Try this uncommon sales practice

Read Time: 4 Minutes

Keeping today’s issue short and sweet. And, you’ll walk away with a new sales tactic to implement immediately.

Most Sales Leaders/Coaches train you to “perfect your pitch” and make sure your prospect “always knows the value you provide” — problem is, most sales leaders and coaches haven’t closed that many deals.

They’re in a leadership position because they’ve been in the game 10+ years, not because they’re an elite seller.

Good Sellers do this:

1. Build rapport with their prospect on a personal level - ask about their family, college, work experience, etc. Good sellers do this early and often.

2. Uncover symptoms the prospect is dealing with and connect it to the value of their solution. Good sellers get to symptoms quickly but stop there.

3. Deliver a well-scripted, value-driven sales pitch. Don’t get me wrong, this works. But it doesn’t work as repeatably as we think and it certainly doesn’t work on a large enterprise deals.

Great Sellers do this:

1. Build rapport by having in-depth, real business conversations with their prospect. Asking informed, insightful, and uncomfortable questions. Personal and family stuff comes later when the prospect brings it up.

2. Uncovers symptoms as a means to an end. The end being root cause. It’s one thing to learn your prospect wants their sales team to prospect more efficiently (symptom), it’s another thing to dive in and learn why they feel the sales team is prospecting inefficiently (tools, morale, unrealistic quota, bad PMF, etc.)

3. Deliver a well-tailored (very specific) mutual project plan that lays out everyone’s responsibilities in order to close the deal. Included in this plan is the value your solution will create. Great sellers don’t put the burden solely on themselves to “close a deal.” They view it as a team project in which the prospect and stakeholders have their own set of chores.

So, try this for the month of May:

STOP PITCHING. Refuse the urge to pitch. Refuse the urge to “sell”

Instead challenge yourself on discovery, the ability to have real business conversations, and your willingness to ask your prospect uncomfortable non-biased questions.

Ask questions that aren’t necessarily self-serving, but they’re going to show the prospect you’re truly trying to solve a problem.

Here’s an example: “Often times we see sales leaders react to top-down pressure by buying products they don’t need to show leadership they’re making changes. That said and when you compare yourself to other peers or competitors, what’s telling you that you actually have a problem?”

This type of question will surprise your prospect. They’re not expecting you to challenge whether or not they really have a problem. A question like this builds instant credibility.

Excited about trying uncommon sales practices?

Here are 10 more from Nate Nasralla over at Fluint.io