Proverbs 18:2

Proverbs 18:2 

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

Christian Based Selling

Through our work as sales professionals we gain a great deal of insight about the issues our prospective clients face.  It can be tempting to demonstrate your knowledge by telling the client how you think the issue is most likely playing out in their organization.  The prospect may nod and agree.   Or perhaps your colleague jumped into the conversation to tell the prospect about how his/her problem is manifesting in the company.  

We need to take pleasure and be content in asking smart questions.  The question might be the most obvious thing in the world but we must refrain from answering it for the prospect.  It is far more powerful for the prospect to experience,  through their own words, how this problem is impacting the business and their job.   We need to capture these words and details in our notes because we will use them to create a compelling proposal that shows that we understand them better than anyone else.  These insights will serve us well in negotiation as well.

Take pleasure in listening to your prospective client and seek to understand their world.   Prep with your colleagues before meetings to remind them that you will be asking questions and they need to allow the prospect to answer.  Non-sales people often do not understand why we ask questions that seem to have obvious answers.   Let's say the prospect shares they almost lost their biggest customer.  I would ask, Has this happened before with other customers?  What would happen if you had lost your biggest customer?   How would that impact revenue performance?   Would people lose their job?  Who?  We ask because it helps us understand the magnitude and context of the problem.  

Once we fully understand the impact of the problem on the business and the players involved then we can shift to sharing how our solution can solve the issue and prevent these bad things from happening (lost customers, people losing jobs etc).

​Are you qualifying to the proper depth?  Are you rushing to tell your story?