One of the gaps I often see with sales people/teams is that we often prematurely celebrate success in discovering the prospect’s pains. We ask a good question to try to uncover a key issue the prospect would like to solve and then too quickly jump to the “answer” (which of course is always our “hammer looking for a nail”).
Here’s the challenge/opportunity:
I conducted a workshop recently where a sales rep with a large physical security company told the story of one of his clients who called explaining that he recently had a break-in to one of his warehouse facilities and wanted to better secure the facility. Great! A rookie sales rep might be tempted to “dash to the demo” or even the proposal to help answer this straightforward issue. This rep didn’t celebrate at this point, he kept asking more questions:
- “What was stolen?” The customer’s answer: Night vision goggles
- “Interesting – who were they intended for?” Answer: The Department of Homeland Security
- “Really? And what’s DHS’s reaction?” Answer: They are entitled to fine us $1Million per occurrence.
- “What if it happens again?” Answer: We run the risk of losing the largest contract in our business!
Now let’s consider the real-life case above: the sales person could have prematurely sold a security solution for a simple break-in, but instead, through a series of probing questions determined that this was more than a simple problem that warranted a more sophisticated (and more valuable) answer.
What about you – do you “dash to the demo”? Or, do you take the time and energy to ask a few more questions to really understand the prospect’s challenge and what it really means (quantified!) to their business?
I’d love to hear your stories as well…..
Thanks for your post. I am very much a sales rookie (I am a start up business owner) and have noticed how when I “dash to demo” hasn’t been working.
My most recent customers were gained via networking events where we had an opportunity to talk and discuss their business.
I really need advice in the area of sales and qualifying leads as the dash to demo technique has proven to be both time consuming (setting up demos) and unsuccessful.
“Focus on discovery in the early part of the process – and not demonstrations. When we show the prospect the solution (before we really know if it will be a good fit for their needs) it not only makes us look like a hammer looking for a nail, it also compromises our leverage in the relationship because once they see the solution the prospect often perceives they no longer “need” us. For more details – check out the book “Hope is Not a Strategy, by Rick Page.