WHAT HIT ME

What would you say if I told you that right now, I could tell you how much money you had in your pocket? How surprised would you be if I were able to pick your car out in a mall parking lot? Would you be shocked if you received an e mail from me in the next 2 minutes and your driver’s license number was in the e mail?

I am going to guess any of these things would amaze you, and just for the record, they would amaze me even more if I could do them!

I don’t think anyone can predict the future, I don’t think anyone can read minds, I don’t think anyone has physic power. I do however believe that a good sales rep should know what the customer is thinking (sort of).

Let me explain, a professional sales rep usually knows the art of “Question for Direction”. This is asking questions of the customer that will give you the information you need to predict what direction the customer is heading with the sale.

If you ask questions about investment costs and the customer answers without any hesitation with a good knowledge of the ROI of your product or service than you can be relatively certain that the price isn’t going to be a deal breaker at the end of the sale. If you ask about safety or reliability, longevity, ease of use or any other topic the answer you receive should give you a good indication as to what the customer is thinking and where they are going to go as you move the sale forward.

Question for Direction is an old and reliable method used to uncover objections BEFORE they are brought up by the customer. If used correctly you will have no surprises when you close the sale.

I have had sales reps tell me that they “Didn’t See That Coming” when a customer throws an obstacle at them right at the end of the sale. Whenever I hear a rep tell me that I always ask the rep what they asked the customer to uncover the problem before it was a problem. The answer I get most of the time is...NOTHING!

I have done a lot of sales meetings over my career and a fair share of them have been sports related. It is always an easy jump from sales to sports. Let me add one more sports analogy to my long list of sports analogies. If any of you follow boxing you know that you can watch a boxer’s feet and tell a lot about how they are doing. A boxer who is up on his (I say his because most boxers are males, but there are some very good and extremely talented female boxers as well) toes and moving is fresh and in control of himself. A boxer who is flat footed and standing still is tired and starting to wear out. A boxer on his heels is off balance and ready to go down.

Not knowing the direction your customer is going to go is like being caught flat footed, you are on the brink of going down! The next words I usually hear from sales reps in this position are, “WHERE DID THAT COME FROM”? Nothing good comes from those words in sales!

Lorin