It’s Thursday and I’m meeting
with a CEO of a wholesale
company.
“Yes we have a very experienced sales crew,
many of them with over 20 years of selling
in the industry.” was John’s, the CEO,
response.
“If that is so, why such a challenge in
getting more market share?” I asked.
“Well, here is an example. I was traveling
with one of the guys last week for a couple
of days and had to physically kick him
under the table to get him to stop!” John
responded.
“Really! But he’s one of your experienced
guys! He really should know better,
shouldn’t he?” I exclaimed.
This you have to follow up on, it just goes
to show that experience does not mean
competence! Read the rest of the article to
get the whole story! Hope you don’t have
one of these……….
We’ll call him Tom, the 20 year veteran
salesperson.
John was with him for two days making sales
calls on existing and potential customers.
He was very annoyed when Tom continually
interrupted the customer and went into a
sales pitch.
Upon leaving the call, John brought it to
Tom’s attention that he had interrupted the
customer several times. Tom was unaware of
such behavior, but promised to avoid it on
the next call.
Guess what! Yep, next call, interruption
once more, several times.
John again brought this up and discussed it
with Tom.
This went on for the whole day and Tom just
was not getting it! He continued to cut in
on the customer and address what he thought
they wanted to hear.
John indicated he could see the body
language and the annoyance the customer was
feeling from Tom’s behavior.
Finally on the second day they were meeting
with a large customer and Tom was doing it
again! John physically kicked him in the
shin under the table and Tom stopped!
The customer finished what they were saying
and Tom and John left the call.
“I have to thank you for kicking me John. I
really did not realize how bad I was.”
“The really big point is that when I shut
up, the customer ended up answering their
own question and we got more
business!” remarked Tom.
“Well remember that kick next time you want
to jump in and interrupt the customer!” was
Johns advice.
John and I continue our conversation about
his sales team.
“So tell me how the rest of the team holds
up against Tom’s behavior?” was my next
question.
“That’s my concern”, replied John, “I
really wonder how well they are listening
to the customers. They continually tell me
they can not get information for the
contact people and they can not get to the
VP’s much less the CEO!”
“We have some real benefits to offer these
customers that no one else can! Yet these
experienced guys keep resisting any
training or trying something new! I know
they can do better, I’m just wondering if
they really are as good as they think they
are!” was John’s frustrated response.
“Ok, John, how would your sales team
respond to what we call the first law of
Persuasion. That is ….It’s not about you,
it’s about them?” was my next question.
“It’s not about you, it’s about them. Hum,
I’ll say that in concept they would mostly
agree, yet in application they would flunk
big time. I think we are hitting on the
core problem here.” John replied with a
look of insight.
John and I continued our discussion with
further questioning to isolate the key
issues, the process that would have to take
place and the decision process required to
get something happening for the company.
By the way, the appointment was set up for
about 20 minutes only and I got hung up,
thus running a couple minutes late. I
walked out 65 minutes later with John
wishing we could talk longer. John did 90%
of the talking! The power of listening!
Now one of the first questions I asked was
about verifying my understanding of the
company and if I had all my facts straight.
Yes I had been on the web site, Google and
some other sources.
John gave me a quick history, of which I
already knew 80%. The key was the 20% I
discovered and lead us to the above
discussion. I’ll put it this way. From 1936
into the 80’s this company was King! The
80’s recession really hit them hard and
they downsized big time! Ever since then
they have been struggling to regain the
throne!
I really doubt we would have gotten as deep
as fast as we did had I not gained that
information! I kept going back to the
frustration the company was feeling and
John was more than willing to unload
everything!
Ok, you got the point!
Yep, the most basic rule of Persuasion is
to truly listen! Listen to not only the
words but the meanings, feelings, beliefs
and values behind what is said!
Of course you realize that this means you
have to do the following…
- Shut up the
mouth and listen.
- Never
interrupt, you’ll shoot yourself in the
foot every time.
- Focus on
what others are saying instead of thinking
about your great rebuttal or answer.
- Lean back,
relax, tune into the other persons body
language, demeanor and voice.
- Be
inquisitive like you were at 3 years old,
ask “Why”.
- Keep
thinking about the “kick” under the table
when you want to interrupt.
- Ask plenty
of open ended questions that make your
customer think, then shut up and
listen.
- Shut up and
allow your customer to sell
themselves!
Yes Harlan, I have heard this over and over
again. I know all this!
Great, then hopefully you are not “Tom” and
wondering why selling and persuading is so
difficult!
The reality is we all can do better. The
other day at a luncheon I caught myself
interrupting a conversation before another
person finished. Once I realized it, an
apology was given to the whole table and
the conversation went on in real earnest.
(It was about toilet seats, really!)
The real key is to be continually focused
on understanding the other party. You can
always input your information in many ways
and fashioned to be accepted better,
especially if you have listened.
So to apply the Persuasion rule; It’s not
about you, it’s about them, you need to
really turn on your listening skills!
Till next week, keep the eyes and ears
open!
Harlan Goerger
National Director of Training
© Harlan
Goerger 10/2007
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