Let potential clients reveal what is ailing them by gently prodding them
with relevant questions to make them see the need of the product. FILE
PHOTO | NMG
Keep it customer focused until he sells himself your lozenge
having felt his pain. For instance, having surveyed the photos on the
walls, showing the varied countries the chief engineer has worked in,
this insurance agent points and breaks the ice with, “I see your job has
taken you places. Where was
this?” “Oh, this is Malaysia. I was on secondment there for two years. And this was right after a stint in Australia where I was in charge of health and safety.” Following some bit more banter and appreciating how exposed this prospect is, the agent says, “You already know why I’m here, so I will not insult your intelligence by telling you about insurance. Instead, tell me what you have and I’ll tell you what I have and we see if we can strike a compromise.”
this?” “Oh, this is Malaysia. I was on secondment there for two years. And this was right after a stint in Australia where I was in charge of health and safety.” Following some bit more banter and appreciating how exposed this prospect is, the agent says, “You already know why I’m here, so I will not insult your intelligence by telling you about insurance. Instead, tell me what you have and I’ll tell you what I have and we see if we can strike a compromise.”
The engineer stifles a smile as his face
lights up at the feeling of ‘he respects me’. He then explains the
insurance covers he has for each of his family members. And then the
agent drops the bombshell: “Do you feel it is adequate?” Taken a decade
ago and his social stature and insurance needs having grown, he knows
it’s not. Quickly recovering from the revelation he asks, “What do you
recommend?”
The agent kept it customer, until the
customer sold himself the agent’s lozenge having felt his own pain. To
do so, the seller had to show concern for the buyer, which he did
through research and adapting his presentation accordingly.
To
do this successfully the seller should come from a point of ignorance,
not knowledge. Meaning, ‘I don’t know and when I do, I’ll see if at all
my lozenge is best for your sore throat.’
And if it is not, accepting this but still proposing the lozenge
that does soothe the pain-even if it is the competitor’s. Solving the
buyer’s problem is the seller’s responsibility.
In
addition the seller had to ask choice questions (without appearing
interrogative) that will help the buyer see his situation afresh.
Remember, buying insurance (or whatever other ‘lozenge’ he has) and
monitoring its adequacy, is not his primary job; he has more pressing
issues at hand.
What the seller does is guide the
buyer to focus on his situation and interrogate it afresh to the point
where he sees for himself the need to change.
And
because the first reaction to change is resistance, the progressive
seller wants to make that change as frictionless as possible, and
getting the buyer to see it for himself.
The example
shared is for a business to customer sale. In the business to business
sale the principle applies only it calls for deeper research, more
extensive market intelligence and business-oriented questions.
Irrespective though, the questions that reveal insight span a structure-
from how it is now, to if and how it can be better? Try this and let me
know
www.lendmeyourears.co,ke
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