There are a number of training courses to help people with this fundamental skill going all the way back to Meyers-Briggs and DISC—all of which are strong fundamentals and help salespeople match their selling style to the personality of the buyer. The challenge, of course, is to avoid stereotyping by nationality, race, or gender and approach each individual as an individual. Different people want to be sold to in different ways.
One of the most enduring books on this topic is How to Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie. It has stood the test of time for decades. In his book, Carnegie talks about such tips as learning and saying people’s names, the importance of a firm handshake, and finding things in common with other people. As old and fundamental as these concepts are, it is amazing how banks and grocery stores today have never learned the importance of remembering and repeating their customers’ names.
Consultative Selling — The Answer Is a Question
Listen, or your tongue will make you deaf.
By far the most important step in building rapport is probing and listening. In the early seventies, Neil Rackham, author of the best-seller SPIN Selling, was hired by large companies to observe what successful salespeople did right and what unsuccessful salespeople did wrong. Rackham discovered that the best salespeople actually held back the product for the longest time and were not necessarily the best talkers but the best listeners. This was the birth of consultative selling. Listen first, talk second — no matter if it’s a one-hour call or an entire-day demo.
And yet, 20 to 30 years later, one of the most common mistakes we find among salespeople is still “dashing to the demo”—running out and showing the product or solution before doing a needs assessment with the client. The reason is this: There is a whole new generation of CEOs, sales managers, and salespeople who have to learn to break this habit all over again.
When I was in the software business and I started doing needs assessments before demos, my partners and I cut our presentations from eight hours to two hours — and they were better. The irony was that not only were our presentations more focused, but we also were winning at the needs assessment — before the real demo. This is where the selling really took place.
Through better listening and understanding — elbow to elbow with the client, face to face — we not only began to “outcare” the competition, but we also were able to better understand the decision-making process, politics, our competitive position, and the needs of each buyer as an individual, as well and the needs of each buyer as an individual, as well as their culture.
By the time we got to the presentation, most of the deals had already been decided (as they are now). We had friends in the audience, we knew their terminology, we knew their strategic issues, and we had planted subtle traps to get the competition reacting to us rather than vice versa.
We began to get inside their competitive loop much earlier, and our presentations were more focused on their needs and motivators rather than on our features. In addition, we qualified out of bad deals earlier.
Listen first; talk second — no matter if it’s a one-hour call or an entire-day demo.
This is especially a problem when selling a complex product or solution. There may be over 100 reasons why someone might buy from you, but they are really only looking for five or so. Which five? Or if they’re only looking for five or six capabilities of your product and you come in talking about 105, not only will you bore them, but you will appear uncaring about their problem. You also will look too complex. This sets you up for commoditization because they see a lot of things in your product that they don’t need and don’t think they should pay for.
Consultative selling begins to build rapport because you are focused on their issues rather than on your capabilities.
One of our clients tells a story of a sales call early in his career. He sat down with the executive and began to lay out a “partnership” between his organization and the client’s. The executive stopped him, midsentence, and retrieved a two-inch stack of business cards from his desk.
“This is a stack of cards from all the different salespeople from all the different divisions of your company who have come to see me in the last two years. I never see the same person twice. When you have called on me for a year and know more about my business than I do, then you can talk to me about being your partner. Until then, you’re the vendor and I’m the customer.”
After you build rapport, which moves the client to an open state of mind, you can begin building preference.
Growing from rapport to preference to trust takes time. This means that salespeople need to stay on the same accounts long enough to become a source of trust. Every time we churn accounts, we set the registers back to zero. A client relationship management (CRM) system might give you continuity of information, but that’s not the same as continuity of a relationship. Trust between people builds over time.
From Rapport to Preference — There Are Two Roads
Building preference is achieved through one of two traditional routes: You either (1) link your solution to your client’s pains or gains or (2) build preference through influences and relationships. Preferably, you do both. Most of the earlier selling methodologies address one or the other (see Figure 8–1).
Consultative selling begins to build rapport because you are focused on your client’s issues rather than on your capabilities.
It is important to remember personality types when choosing which of the pillars of trust to build on first. When building preference, not only must you link to solving your client’s business problems, but you also have to differentiate why you can do it better — and you need to do it in a professional manner.
Competitive selling isn’t negative selling unless it’s done incorrectly. If you are too heavy-handed too early in your differentiation or too negative, you can come across as defensive and unprofessional. However, if you don’t find ways to show why you’re better, the client might buy the wrong solution for all the wrong reasons. You could fail to serve your client by not being aggressive enough.
How fast you can approach competitive differentiation depends on your relationship with the individual buyer in the particular country or culture that you are in. In the United States, we’ve had competitive advertising on television for over 20 years. In some countries, however, it’s illegal to even mention your competitor. However, there are ways to differentiate yourself without ever mentioning the competitor’s name. For example, you can suggest that the client look for a specific capability from all the vendors or ask the same question of everyone including you.
The Differences in Differentiators
Differentiators fall into several categories. There are unique differentiators, which are a capability, functionality, or service that you have but that your competitors simply don’t offer. Unique differentiators that solve strategic problems for powerful buyers are a salesperson’s nirvana. If you ever get in this position, never discount the deal.
If you don’t find ways to show that you’re better, the client may buy the wrong solution for all the wrong reasons. You could fail to serve your client by not being aggressive enough.
Some differentiators are relative differentiators. You do it, but so does the competition. In this case, you have to show how you do it faster, better, cheaper, at lower risk, or with more experienced, dependable people than the competition. The consulting industry is full of relative differentiators. There is almost nothing a big consulting firm cannot do with enough time and money. Differentiation there comes from other sources, such as limiting risk, sharing risk, industry focus, qualifications of personnel, or actually meeting and bonding with the people who will be handling your project.