Strategic Selling Tip: Avoid Leading With "Methods"
Strategic Selling Tip – Leading With Methods Is Like Leading With Your Chin In Boxing
There are four things in this world that don’t last long:
- Dogs that chase parked cars.
- Pro golfers with 6 foot putts for par.
- Boxers that lead with their chin.
- Sales people that focus on “methods” instead of results.
A boxer’s chin is the weakest part of his body. Therefore, if he wants to win the boxing match he must protect his chin at all costs.
How you do what you do is the weakest part of your sales presentation with a prospect. It’s not sexy, it’s probably boring and it’s also probably similar to what your competitors do, which means it’s easy for your prospect to compare apples to apples. (When’s the last time you asked a surgeon what size scalpel he would use to make the initial incision or the size of thread he’d use to patch you back up after the operation?)
That is why you must get the prospect talking about their goals, their business issues, their desired outcomes. Then get them to put a cost or revenue goal on those results.
For example: I recently met with a business owner that has 4 sales people, multiple technicians and other staff that, among other things, offers a $2,000 training course that runs for two days and typically has 5-6 attendees per class. His goal is to conduct a class every week but he can’t always get enough to justify it.
If I can help him get 5 people every week or 6-7 people in every class every week that would add $100,000 to $200,000 to his bottom line every year for the rest of his life. (He has been in business 14 years so this is worth $1.4 to $2.8 million if he’s in business another 14 years!!)
In light of those numbers offering a $20,000 consulting package for 90 days of assistance is NOTHING. ($20,000 / $2,800,000 = .7% [that's 7/10ths of 1 percent!]).
Ok, I know. 20 grand isn’t chump change and he may not have it stuffed in the cushions of his couch but if just one of his offerings is generating that type of revenue – I haven’t even mentioned the other 20 things he does to make money – then you know paying $6 – $7k per month for three months won’t put him in the poorhouse.
But I wouldn’t have known this information if I had shown up and merely discussed my “methods” to help him grow sales.
When people ask me “can you help me?” my honest answer is always “I don’t know. Tell me about you; your people; your goals; your issues.”
Once I have those answers I can then address whether or not I can help them. Until they answer those questions I’m just tooting my own horn to a person that may be tone deaf.
So tuck your chin in behind your gloves and ask better questions up front. When done correctly your prospects will tell you what they want to buy, how they’d like to pay for it and when they can buy it from you.
