“I will greet this day with love in my heart.” – The Scroll Marked II, The Greatest Salesman In the World by Og Mandino

Love can be hard to pin down to a single definition. In the second principle for becoming the greatest salesperson the world has ever seen, qualities like gratitude, passion, enthusiasm and optimism are grouped under the subject of love; each of these facets of love is required to truly succeed as a salesperson.

Think of the mental outlook this principle encourages the would-be salesperson to embrace: if you truly greet the day with love in your heart, do you think that a little discouragement or rejection will stop you? That’s the power of optimism, the part of love that’s always looking to the future with hope and a smile.

Mandino nails it when he says that “only the unseen power of love can open the hearts of men”. You’ve likely seen this in action. Think of the last time you were dealing with a real skeptic, a nay-sayer who had absolutely no interest in hearing about what you had to offer. How would you set about winning such a person over to your way of thinking? Would you try to persuade with logic and reasoning? Try that and let me know how it works out. Trying to convince another person they’re wrong with logic is like pushing a wheelbarrow full of bricks up a hill: no fun at all.

If, on the other hand, that same person was able to see your passion and enthusiasm for your offering in action, they might eventually warm up to hearing what you have to say. It reminds me of the Tom Sawyer story about the picket fence: Tom is able to convince the other kids in the neighborhood to pay him for the privilege of doing his chores, not by reasoning with them, but by demonstrating how much he enjoyed doing the task. And even though Tom was faking his enthusiasm for the job, the other children caught his enthusiasm and begged to be allowed to do the work. Imagine how much more effective sincere enthusiasm would be! That’s the power of love.

How exactly does one “greet the day with love”, though? I love Mandino’s explanation:

“Henceforth will I look on all things with love and I will be born again. I will love the sun for it warms my bones; yet I will love the rain for it cleanses my spirit. I will love the light for it shows me the way; yet I will love the darkness for it shows me the stars. I will welcome happiness for it enlarges my heart; yet I will endure sadness for it opens my soul. I will acknowledge rewards for they are my due; yet I will welcome obstacles for they are my challenge.”

Once again, it comes down to the choices we make. When it comes to feeling and expressing love, gratitude helps. If we’re grateful for what we have, even what challenges us, we can show it love. If we lack gratitude and are always wishing we had something better, love is going to be hard to find. And who decides whether we are grateful or not? I think you know the answer. Gratitude, like any trait, is something we have to choose to maintain.

A secret formula for expressing this love is to “in silence and to myself…address him (those you come in contact with) and say I Love You.” Why? because, “though spoken in silence these words will shine in my eyes, unwrinkle my brow, bring a smile to my lips, and echo in my voice; and his heart will be opened.” Master that ability, “and who is there who will say nay to my goods when his hearts feels my love?”

To quote Huey Lewis, that’s the power of love!

“Today I begin a new life.” – From The Scroll Marked I, “The Greatest Salesman In the World” by Og Mandino

Today begins our consideration of the 10 principles outlined in Og Mandino’s masterpiece, “The Greatest Salesman In the World”. The quote above, extracted from the first scroll is the perfect start to this process (which is probably why Mandino put it first, right?): Today I begin a new life!

I love the power of that statement. It says that even if I go to sleep a failure tonight, I can choose a different path in the morning. Imagine that: every morning, on rising, you have the power to decide! You can decide how you’ll spend the day, whether in activities that will carry closer to your goals or in procrastination, worry and anxiety; it’s entirely up to you. The question is, what will you do with your power?

I love the next line: “Today I shed my old skin which hath, too long, suffered the bruises of failure and the wounds of mediocrity.” That, dear readers, is the power of choice. The fact that you can, at any moment, shed the skin of failure and mediocrity and choose to pursue greatness. Each of us has that ability. I know that can sound like a load of new-age, feel-good, touchy-feely crap to someone who’s feeling down-and-out; I wish there was a way for me to assure you that you can do incredible things if you just want to badly enough, but that’s a lesson you have to learn for yourself.

Think of all the times you’ve ever faced a crisis situation, whether it was emotional, physical or financial. Let me ask you: how did it feel to be in that moment? Pretty desparate, right? And yet, looking back on it, how does it feel now? Time has a way of lending perspective, doesn’t it? Some of the most desparate situations seem laughable ten years after. We learn along the way that the only way to overcome lifes challenges is to continue to put one foot in front of the other, to lean a little harder into it, to get up tomorrow and start all over again.

This isn’t drudgery or resignation, though; it’s resolution. Do you have that kind of resolution for your business or your sales career? I hope so, because without it, you’re dead before you start. Life is going to hit you pretty hard sometimes. A friend of mine posted a quote on Facebook the other day, and it was incredibly moving. It was from the movie Rocky Balboa:

“Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It is a very mean and nasty place and it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t how hard you hit; it’s about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward. How much you can take, and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done.”

And that’s how we start our journey toward becoming the greatest salesperson (or business person or artist or father) the world has ever seen: by deciding today to begin a new life. Whatever challenges you’ve faced in the past, let them live in the past. The ones who’ve done you wrong, let them go and send a little love their way. The circumstances that have held you back all these years, shake them off and start again. Whatever the mistakes and indiscretions of yesterday, leave them behind and embrace the gift of NOW. It’s the only moment that really exists, anyway, so why not direct all your effort and energy to making it the best NOW it can be?

“Today my old skin has become as dust. I will walk tall among men and they will know me not, for today I am a new man, with a new life.”

Joel D Canfield, The Commonsense Entrepreneur

***Note from Jerry: I’m looking forward to a lively debate on this one.  My friend, Joel D Canfield, wrote this post.  I’m guessing some of you will have an opinion you’d like to share with Joel.  I certainly do.  I’ll withhold mine for a couple of days to allow the debate to run its course, then chime in with a post of my own in response (just because we’re friends doesn’t mean we always see eye-to-eye).  Only one rule: play nice.  Let your voice be heard, but please do it respectfully.  Let the games begin! ***

As I sit here waiting for my computer to finally open this image for editing, I ponder my control issues.

My computer isn’t especially slow. I just demand a lot from it. Sometimes it rebels by usurping control. (Tom Berarducci says that spinning hourglass is because computers don’t have the physical facilities to make other gestures.) I sit and watch, unable to click on something else, anything else, so I can do something while I wait on my computer.

Some programmer somewhere decided that my computer and I needed protection from each other; that, at some point, I was going to ask too much, or the wrong thing, and that it’s best to decide on my behalf when I should click, and when I should sit and wait.

It’s maddening. Yes, I know that if I go do other things, the already-slow process will become slower. And if I do too much, I can bog it down to the point that it appears not to move at all.

I don’t care. It’s my choice. Well, it should be.

When you’re talking to and working with clients or prospects or suspects, do you give them control? Do they know that when and how and if this process moves forward is their choice? Are they comfortable pushing things in a new direction, asking for something that’s not on the menu, engaging you in a dialog that involves more than multiple choice or true and false responses?

Those people who give you the privilege of being in business, your clients and prospects and suspects—do you put them through maddening spinning-hourglass moments where they feel powerless, helpless to do (or get you to do) what they know, clearly and obviously, is the right thing?

My friend Trevor Gay talks about giving power away in order to keep it. Move the fulcrum closer to the work, and your lever is more effective. Move the perception of control to match the center of real control (with them, not you) and you become more effective.

Since parenting skills make great business skills, here’s an example of giving control and being more effective: our 5-year-old loves changing her clothes eleven times a day. She knows something vague about clothing belonging in drawers, but never quite got the concept that similar clothes went in similar drawers, or that the clothing should be clean when it was put in the drawers.

Last time Mommy organised the Little One’s dresser, we took a different tack. Since LO loves maps, Mommy had her draw a map of the dresser, with labels for what clothing went in which drawer. It was fun, but more importantly, it gave her control. She chose what went where. When she was done, she had a map and a process that made sense to her.

And her clean clothes are still in the right drawers, a month later. (I suspect we should add the hamper to the map . . . )

A primary business failure is succumbing to the fear that this one might get away; that if we don’t control the situation, we’ll lose the sale or contract or opportunity. Here’s the reality: you can’t lose control. You never had it.

Enlightened entrepreneurs don’t fear this realisation, they embrace it; they shine a bright light on it; they make real sure their clients and prospects and suspects know who’s really in charge.

Of course, they know already. They just need to know that you know too.

I had a little time to catch up on some reading last week, and I’ve gotta tell you about two fantastic books that you should make it your goal to read as soon as possible.

The first is Og Mandino’s classic “The Greatest Salesman In the World“, and it’s one of those “life-changing” books (so read at your own peril) filled with “a-ha!” moments and epiphanies.  I’ve been hearing about what a great book this is for years, and it did not disappoint.  Mandino, through a cleverly-written business fable, reveals ten principles that will fundamentally change the way you think about selling.  I was so moved by the “secret” principles revealed, in fact, that I’ll be dedicating a post to each of them in the coming weeks.  If you haven’t read it, grab a copy and prepare to be moved.

The second is one of the “new classics” for business: “Go For No!” by Richard Fenton and Andrea Waltz.  Richard and Andrea were kind enough to contribute a guest post here last week, and it’s a great introduction to the ideas presented in the book.  ”Go For No!” is another from the business-fable genre, and an incredibly powerful one at that.  It’s based on the idea that the difference between mediocrity and greatness, in sales or anything else, all comes down to the way you deal with hearing “No”.  Sound familiar? Now you know why I’m such a big fan!  Get your copy today, read it immediately, and start putting the idea into practice!

Be sure to check back here tomorrow for the first part of the new Og Mandino inspired series: “10 Secrets To Becoming the Greatest Salesperson In the World”.

Welcome to the 4th and final step in the Getting to “Yes” series!  By now, all your preparation is done and you’re ready to commence with the presentation of your perfect solution and the conversion of this prospect into a client.

I know you’re probably used to referring to this part as “closing” the deal, but I’m really going to encourage you to change that to “convert” in your mind.  ”Closing” conjures up images of hard-selling and manipulation, and you’ve invested far too much time and effort into this process to revert to those tired old methods now.  The second a prospect feels like they are being “closed”, your chances of getting a “Yes” are seriously diminished; it’s normally at that point that the prospect drops back into “Maybe” mode, and we don’t want to drive them there.

“Closing” also has a note of finality that shouldn’t exist in a selling situation.  In very few instances will this be the only time a prospect has a need for your product or service.  If you “close the deal” and quickly move on to your next kill, you may miss out on those future opportunities; take the time to form a relationship by converting them into a client, though, and you’ll be the one they call next time.

When presenting your solution, you need to make the atmosphere comfortable for your prospect.  Remember: uncomfortable prospects don’t buy.  The more relaxed you are, the more relaxed your prospect will be.  And you should be relaxed; you’ve got all the information you need and you’ve created a perfect solution, right?  There’s nothing to be nervous about!

Make the presentation a conversation.  Don’t be so caught up in what you’re saying that you neglect the prospect.  Ask questions, engage with the prospect, and make it a two-way interaction.  Resist the urge to regurgitate information; this is your turn to talk, but that doesn’t mean you have to blow through the presentation without feedback.  Asking questions during the presentation is a sure-fire way to unccover anything that might have been overlooked during your discovery phase.

Now comes the easy part: conversion.

Yes, that’s right: conversion is the easy part.  Once you’ve gathered all the necessary information, created a perfect solution, and presented it to the prospect, conversion should be a cinch.  In fact, I really believe that there is only one question you need to ask after your presentation: Does this make sense to you?  If you’ve done all your homework right, there’s a pretty good chance that the answer will be “Yes”, at which point all that remains is to complete the paperwork.

And if the answer is “No”?  Chances are pretty good that you’ve missed something critical along the way.  It may have been a question that you didn’t ask, or you may have misread the prospects decision-making modality.  Don’t panic!  Simply start asking questions again.  ”You know, Mr. Prospect, I think I must have missed something.  Can you share with me what part of this solution doesn’t make sense to you so that I can understand whether I need to clarify something in the presentation?”  Re-engage in a conversation, find out what you missed, make any necessary adjustments, and set up a time to re-present.

And what about those times when you haven’t missed anything and the prospect still says “No”?  It happens.  Sometimes, for whatever reason, the answer is going to be “No”.  Maybe the prospect has a brother-in-law in the business, and getting your input was just a formality.  Maybe something in your personality rubbed him the wrong way.  Maybe he didn’t get the last jelly donut in the breakroom.  Whatever the reason, “No” happens.  Let me ask you though: would you rather have a “Maybe”?   I didn’t think so!

Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, have a good cry if you need to, AND MOVE ON!  I love the phrase SWSWSWN, and I repeat it to myself often.  It means Some Will, Some Won’t, So What, NEXT!  Adopt that philosphy, learn to love “No”, and you’re guaranteed to succeed.

I hope you’ve enjoyed these two series as much as I have, and I’d love to hear your feedback.  Please leave your comments on any of the posts, and I look forward to our conversation.

Alright: it’s time to get creative!  So far in the NEADS analysis, you’ve been gatering information: asking questions about the prospect’s current solution and observing their behavior to get a feel for their decision-making modality.  With all this information at your disposal (hopefully you’ve taken a lot of notes!), it’s time to enter the final phase of the NEADS process: the S, which stands for Solution.

WARNING: this does not mean it’s now time to pitch your pre-packaged, canned, one-size-fits-all, “pretty-good” solution.  No, my friend; remember, you’re trying to get a “Yes”, and one sure-fire way to miss that mark is to hit your prospect with a canned pitch!

I’m constantly amazed at the salespeople I encounter who don’t get this.  They listen politely while you talk about what you’re looking for, nodding their heads as if they understand and agree, then tell you why what you’re looking for isn’t really what you want, but they’d like to show you their featured product which is so much better for your situation.  No thanks.  When I encounter a salesperson like that, I say “Good day to you!” and go in search of a HERO instead.

What causes a salesperson to behave like this?  Mental laziness!  They’ve taken the time to learn just enough about their product to be able to regurgitate the company’s sales brochure.  They aren’t really listening when they’re nodding their pointy-little heads, either; they’re thinking of what they’re going to say to “overcome your objections” and waiting for an opportunity to butt-in and start pitching you.  It’s maddening!

You can set yourself apart from these cro-magnon sales brutes by doing one simple thing: give your prospects what they ask for!  By taking all the information you’ve gathered so far and putting your mind to work to come up with an offering that exactly fits your prospect’s needs, you’re immediately in a better relationship with the prospect.  Trust me: the majority of your competitiors are not doing this.  In fact, you may be the first salesperson this prospect has ever encountered who presented him with a solution tailored to his needs instead of trying to cram him into a pre-packaged product.

But what if you don’t have a solution that exactly fits the prospects needs?  You have two choices: you can either get creative and come up with one or you can be honest, tell the prospect “We don’t have what you’re looking for”, and refer him to someone who does.  Those are really you’re only two legitimate choices; if you manipulate the prospect into settling for a solution that doesn’t exactly fit his needs, you’ll damage your relationship permanently.  You’ll lose trust.  You’ll be dealing with buyers remorse, and possibly a cancelled sale.

Don’t be afraid to be creative.  Just because your company might not currently offer an exact solution, talk to others and see if you can come up with a way to do it.  Don’t walk away from the deal just because you don’t feel like thinking!  After all, you have all the information you need: you know what they’re doing now, what the Enjoy about it, what they’d like to Alter and how they’ll be processing the information you present to make their final decision.  If you and your team can’t come up with a perfect solution that exactly fits your prospect’s needs, maybe sales isn’t the right career for you.

Sales isn’t about pitching product; it’s about solving problems.  Again, that’s why you get paid the big bucks!  If you’ll take the time to create a perfect solution for your prospect, “Yes” is just around the corner.  All that remains to be done is present your solution and convert the prospect into a client (AKA “close the deal”).  That’ll be the topic of tomorrow’s post, the 4th step in Getting to “Yes”.  Until then, happy selling!

_____________________________________________

And for those of you who just can’t live without it, here’s the take-away from American Idol this week: don’t be forgettable!  When you have an opportunity to be in front of prospects, make it a memorable experience for them.   Instead of the same pitch-fest they’ve heard from every other salesperson they’ve ever seen, be different.  Engage them in a conversation.  Listen to what they have to say.  Be more concerned about helping them solve a problem than in making a commission.  If you can get them to remember you in a positive way, your job is halfway done.

And as for this week’s predictions, I say it’s time for Jermaine, Tim, Haeley and Didi to be “Leaving On A Jet Plane”.  We’ll see if I do any better this week.

Richard Fenton and Andrea Waltz of Go For No

The word ‘YES’ is so positive, encouraging… and it means we’re succeeding. ‘NO’ on the other hand, is bad, depressing… and it means we failed.  What if, starting today, the word ‘no’ didn’t stop you? What if every time you heard the word no, you became stronger, more powerful, and more resilient?  Well you can.

For most of us, we don’t like to hear the word “no” when it comes to selling our products and services. We fight our way through it every step of the way.  If you are working your business and when you get a “yes” you feel wonderful and when you get a ”no” you feel bad, then you are going to feel bad pretty often.  Because when you are in business, when you sell anything – especially today – the No’s are out there!  And if you are feeling bad about the “no’s” you get, you might slow down, get discouraged, avoid business building… you might even quit altogether.

Yet there is an irony about Yes and No (Failure and Success) and it is this: when you go out of your way to increase the number of “no’s” you get, the yeses will show up at your door in greater quantities than you ever could have imagined! This is the essence of the “Go for No!” philosophy.

In part it is a “numbers game.” However, in addition to getting more NO’s we want you to start feeling differently about the process. Stop fighting and battling through the NO’s!  So, the question is, how do you start feeling good about hearing “no” in your business?  You can do it by reprogramming the way you think about it.  You must think differently about the no’s that you are hearing. The truth is that when you hear “no” you are taking action in your business and that is a very good thing! Take pride in the NO’s that you are getting. Start rewarding yourself for your the NO’s rather than punishing. After a “no” you must celebrate and at all costs avoid your negative self talk: (“He said ‘no’ – what am I doing? I can’t do this. I’m a total failure”…on and on.)

In fact, we would like to challenge you to get 10 no’s this week. And if you get those 10 no’s we would like you to go out and treat yourself to your favorite thing. Because you are engaging in the success behaviors that are going to take you to where you want to go. And who knows, when you go for those ten no’s there might be some yeses hiding in there!

Each day that passes, we’re getting closer to “Yes”.  Are you excited?  Great! Let’s move on to Step 2 in the Getting to “Yes” series: understanding how your prospects make decisions.

Yesterday we discussed the first three questions of the NEADS analysis: what does the prospect do Now, what do they Enjoy about what they do now, and What would they like to Alter or change about what they do now?  That brings us to the D in NEADS, and the spot where I modify this Tom Hopkins piece a bit.

Tom suggests that the D stands for Decision maker, as in make sure at this point that you’re talking to a person who can actually sign on the dotted line when the time for conversion comes. I disagree for two reasons: first, this is a little late in the process to be finding out if you’re talking to the right person; you really should be trying to take care of that while you’re in Getting to “No” mode.

The second, more important reason is simply my belief that the only way you’re ever going to know whether the person you’re talking to is the decision maker is to ask them to make a decision. It’s true: we’ve all had the experience of asking the right question (“So if we’re fortunate enough today to find a solution that fits your needs, who else will be involved in making the final decision?”), getting the right answer (“Oh, no one else will be involved…this is my decision to make!”) and still hearing at the conclusion of the meeting, “Everything looks great! I just need to get my supervisor’s approval so we can move forward.”

My suggestion is to stop worrying so much about whether you’ve got the decision maker and start paying attention to how the prospect makes decisions. That’s why I think that the D in NEADS really stands, not for “Decision maker” but for “Decision-making modality”.

Essentially, a prospect’s (or any other person’s) decision-making modality is the way they receive and process information before making a decision. There are four modalities: thinking, feeling, knowing and sensing. All of us use all four modalities, but there is usually one that dominates the way we decide on a course of action. As Jeremy Marchant and Kay McMahon of Emotional Intelligence At Work put it (in their article “We Make All Our Decisions Based On Feelings“):

They make the distinctions between the four modalities abundantly clear (better than I could) by relating what it would be like to have dinner at a restaurant with one of each of the types:

Got it? Good. If you can remember these differences the next time you’re talking to a prospect, you’ll have the inside track on getting a “Yes” because you’ll be able to present your solution in a way that appeals to the prospect’s decision making modality. But how can you tell which prospects use which modalities? Following the logic above, you might take them out for lunch; if that’s not possible, have a look around their office and really pay attention to the way they speak.

See lots of piles of papers in neat stacks with tons of data on them? You’ve probably got a thinker; bring lots of charts and graphs to support your presentation. She keeps talking about how she’d like to “cut to the chase” and “get down to brass tacks”? Likely a knower; make your presentation quick and impactful, using bullet points instead of paragraphs. Keeps getting misty-eyed when he’s talking about how happy he was the day he bought his first home? Sounds like a feeler; tell lots of stories during your presentation. Wants to see the pictures in the brochure or asks to touch a sample? Definitely a senser; a multi-media presentation would make his day.

If you can tune in to the decision-making modality of the prospect and design a presentation that speaks to that modality, you’re well on your way to getting the coveted “Yes”. Now all that remains to be done is to finish up the NEADS analysis by creating and presenting a Solution ( the S in NEADS) that exactly fits the prospects situation.

And of course, we’ll be talking about exactly how to do that tomorrow.

First off, I’d just like to acknowledge that my American Idol predictions last week (here and here) were a bit off.  No worries, though…a 25% closing ration isn’t bad!  Tune in tomorrow for my thoughts on AI this week, including more predictions about who’s going home.

Second, I’d like to let everyone know that I’ve added a couple of items to the “Free Downloads” page, courtesy of my friends Skip Anderson (B2C sales genius!) and Jim Keenan (B2B sales dy-no-mite!).  Also, a shout-out to Joel D Canfield for his help in getting the page to behave.  Thanks for your contributions, guys, and readers, look for more great tools to come!

Last, but certainly not least, a big thanks to all you who are reading this blog on a regular basis.  You guys make my day!

Cheers,

Jerry

So enough about “No” already; it’s time we take a look at the 4 steps you can follow to get you to “Yes” with those prospects who you’ve effectively qualified as good candidates for partnership.  If you’ve effectively avoided any treacherous “Maybe”s along the way, your shot at getting a “Yes” is starting from a much higher place already; now comes the fun part!

Any attempt at getting to “Yes” with your prospects should start with a complete NEADS analysis (yes, I know: it’s spelled wrong again…I’m getting there).  NEADS is an acronym I borrowed (and modified slightly; sorry Tom) from sales trainer extraordinaire Tom Hopkins.  Hopkins talks about the sales process as a series of questions leading to a logical conclusion, the proverbial “close” (or, as I like to think of it, conversion).  This post will discuss the first three letters of the acronym: N, E and A.

The N stands for Now, as in “How are you dealing with [insert specific challenge uncovered during discovery] now?”  The point of this question is to set a baseline for the rest of the discussion, the foundation on which your presentation will be built.  If you don’t know where you’re starting from , you’ll never know when you’ve arrived at your destination, or if you even needed to leave in the first place.

Finding out how the prospect is currently handling the problem you’d like to help them solve will also help you establish the thought process behind how they make decisions.  In fact, you might ask something like “Out of curiosity, how did you come to the decision to use that solution?”  This information will be critical later on, when building your solution.

In the meantime, you should be aware that sometimes the answer to the Now question is … nothing.  Sometimes, you will be the first at bat, the first one to take a stab at curing the prospect’s pain.  Of course, other times you’ll be up against a deeply entrenched incumbent.  Both situations have their particular challenges, so you have to know up front what you’re dealing with.  Thus the importance of the Now question.

The E stands for Enjoy, as in what does the prospect enjoy, like or even love about their current solution?  Sometimes we get so excited about sharing our solution, we don’t take the time to find out whether the prospect really wants a radical change.  That may be what we think is best, but we’re not the one in the decision-making seat. Find out what the prospect enjoys (and why!), and plan to give them more of the same.

This is pretty basic when you think about it: if a prospect really digs certain aspects of the solution they have now, who are you to rock the boat?  Wouldn’t it be better to find a way to integrate those aspects into your offering, maybe even improving upon or enhancing them in some way?  Remember: human beings aren’t always fond of major change, and past buying habits will have a significant impact on future buying decisions.  You’ll get your chance to be creative in the next bit.

The A stands for Alter.  In other words, what would the prospect, if they had the chance, like to change about their current solution?  Would they like it in a different color?  Perhaps a sleeker design?  Maybe friendlier customer service reps?  Listen to everything they have to say, and take copious notes…this will be the core of the solution you’ll eventually present!

What happens, though, if you ask the A question and your prospect says “Nothing; we like it just the way it is”?  At that point, you may have to do a little coaxing to tease an answewr out of them.  One of the best ways I’ve seen to do that is the technique presented by Randy Schwantz in his book “The Wedge“.  In it, Schwantz tells salespeople to come up with something they do better than their competitors, then use that difference to create a question that will drive the thin edge of a wedge between your prospect and their current vendor.

You might ask something like “So when your current vendor does monthly audits of your network security, how do they present their findings to you?”, knowing full well that their current provider doesn’t do monthly audits of their network security.  Suddenly, the prospect has discovered that there’s something they’d like to alter about their current solution after all!

These three question will form the basis for the solution your going to create for the prospect, but you’re not quite there yet.  First, you need to understand the D in NEADS: how your customer makes decisions.  That will be the topic of tomorrow’s post.  Cheers ’til then!