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Time to differentiate yourself
Posted by Colin Wilson
In May 08
For many, selling is getting tougher… decisions are taking longer or being postponed… basic salaries look the norm, big fat commissions a thing of the past… and it’s going to get worse… not overnight, but over months. This may look bad, but it’s good news, there’s still time to adjust. People and companies will still spend, they will spend less and when they do they will be more careful, more considered and will want to make sure they will be getting even greater value for money than ever before… and they will give their cash to the most deserving of sales professionals… those that add personal value… therefore time to differentiate yourself from the rest.
Those that will find it difficult
The walking talking brochures will not do well… order takers will wonder why they have lost their magic touch… spreadsheet jockeys will not finish the race… and internal pen pushing managers will wonder why everyone is leaving to pastures new. However, those that do well are the ones who will be differentiating themselves.
Figuring the differential
So, you, as an individual sales professional… how do you believe you add the greatest value to your customer?
What skill do you have that most customer’s will value above all other skills?
What simple thing can you do that will differentiate you from all of the sales journeymen?
The differential
If you haven’t figured it yet, the last three paragraphs demonstrate what I believe will differentiate you from the rest… questions… you need to be skilled at asking questions… not any questions, but great questions… ask great questions and you will get invited back.
As a rule of thumb a great question should require the answerer to think for about 30 seconds before they answer. Yep, 30 seconds is a long time, but during that time the answerer is firing electrical currents along neurological pathways in their brain and so they will find it easier to remember the conversation, the topic is real and they need to make sense of it. The questions are so great they are thinking through their problems and arriving at some answers. You haven’t told them the answer, just facilitated it and because they have come up with the answers then the ownership is there.
As I have mentioned before in a previous post or two, it is a quote from an old friend of mine that best sums up this process… Ben Franklin apparently said… “Tell me and I will forget. Show me and I might remember. Involve me and I will understand”… a great quote, but slight exaggeration on my part about Ben being an old friend… he was a little before my time!
Great questions
If you want to be able to ask great questions that gets your prospect thinking, then you will have no choice but to do some great research. You have to be knowledgeable about your products, their benefits, your competitors, your customer, their industry, the economic trends, political trends, etc, etc. You have to keep abreast of these things. You have to do your research. You will have to craft your questions. There is work to be done, but who said selling in difficult times is going to be easy!
3 Comments
Colin,
Great sharing! In this day and age it is not what you are selling, what you are telling, or what you think you can do to convince. It is about investigating in a way that shows you understand some and want to understand much much more. It is about showing people that you are a thought leader and one to trust. This only comes in the deep dive that great questions deliver.
Karl
Right on, Colin! The future belongs to the prepared. Customers expect you to know their business and have some ideas on how you can help before you walk in the door. Challenging times separate hack from professional.
Bang on Colin.
I think Neil Rackham summed things up really well when he said that selling has changed from being a game of “communicating value” (i.e. the value is in the product and the salesperson’s job is to communicate that to the customer to convine them to buy it) to one of actually “creating value” through the sales process. Through research, good questioning and a consultative approach, the salesperson can create value for the customer over and above that which comes with the product. And nowadays - they need to to survive, let alone prosper.
Best Regards
Ian