5 questions to help you stand out
SHAKING THE TREE #44
Are you a talker?
Or are you a listener?
If you’re a talker, for a moment, I urge you to button it for a few minutes.
Here’s why:
The most important skill you’ll develop in business (and particularly in marketing and sales) is your ability to listen more than you talk.
It’s not your pitch or your opening that matters.
It’s not your closing or your follow up.
It’s your willingness to ask prospects and clients revealing questions and to then listen to the answers.
Back in 2012, I heard about a doctor who commented on marketing people in healthcare. He said that in any meeting with a healthcare rep, if he as the physician wasn’t the one doing all the talking, the marketing person was wasting the doctor’s time.
When you speak to a client or a prospect, instead of filling their teacup with a fire hose of information, step back, take a breate, and ask a few attention getting, door-opening questions.
Once you’ve asked your questions, do yourself a favour, shut the hell up, and listen to the answers.
In marketing the most valuable commodity you’ll gather is information about your prospect’s needs, preferences, wants, dreams, and desires.
Their experiences, perceptions, and their beliefs about you and your company—and their beliefs about what they’ll get from doing business with you—those things all play a vital role in your success as a sales person.
Key questions help you and your prospect.
The more you know about what your prospect thinks about you, about your products, and about your competition, the easier it is to use that knowledge to reengineer their perceptions about the outcome they’ll from doing business with you.
It’s their perceptions and beliefs of the outcome that shape their experiences and preferences about their desired result NOT your pitch or your sales presentation.
Think about this for a moment: if you’re in the market for a specific solution, who do you trust more? The person promising you the best price, or the person delivering you the best outcome?
The greater the alignment between the outcome your prospect sees herself receiving and the experiences you deliver, the more inclined she’ll be to buy from you again.
Marketing isn’t about convincing people. It’s about gently persuading people to see something for themselves. You then become the person to help them get it.
While your marketing delivers the message, it’s your job to deliver a better client experience than your competitors.
To help you do this, you’ll need to gather useful information. So here are 5 questions you must ask. It’s both polite and good form to ask if you can take notes.
What do you like least about dealing with people in sales?
From your prospect’s point of view this question automatically places you on the good guys list. From here you’re likely to learn how your prospect likes to be messaged to.
My pet peeve is cold calling.
I know sales people have to make appointments but if you’re going to make an appointment, ask for the appointment.
Don’t try selling me on your services first; tell me who you are and what you do.
Then ask if I’d be interested in arranging a meeting to learn more or to see a demonstration.
You might learn your prospect won’t do morning meetings, or that he or she doesn’t like unannounced visits.
Whatever you learn, make a note of it and then don’t do that thing. Few prospects will give you the time of day let alone meet with you if they see you as an unwelcome pest.
What could I do better to meet your needs?
This is the “How can I win more of your business?” question that doesn’t come right out and say as much.
If you learn that your prospect appreciates punctuality, be on time.
If they prefer prompt follow-up, follow up promptly. If you hear your prospect prefers guaranteed pricing and free shipping, offer those benefits.
Years ago in the U.K., and following several missed appointments by one of his sales people, I met with the managing director of a printing company I’d been using for five years.
He told me he’d be managing my account personally from then on. Had he not taken these steps, I’d have walked. But by quickly fixing the issue, he rebuilt my trust and kept my business.
Who do you serve and how can I help you serve those people better?
This is the “No more calls. We have a winner!” question. It connects you to your client by showing you have their client’s needs at heart.
Few marketing people ask about their client’s clients. But by doing so, you stand out from the crowd and you show your client that their client’s interests are your interests.
When you know who your clients serve and if you’re in a position to recommend their services to others, you align yourself in ways that few other sales people don’t.
When your discussion takes into consideration your client’s goals, and you’re in a position to help that client achieve those goals, you make yourself even more valuable.
What has a sales person done that’s impressed you?
This is another good intelligence gathering approach.
Emulate the good stuff and you’re gold. Your role is to serve your clients better than anyone else. Sales is as much about reading minds and exceeding people’s expectations as it is about purchase orders, commissions, and fulfillment.
Everything you do is sales. It’s all marketing. Your job is to ensure consistency of experience.
The following story from the Ritz-Carlton in Marina del Ray is a classic example. One evening an older couple in the bar ordered mai tais. The bartender asked if they were celebrating anything special. The wife explained they were on a pretend honeymoon in Hawaii because her husband had been diagnosed with cancer and was due to start chemo any day. They’d had plans for the trip but had had to postpone at the last minute because of his treatment.
Overhearing the conversation, another member of staff spoke with the manager to see what the hotel could do to give the couple something special.
When the manager heard the full story he asked the staffer to delay the couple going back to their room by 20 minutes.
The manager called the bartender and asked him to make the couple two tropical drinks. The manager went to the bar, presented the couple with the drinks (along with a pineapple on a plate) and a cheery “Aloha!”
He then informed them there had been a mix up with their rooms and that they were being moved to the Kapalua room.
When they got to their new room and opened the door they were met with a room that had been transformed into a tropical paradise. Asian lamps glowed on table tops, orchids bobbed in a gentle breeze.
There was a fishing net draped across the bed and shells and sand on the nightstands. There was even sand on the floor to create a little beach for the couple to stroll on.
The manager took photographs of the couple “in Hawaii”, and had the prints enlarged, framed, and presented to the couple as a memento of their visit. Because this couple couldn’t go to Hawaii, the hotel management had Hawaii come to them.
When you go above and beyond the call of duty to create a memorable experience you do more than just sell: you create a lasting bond.
What are the most important things you look for in our services?
The things that are important to you are seldom important to your clients. The things that are important to your clients are often things you’ve never thought of or heard of.
Take the German engineering company that believed that what mattered most to their clients was that the engineering firm had been in business for 75 years, that the company was family owned, and that they offered the best prices.
But when their customers were asked what was most important to them, price and the longevity of the company weren’t in the top ten attributes.
What mattered more to customers was on-time deliver, order accuracy and consistency, and swift resolution to billing and fulfillment issues.
When the engineering company addressed these issues, sales increased.
When they rewrote their marketing and sales training material to make sure sales and marketing staff knew how the company exceeded industry compliance standards, sales increased again. They were even able to increase their prices without losing customers.
In sales, collecting information about clients and customers is vital. The process relies on establishing and on maintaining lasting relationships as much it relies on the pitch and the close. Lasting vendor relationships don’t happen by accident: they need nurturing and management.
Forget what the other sales people in town are doing. It’s what you can do differently that matters and it’s how you can stand out from the crowd that will set you apart.
As a salesperson, your task is to sell, but it’s also to make your clients’ lives easier. The more you can do this, the more you will sell and the more you’ll be worth.
Don’t be afraid to ask key questions.
Be willing to listen to the answers.
Pay this process lip service and it will come back to bite you.
Again, by all means ask social questions, but save them until you’ve concluded your main business. When you ask key questions you reveal the best of yourself and you demonstrate to your client that you care about their outcome more than the other guy.
Even as margins shrink and as economies change, price often isn’t the factor that retains the client: it’s the strength and the power of the relationship.
As always, thanks for reading.
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P.S. Next time on Shaking the Tree … The power of a P.S.