A top salesperson is “someone who grows their business by growing the client’s business.” ~ Frank Lee, Sales Academy in Dallas. What a refreshing thought. Success is not measured by the increases in revenues the sales professional has provided the company; rather, it is measured by the value that the sales professional has delivered to the clients.
Sales is a very engaging and supportive profession. It is one of the few professions where there is an opportunity to connect with people; discover and uncover the issues, challenges, wants, and needs they are working through; and, be a resource to help them discover the solutions to them.
The potential to offer value and be very successful in sales is not in finding people to buy your stuff; the path to success is becoming very effective at helping people discover the answers to their questions. For being a valued professional resource makes you reliable, trustworthy, and credible. It is that type of relationship that generates buzz, referrals, and access to more people who are looking for what you offer; and, what a top salesperson offers is access to solutions and results.
The learning model that facilitates a level of understanding so that you are able to help involves knowing in detail the answers to three questions:
- What they want: Whether they are sharing this information with you or not, everyone is working toward something. With this in mind, your clients and prospects have something that they want to happen in their business or their lives. Helping identify and understand what that is will help prepare you to solve their “problems.”
- Why they want it: Knowing what the “want” is, is not enough. Now you need to know why this is so important to them and how important it really is. Taking the time to discover and understand the motivation, the driver, or the issue behind the “want” provides you a better sense of perspective or context.
- How they believe this can help them: People believe, sometimes incorrectly, what solving a problem or fixing an issue will do for them. Besides understanding why they are working on solving a problem (why they want it), you need to understand their vision or expectation for the cure. In other words, what does fixing this issue enable them to do or accomplish that they were not able to do before they fixed it. Understanding this provides you the ultimate insight into the actions they are taking or would like to take as it relates to the original “want.”
Too many sales professionals get hung up with the perspective of “I know what they need.” While they may be correct, you can only give them what they know they need or realize they need. This information is best gathered and collected through a series of open-ended questions that uncovers their frustrations, goals, and challenges (the “want”) in conjunction with a clear perspective of the motivation, drivers, and expectations associated with delivering the “want.” When you are able to consistently provide solutions that make your clients’ business better – you will be a very, very successful salesperson.