"Sales restated" is the art of asking questions to learn about a buyer's needs. If your salespeople are doing more than one third of the talking in their sales meetings, they are telling, not selling.
Buyers are nice people. When in the company of a chatty salesperson, they are not likely to say, "Hey, it's my turn to talk." Instead, they smile politely and listen. Maybe they find the monologue educational. Entertaining, even. Or maybe their minds have turned to what to have for lunch.
Verbose sellers clog the airwaves with talk of product features and benefits. They regale their buyers with stories of successful implementations and happy customers. They believe that their role is to be a solutions expert and are exceptionally keen to fulfill that role. Sadly, by virtue of their approach, they actually short-circuit the sales process.
For the early-stage sales meetings, an astute sales professional leaves the sample bag in the trunk. They unburden themselves of the marketing glossies – there is a website for that information. They know that these things are a distraction and shift the conversation away from buyer needs. They arrive with two ears and one mouth, and proceed to use them in that proportion.
Facilitating a conversation regarding buyer needs, the heart of the salesperson's role, begins with the preparation of questions. Questions are used to invite the buyer to talk about what they are most concerned with – the problems they are experiencing and what they would like to achieve by relieving them.
Great pre-meeting prep includes writing some important questions to open conversational doors on three topics – the buyer's current situation, problems and desires. The seller prepares an agenda including some of these questions and emails it ahead of time to the client so the buyer knows where the meeting will be headed. The salesperson knows this displays professionalism and separates them from the sea of other sellers. They also know it will allow both parties to get the absolute most out of their time together.
When buyer and seller connect in person, the salesperson can start getting answers to those important questions. First come the "how, who and how much" questions. What is the current situation the buyer is facing relative to the seller's products and services? A financial advisor meeting with a prospective new client would want to know how the buyer is currently managing their portfolio. Who are they working with to fine-tune it? What have the returns been?
With the lay of the land obtained, the salesperson can prepare questions to learn what problems the buyer is facing that the salesperson can relieve. Is the buyer happy with the work their current advisor is doing? Do they find the returns satisfactory given the market conditions? Do they feel they are valued as a client?
Now that the problems are on the table, the salesperson can proceed to learn about the buyer's desired outcomes. They need to know exactly what the buyer would view as an improved situation so as to determine whether their company can provide it, and how they would go about doing so. The salesperson might start by asking, "What is your vision for the improved client experience you would like to have?"
The salesperson knows going into the meeting that they will, of course, need to do some talking about approach, methods and track record. However, this is merely a means to turning the conversation back to learning about this new buyer.
Sales leaders can prepare their teams to stop telling and start selling by gathering them together for a question formulation session. Have each salesperson share the questions they use to allow buyers to share their current situations, needs and desires. Create a repository of these questions on the shared drive to allow the team to draw on them when preparing for sales meetings.
The information age has some salespeople believing that buyers want information. But what buyers really want is for their needs and desires to be heard, understood and dealt with. Stop telling – let the Internet do that – and start selling by asking questions.
