A sales professional takes their seat in front of their dream prospect after nurturing a long business development process. After an exchange of pleasantries, the prospect asks the sales professional, ‘tell me why I should work with you; tell me why you are different!’ The sales professional proceeds just as they were taught to talk about the excellent reputation of their company, how they listen to their clients, and that they specialize in helping businesses just like theirs. Then the prospect leans in and says to the sales professional, ‘Who cares?’
These encounters can be direct like this or the prospect may sit there and not say anything. They allow the presentation to continue knowing in the first five minutes that there is no reason to switch to them.
Why does this happen? Why does a sales professional articulate their company’s advantages, yet it does not seem to make a difference in their business development activities? In part, it is the inability to show real value that they can deliver to a prospect. To take business from a competitor, we cannot use sales strategies of 40 years ago on today’s sophisticated clients. Here are the four most common reasons sales professionals are struggling to have their dream client say, ‘tell me more.’
1) They sound the same as their competitors. If you honestly believe, for example, that you put your clients first and listen well, would you expect your competitors to tell that same prospect that they are second best in that category just behind you? Of course not! Most sales training has not changed from a slick one liner, overcoming objections, and generalized ideas of building relationships and creating rapport. What is missing in the sales professional’s war chest is a deep understanding of the value they can create for their prospects. This information needed to articulate this value can sometimes get held up in the boardroom and our prospects need to hear it.
2) It is all about the sales professional and their company, not the potential client. The sales professional is not being arrogant, it is just how they have been taught. They have been trained is to talk about how they help clients like them. What prospects are really asking in their mind is if you are going to help their business be better. We must answer that with confidence.
3) There is a misalignment of the company strategy and the sales targets. Buyers are more sophisticated than ever before, and different sales approaches need to be tailored to how they are making buying decisions today. If we try to use a relational selling approach on someone that is transactional, they will collect information from us, use a lot of our time, and potentially patronize the lowest cost provider. If we use a more transactional or consultative approach to a higher relational target, we may get the question, “Who cares?”
4) We do not help our prospects see around corners. We have been taught to be consultative and by asking questions, attempt to find the intersection between our products and services and their problem. There is room to ask questions in the sales process, but this technique as a differentiator is dying on the vine. We can never position ourselves as a trusted advisor when we are asking them to educate us from day one.
For years, we tried to build rapport before credibility. As executives have become busier and have access to more information so to catch their attention, we must reverse this. How do we do this?
First, we obtain deep vertical knowledge of our customers business, industry, and trends affecting them. This allows for a robust conversation that has nothing to do with the sales professional and everything to do with them. They will see value from the fact you are committed to their industry and you have insights to share. This promotes a conversation of higher value that your competitor is not – creating differentiation.
Secondly, we must understand the sound of our dream clients’ voice. What is our real differentiation value and do our dream clients’ care? The breakdown I see most with sales professionals and organizations is that the value they think they provide is cared about more by them than how the prospect perceives it. Ask your best customers that you have a strong relationship with, and you will start to find out.
Lastly, match the selling technique to the buyer profile. If their needs are simple, you can use a transactional or consultative type approach at first. If your target is more complex with multiple decision-makers, long selling cycles, or presentations to C-title or VP Executives, then relational selling must be done to be effective.
On your next sales call to a prospect, ask yourself if there is a chance my competitors could be saying the same thing. If the answer is yes, then starting with one of the three approaches will help your prospects see a difference.
Larry Young is the owner of Boiling Frog Development, a business development strategy firm that helps organizations find the sound of their dream clients’ voice. He helps them to focus their business development right in the center of that target market by aligning strategy and sales. For two decades, Young has been helping companies grow their income statements. Larry Young is an author of Walk the Sales Plank, a professional speaker to conferences and corporate events, and regular guest on tv, radio, and national podcast.
