I know exactly what you are thinking!
Day 53 – 312 days to go!
I am a mind reader therefore I don’t have to ask you what you are thinking, what you mean or ask questions that may unveil secrets that would lead me to the winners post!
How many times have you walked out of a sales meeting and gone ‘Uh duh!’
(These words are accompanied by the following action: hit the palm of your hand on your forehead!).
Why do we think as sales people we are mind readers?
Is it because we are ‘afraid’ to ask the questions or is it simply that we forget? Forgetting implies that we are not prepared, have not clarified our intent or purpose of the meeting and therefore wasted our time and our prospective customer’s time.
Being afraid – that is slightly different. It could be because we are not well prepared, flustered or rushed. But more often than not it is because we have got ourselves on our mind and not our customers interest.
I remember being shocked when my sales coach told me that I am being a disservice to my potential customer by not asking them ‘what their budget is, what is important to them, what is do they need from me etc.’.
A disservice – how was that possible?
Because I was afraid, I was nervous, I didn’t want to embarrass them or ask awkward questions. But how then could I help them if I didn’t know? How could I pitch my proposal to solve their problem if I didn’t ask everything surrounding the problem?
Next time you walk into a meeting, go prepared, and ask yourself ‘for whose benefit are you here’? If you are there only to make money then you are a discredit to the sales team. But if you are there to genuinely help the customer, to make their lives better, to help them solve a problem then you will never forget to ask… everything required to deliver a solution on time, in budget!
