weLEAD Online Magazine

leadingtoday.org

If You Want A Friend… Get A Dog

If You Want A Customer… Solve A Problem

By Jeff Mayer

"When I call on a new prospect, I want to develop a relationship with him so he'll know that I'm a person that cares about his business," Terry, one of my consulting clients, said.

"So how do you let the person know that you 'care' about him?" I asked.

"I ask some questions about his personal life. About his hobbies and outside interests."

"At what point do you start talking about the reason why you're there in the first place? Is the purpose of your meeting to develop a relationship, or

are you really trying to sell him something?

"And if he's not interested in doing business with you, do you 'really' care about developing a relationship with him?"

Terry continued, "After I ask about his personal life, I tell him about myself. My background. My professional experiences. My goals. And then I

tell him about the history of the company. How we're a local family-owned business - not some huge national company - and that we care about our customers.”

"I then show him our catalog and start describing our newest products and explain how these are designed to save him time, make him more productive, and cut his costs.

"Sometimes I fire up the laptop and show him our PowerPoint presentation. We paid an advertising agency more than $5000 to create this 25-slide

demonstration. It's got wonderful graphics, music and special effects.”

"Every time I make a presentation, the prospect says this is one of the best presentations they've ever seen. They think our products are very good and our pricing is very competitive."

"And what happens next?" I asked.

"The prospect usually says that he needs to think about it a bit further and says he'll give me a call if he's interested. Or, he'll ask me to call him

in a week or so."

"How often does the prospect call you?"

"Not very often." Terry said, with a sigh of exasperation. "More often than not, I don't hear back from the prospect, so I start calling him. But it's so frustrating because it's almost impossible to reach people on the phone, and very few people return my calls.”

"After our initial meeting - which I thought went so well - I have a terrible time connecting with the person again. I usually leave a voice mail

message, but it doesn't get returned. So I try, and try again and finally, maybe a month after our initial meeting, we finally connect."

"And what does he say?" I asked.

"He's always very friendly, and thanks me for making the very informative presentation. He then goes on to say that he hasn't had time to get back to

my material and would like me to call him again.”

"Unfortunately, when I call him back he still tells me that he hasn't gotten to it. At this point I feel like I'm getting a complete and total runaround."

"And what's happened to your relationship? Didn't you think that by asking those personal questions at the beginning of your first interview, and by

telling him about yourself and your company you were building a foundation of trust that would develop into a sale?"

"I sure did." Terry said dejectedly, as she slumped in her chair. "But I guess that I didn't develop a relationship, did I?" as her voice trailed off.

"Yes, you spent time with the prospect, talking about yourself, but what did you learn about the prospect?" I asked.

"What questions did you ask about his business? What are his goals? What are his biggest challenges? Why do they need to purchase your product? How are they getting along without your product at this very moment? How will your product make his life better?"

"I don't know." Terry said in a wee-small voice.

Terry's been focusing on the wrong thing. We're not in the relationship business. We're in the transaction business. We're in the business of

identifying problems, offering solutions and closing sales.

If you're calling on people because you want to build a relationship, you've got your priorities wrong. If you want a friend . . . GET A DOG!

If you want a customer . . . SOLVE HIS PROBLEMS.

Your first objective is to turn the prospect into a customer. Once done, give him such wonderful service that he wouldn't think of doing business with someone else, and with the passage of time - as the two of you get to know each other better - you develop a relationship.

Relationships aren't developed because you spoke with someone casually for fifteen minutes, or took him to lunch.

Don't be offended, but the customer doesn't care about you. And he doesn't care about your company.

Who does he care about? Himself and HIS company.

Your challenge is to show him that you can help him - and his company – have a better future. You do this by asking great questions.

Stop wasting everybody's time by talking about yourself. What does the customer want to talk about? Himself and his company. So let him.

Ask questions about:

* His business. How are things going? What kind of year did he have?

* What are his goals for the future?

* What are his biggest challenges?

Ask questions that relate to the product/service that you sell.

For example, a person in executive search could ask these types of questions:

* What types of talent do you need to grow your business so you can become more successful and profitable?

* What skill sets are you looking for?

* Because you've got an empty office that should be filled, who is doing the tasks and assuming the responsibilities that this person would be doing?

* Who is making the decisions that this person would be making, if he were working for you at this moment?

* Why do you NEED to have someone in this position? (If they don't NEED the person, they won't be hiring an executive search firm.)

Most importantly, if the executive recruiter is getting responses like, "We can't afford to pay your fees." or "We don't hire executive search firms", then he's asking the wrong questions.

A person in financial services should be asking these types of questions:

* What plans have you set up so you can keep more of your money and pay less of it to Uncle Sam?

* At what age are you planning to retire and how much money would you need to live on?

* How do you feel about college for your kids? Where would you like them to go to school? How much do you think it will cost?

The beauty of asking great questions is that many of them can be asked during a telephone conversation. It isn't necessary to have face-to-face

meetings with everybody.

I look at selling as a time management issue. How much time is invested in a 20-minute meeting, when you add travel time to and from the other person's office. Let's not forget the waiting time in the reception area, the interruptions from telephone calls and the disruptions from colleagues who pop in with a 'quick' question.

One company estimates that each sales call costs them $327. I think that's on the low side.

So in reality, a 20-minute meeting can easily consume two hours - or more - of a person's time. And if it doesn't result in a sale, everybody's time has

been wasted.

But if that meeting takes place over the phone, the total time consumed is 20 minutes. Think of how much more efficient, effective, and productive you could be if you spent more time on the phone looking for customers and less time in your car driving to and from unproductive meetings.

Since Terry and I started working together her modus operandi has changed!

* She's asking great questions.

* She's learning all about her customer's needs, goals, objectives and dreams.

* She's stopped talking about herself and has learned how to get the prospect to talk about himself.

Since she started spending more time on the telephone she's been able to speak to many more people, and create more opportunities.

She's seeing far fewer people face-to-face, but is closing about 80 percent of those that she is meeting with. Both the number of sales and the average size of her sales have increased dramatically.

Because she's learned so much about her prospects - over the phone - she's doing a much better job of identifying who will buy, and who won't, before she ever meets with them.

Use the phone. Ask better questions. Stop wasting your time.

You'll close more sales and make more money, and get home for dinner.

Comments to: editor@leadingtoday.org

BACK TO weLEAD HOME PAGE

About the author:

Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey Mayer's SucceedingInBusiness.com Newsletter. Jeff helps individuals, business owners, corporate executives

and sales professionals set their priorities, get focused, and achieve their goals; so they can grow their business, get ahead in life, and live their dreams. To learn more about Jeff, visit http://www.SucceedingInBusiness.com.