It is Not Me! It’s The Research!

Observing sales executives’ attempts to be insightful in prospect conversations, I often see how much struggle is going on. Despite their efforts, the customer is unengaged and pushes back either by not answering the sales executives’ questions or changing the meeting into a transactional conversation. That defaults back to a way-too-soon request for a proposal or challenges the salesperson that there is only interest if a similar service can be offered for a better price. Do you recognize this? How could you handle these situations?

The Buyer’s Perspective

First, don’t forget the apparent reality that your prospect perceives you as a Salesperson. That makes sense because you are one! You are seen as a person who can potentially offer an equal or better solution and service than the incumbent competitor. The customer meets with you because you have something to sell, so that’s what your prospect wants to talk about. From the customer’s perspective, wanting to understand your solutions makes all sense.

Your risk

That situation your prospect puts you unwillingly in is a risk to you. Why? Because this easily defaults you back to being a solution seller. And you don’t want that. During a Why (should I) Change? buying phase, you don’t want to talk about your solutions or your company. Conceding to a solution and service conversation becomes a ‘them versus us’ discussion, and you will most likely lose.

Changing Your Prospect’s Perspective

The most challenging part of a conversation with a prospect is not to come across as a Salesperson. Instead, you want to come across as someone who wants to help grow their business and has ideas and advice for that purpose. Your mission is to change their perspective about you, their situation and business challenges. How do you do that, you may ask?

Credibility in Why Change?

First, when preparing for a meeting with a prospect, your mindset should be creating a business idea that helps grow their business. Using your business acumen, you show how you understand macroeconomic pressures and their impact on their business. Or how you think your prospect could capitalize on industry trends. The insights you share should support that business idea. But, as a Salesperson, how credible are you to a prospect? This person has never met you before! In the end, in their view, you want to sell something. So, to be convincing, you need help with gaining credibility. Who can help you do that?

Research

Consider letting the research do all the talking to support your business ideas as credible ideas. Why? Because these companies have done all the hard work. They recognized the macroeconomic challenges ahead and what these mean for businesses. Organisations like McKinsey, Deloitte- and Gartner spent time understanding industry trends and changing consumer behaviour. They likely verified these findings through surveys amongst an extensive customer base and collected data to define obstacles and strategic options to avoid risk or capitalize on market opportunities. Your solutions and business ideas are linked to these strategic options. The only task left over is to come across as credible. To influence your prospect to book a subsequent meeting with you, ideally with more stakeholders involved, your message is: “It is not me who recommends you look into this; it is these credible research companies who advise this.

Try it. You will see…it works!

Did you enjoy this week’s post? Get insightful content like this every week in your inbox. Subscribe by providing your email address, and never miss a post—it’s free!