Proverbs 18:2

Proverbs 18:2 

A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion.

Christian Based Selling

There is a great awareness among professional sales people that we need to ask open-ended qualifying questions to discover the needs of the customer.   However, when we are in a meeting and the contact shares that they have the type of problem our solution can solve it is funny how easy it is to make the mistake of jumping into telling the prospective client about our great solution.  We are so excited to have found a good prospect that we want them to be just as excited about us and our solution.

We need to remind ourselves before going into the meeting that only a fool would miss the opportunity to seek to understand the full context of the problem BEFORE explaining how our solution can help.  If we have colleagues attending the meeting we need to remind them we will be asking a number of questions and they need to wait on our signal before answering questions about our solution.  It is easy to lose control of the meeting if you and your team start answering questions about your solution without having qualified the needs of the client. 

Good selling is about strong execution of the fundamentals.  Therein lies the opportunity and the challenge. 

Have you found yourself talking too soon and too much?  Did a collegue jump into pitching your solution before you were done qualifying?  What can you do differently before and during your next meeting?