Yesterday, after a sales meeting between myself, our company president, and the prospect, the prospect (and now client) thanked us for coming out. This wasn’t the polite “thank you” it was sincere gratitude for our help and expertise. At the start of the meeting, this business owner was very apprehensive about us, and I don’t blame him … I’m a salesman (sort of). But in the end, we were rock stars to him.
What caused this abrupt change in attitude?
I thought about this all day … because it happens a lot to us. Then I had the revelation … We didn’t sell. At no point in this meeting did I ever pitch our service. We did something that may be extremely foreign to some salespeople, we listened. We asked, “What is your vision of how things should run?” Then we answered, in all honesty, how to make that happen; and most of the information we provided was free advice he could do to streamline operations. He asked how much it would cost for us to come in and do it … BAM! new client.
Now, whenever I am in front of new potential clients, I have one goal, and it’s not “what can I sell them.” It’s not about ME or TRINITY SOLUTIONS … it’s about them! What will it take to make this business run the way the owner wants? I’VE GOT TO LISTEN … DON’T SELL!
Looking back, I’ve been on the other side of the table in sales meetings, and I can always tell when the rep is just waiting for his turn to do their pre – rehearsed pitch; not even listening to me. What’s crazy is, during the course of the meeting, if he had listened, he would have heard me tell him exactly what I needed AND probably additional needs he didn’t even know about. He could have made a LARGE sale, but he didn’t, simply because, he didn’t listen. After today’s meeting, I truly get it!
Plus, I’ve also noticed there’s a recent trend with salespeople calling themselves “consultants,” but never consulting; just selling. How can you give any advice if you haven’t heard the client’s problem?
Going forward, I believe there is a vast amount of opportunity out there by listening to my prospect’s needs, and then, giving good advice that’s in their best interest, not my company’s. I always like to say that OUR DIFFERENCE as an IT company is the fact that we join business owners on their side of the desk thinking about what’s best for them and their company, not ours. That’s not just a marketing cliché, that’s our way of life.
To paraphrase Field Of Dreams … “If you ADVISE them, SALES WILL COME!
– Written By Andy King, VP of Sales