#Sales is a trade like any other Of course, a sales representative must have certain personal qualities. But this is no different in other professions. #Leadership in sales shows who is developing and improving his or her way of working. Younger salespersons tend to talk too much – I am also talking from my own experience here. Brain researchers agree, however, that questions can activate the brain of the person you are talking to much better than facts and figures (that’s why customers fall asleep during company presentations ;-). This is why we have started developing a database with “good questions” for one of my customers. Here is an example to show what this means.
The product:
Access solutions (e.g. automatic access control, biometric identification terminals, etc.)
Pattern customer who calls:
Technical manager, retirement home
Sample questions from the database:
“Do patients with dementia have trouble with keys, or do these patients lose or misplace the keys often?”
“How much work does this entail for administration and housekeeping if a set of keys is lost?”
Effect:
The customer immediately feels “picked up” and “understood”. Experienced sales staff have mastered these questions for their customer base, but not necessarily for all customer segments of their own company. New employees, however, are not yet able to play this “keyboard” in the beginning. And when a sales employee leaves the company, the “know-how of good questions” is of course lost. These are important assets for a company. A #SystematicSales is a competitive advantage.
Phil Kreindler shares more tips on this topic in his blog.