you can begin to tell about the benefits of the program or product you are offering. Only if you feel it meets that customer’s needs or solves their problem. If you list off features or details about the product, you’re going to lose interest and bore your customers. If you list off how this program can benefit them, attach it to their needs, then you’ve made some good progress.

Finally, you can reach out and ask for the customer’s business. You’ve (in an odd sense) earned their business. Give them a way to contact you, or ask for their information to follow up with them. Keep those lists of need satisfactions around to use later on in conversation with the customer, to help them keep their biggest problems as a priority.