- Don’t accept a false premise.
- Do be skeptical.
- Is it really the problem, or is it a symptom?
Too many salespeople rely upon a false premise as they attempt to “qualify” and develop a selling opportunity.
The false premise they rely on sounds like this:“Prospects understand their own problems well enough not only to recognize what created those problems, but also to identify suitable solutions when they team up with a salesperson who’s willing to ask a few ‘probing questions.’”
It sounds implausible when you put it into words, doesn’t it?Yet this is precisely the assumption under which most salespeople operate.
Have you ever taken a prospect’s “diagnosis” of a problem at face value?It’s very easy to do.The more complex the problems are, and the more pressing they seems to be, the less likely it is that prospects will have invested the time to look beyond the symptoms to identify the origins of the problems.This is true even if the prospect should happen to know what to look for, which is, as we know, very often not the case.
In psychiatric medical school, the first lesson students learn is this one:
THE PROBLEM THE PATIENT BRINGS YOU IS NEVER THE REAL PROBLEM
In sales training school, the first lesson to be learned should be:
THE PROBLEM THE PROSPECT BRINGS YOU IS NEVER THE REAL PROBLEM
Your prospect has learned over the years to protect vulnerabilities by not revealing the real problems “up front.”Showing you the true “pain” could put the prospect in an unwanted, high-risk situation.(See Rule #37, All Prospects Lie, All the Time.)This may, from our point of view, seem illogical.Why would the prospect want to waste his time, or ours?To understand the special logic of the prospect, and the inescapable importance of “saving face” in human relationships, consider the following episode between a husband and wife.
While surfing the Internet one evening, our prospect sees a move advertisement and says to his wife, “I’m hearing some good things about the latest Matt Damon movie.You probably don’t want to go to that film, do you, honey?”
Wife:“Well, I might like to go.”
Prospect:“How about this evening?”
Wife:“Oh, no.Not this evening.”
To which our prospect who really would like to go to the movie replies,
Prospect:“I don’t feel like going tonight, either.”
Our prospect is safe.No vulnerabilities have been exposed!
There’s a very similar dynamic in play during the early discussions with any salesperson.For instance, in our industry, people may tell us that members of their sales team have problems with their “closing techniques.”We have an obligation to ask whether that is really the problem – or whether the unacceptably low closing ratios are simply a symptom of a deeper issue, such as the company’s salespeople spending most or all of their “selling” time with people who have no authority to make decisions.In fact, that’s a qualifying problem, not a closing problem.
The next time you are tempted to accept a prospect’s assessment of a problem – don’t.Relying on prospects in this way is a bad idea.When we do this, we may “buy-in” to the prospects perceptions about their problems, which rarely touch on the real causes, and are often (let’s face it) delusional.In addition, we may find ourselves accepting the prospect’s focus on apparent “solutions” to improperly diagnosed problems – “solutions” that will be, at best, premature and, at worst, entirely inappropriate.
DIAGNOSIS IS THE SALESPERSON’S RESPONSIBILITY
As professional salespeople, we must have comprehensive knowledge not only about the products and services we sell, but also of the current and potential problems and challenges of the prospects on whom we call.We must know how to diagnose prospects’ perceivedproblems – by looking beyond the symptoms and identifying the underlying causes, the real problems to be addressed.If we don’t bring that knowledge with us on a sales call, it is unlikely that we will find it when we shake hands with the prospect.
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