What does the competiton say?

We hear when competitor sales reps spread rumor and inuendo. But what are they doing and saying the rest of the time?

Dave Stein gives a great discovery strategy to learn what your competiton is doing. Review these questions and pick the ones that are relevant for you, the ones you are not asking now. He calls this your "competitor IQ". While Dave focuses on understanding broad competitor strategy, the point applies to the questions you ask to understand the competiton in your sales calls. How smart do you compete?

You may be wondering what's the benefit of talking about the competiton when you could be spending time discovering needs for your own product features and benefits. I can think of two ways to use this information:

• Understanding the context of your product features and benefits and how they compare to your competitors will help you understand your SWOT. You cannot know your strengths if you do not know your competiton's weaknesses.
• Know how your competition is presenting their product features and benefits. If competitors mainly sell against your price, or your service, you can counter directly with correct information, or offer additional product features and benefits to overcome these competitor-raised objections.

Know your competitors strategy as well as your own. What questions will you ask in your next sales calls?

Not just how you sound, but how you look

In face-to-face sales, we all know dress sends a signal to customers. It can help or hurt your credibility. Inside sales has been immune to this, till now. Josiane Feigon says start looking good from the waist up! With the purchase of Skype by Microsoft, we may see the beginning of new corporate sales applications that will  help you or hurt you.

Inside Sales people are aware that they must catch and hold their customer's attention. They know that is hard to do when you cannot see them and they cannot see you. Without visual presence, customers feel they can multi-task while on the phone. And they do. We all do. How many times did you check email during your last web meeting?

Adding visual contact to inside sales adds a new way to catch and hold attention. Imagine what you can do with gestures and props to improve communication. It's a whole new world.

If you could see your customer while on a phone sales call, what would you do?

Watching the Dectective

Dave Stein compares the questioning skills of a Detective to a Sales person. He calls it "Great Question!" I call it a great idea.

Dave says asking a great question can improve your credibility with a customer, increase the quality of the information you get, and cut the time spent asking questions. All true. But why is this so? How do you do it?

Knowing how to ask different types of questions is important. This includes the difference between closed and open questions, fact-finding questions and feeling-finding questions, questions about current situation and desired outcomes. These sales skills are needed to be effective.

But Dave's point in his story was the need for market and product knowledge. Having good knowledge of a customer's market and products will lead to asking better questions and recognizing the value of the answers you get.

This is what the detective was doing in their quick and effective questioning of the victim. They know that in the majority of these cases, the victim knows his attacker, and the motive for the attack is always something of personal value to the attacker, in this case his ex-girlfriend. They knew to ask if the girlfriend ever talked about an ex-boyfriend (if yes, there must still be something going on between them). Sure enough, a lead was uncovered.

The detective did this in ten questions!

Routine for them, but a learning for us.

How many times do we complain that if we only had more time for longer sales calls, we could get more done? Find out more?

Check your questions, the problem is there. Do research before a call and have an idea of what you are looking for. Have a strategy to your discovery.

Customers are impressed when you have the knowledge to ask better questions. It means they do not have to work as hard to be understood.

With this confidence in you, they give you more and better answers. Your efforts are rewarded by their effort to be accurate and helpful. You both win.

• Do your research.
• Ask questions and watch those with experience.
• Review the questions you use now.
• Use what you already know to understand their situation better.

 Ask questions based on what you know, not what you do not know. There is always an ex-boyfriend lurking around.

Empathy, a lesson in Juggling

I previously posted about empathy, and its importance in social and sales interactions.

The bigger truth is that empathy is important in every aspect of our lives. In fact we are wired for empathy - it is the human network's "wi-fi". I just read about this analogy, and about "Gandhi's neurons", in this post by Bruna Martinuzzi . I had to capture and share what she says.

Two key points:

1. As we juggle the balls of what is important in life: work, family, health, and spirit; remember this, the work ball is rubber and will bounce if dropped. The others are crystal.
2. Empathy connects with the balls other people are juggling.

 So the contemporary version of empathy is "understand what others juggle in their lives"

After credibility and empathy, Persuasion is last.

After the audience and client believe you know enough to help them, and that you also care enough to help them with their problems, you have to persuade them to take action.

For each point you want to make, have at least one convincing element. This is a data point or set, a story, a testimonial, or example; whatever proof source makes sense that will show why your key point is important. Don't just say it - prove, illustrate or explain it. Make the connections between what you are advocating and your client's problem. To see your value, don't make them work any harder than they have to.

When choosing proof sources, unless you are dealing with a single person you know well, mix them up. More likely, your audience will be made up of different people who look for different kinds of proof.

Some people like facts and figures. Have some ready.

Some people like testimonials, analogies, success stories about others who have used your product or service. Have these ready too.

This way, everyone listening will have something to hang their hat on that makes your persuasive argument.

Finally, ask them to do something. Buy your product, agree to a next meeting, and make a recommendation . Give a direction that will bring them closer to solving their problem. It is good also if they disagree. You can discover what next step they want to make.

The three steps in persuasion are creating credibility, demonstrating empathy and being persuasive

Empathy next

There is more to credibility than knowing enough. You have to care enough.

Remember “There’s Something About Mary”? Matt Dillon shows empathy and wins the attention of Cameron Diaz by sharing how he loves working with mentally disabled kids ("Those goofy bastards are about the best thing I've got going.") proving he understands her situation with her own disabled brother. That he is lying makes the whole thing fated to fail and funny.

In addition to knowing enough to help with your customers business problems, you need the perception that you care enough about your customer to help them with their problems. And what else? You really do need to really care. You have to be sincere.

I had a customer who was asked by my competitor's sales rep to cover for lies on the rep’s expense report. Do you think that rep was ever trusted by that customer?

I doubt it.

Empathy understands how the customer feels. It is giving up your judgments, your answers and interruptions. It is putting on their shoes and imagining “what if this were me…”

Show this by listening, sharing and clarifying.

Listen without interruption.

Share your feelings, and clarify by repeating, in your own words, what you understand about their situation.

These things prove you care and understand.

Repeating what you heard and understand is probably the easiest and most beneficial thing you can do to prove your empathy. But using your own words is important. Avoid being a parrot.

When I give my children instructions, to confirm I sometimes ask “now, what will you do?” If they just repeat my words back to me, I suspect they really do not understand, do not care, nor plan to do what I asked. But, if they tell me in their own words how they will do what I ask, then I know they understand.

Yes, do this consciously, and be sincere. You will win the customer’s trust. If not, like Matt Dillon, you lose the girl.

Credibility First

Without credibility, no one cares.

Credibility is the customer’s perception that you have the knowledge and experience to help them with their business problems.

Create credibility for yourself by sharing your experience and past success with customers or your presentation audience. This is not boasting, it is demonstrating you know what you are talking about. Even if you do not have experience in their specific industry, talk about how you successfully solved problems similar to theirs. For example, all small businesses have challenges in marketing themselves, or finding and keeping good talent. These problems are the same whether they are caterers or insurance agents.

Share common experiences you have with your audience. If you have worked with people in their industry, tell them. If you like the local food, history or the weather, tell them. This builds connections with your audience. Share with them who you are, so they have a reason to listen and believe you.

Dress and behave as the audience expects. Aim to be a bit better dressed than your audience, but not so much that you stand out as “the suit”. When I was making sales calls throughout New Mexico as a company representative, some customers wore business suits, many more were casual. I wore a suit and tie. But the suit jacket stayed in the car during summer visits to rural and “Mom & Pop” business customers. I kept the suit but removed the tie in cooler months. When my company endorsed a casual business dress code, I would wear a golf shirt, but made sure it was branded with my company logo, and I wore dress slacks, not chinos. How else would they tell me apart from their customers!? Some speakers and facilitators create a “brand” by wearing only black. This also makes it easier to pack for travel.

Don’t know what your audience might be like?

Do your preparation work and ask someone. Talk to someone who will be in your audience, or someone who knows your audience. Find a person of influence with your audience and ask them what you should expect to see and hear, and what you need to do to be seen as credible. Use such a decision-maker to create credibility for yourself by asking them to introduce you and give the reasons why they chose to work with you.

Lisa B Marshall does a great concise job of describing this audience discovery process in detail. Check it out for examples of specific questions to ask.

The danger in doing this is looking like an arrogant bastard. Nobody likes to tell you their challenges only to be matched by your even greater accomplishments. If I tell you how I broke my leg, don’t tell me about how you broke two legs and still out-swam a shark.

To prevent this maintain empathy and a focus on the customer. Keep their concerns the topic, not yours. Your stories should always serve to highlight your customers concerns, never out shine them.