None of us like wasting time divulging information to someone who can’t solve their problem. There’s no reason to provide a detailed explanation to your neighbor about an engine problem if he or she is not a mechanic. Studies have revealed that only 13% of customers believe sellers can understand their needs. The keyword is can. This reveals how customers and prospects enter into the selling process – skeptical that what they need to share will be understood. The deck is stacked against you.    

That’s why, as a general rule, most decision-makers don’t meet with sales reps. They delegate the information gathering to an “evaluator” to determine what solution is needed. Why? Because the decision-maker believes the rep is just well…a rep. He or she isn’t a consultant but a representative of a company or solution. In the decision-maker’s mind, a rep certainly can’t tell them something that they don’t already know about the problem they are facing. Again, this perception is not rooted in the truth about you, but it exists nonetheless.

Check out parts one and two in this three part blog series for more.

Attaching a Disruptive Truth 

You may have the expertise to run their company, but the decision-maker’s investment in discovery is guided by their assumption about you, not the truth about you. So, assuming you do have valuable expertise to offer, how do you convince them that you’re not just like all the other sales reps?

It’s too early in the process to dazzle them with a presentation. You can’t ensure relevance. Plus, “you” is not their favorite subject. So how do you quickly demonstrate you know more about solving the problem than the listener (while wearing your journalist hat)?

You attach a Disruptive Truth to your question.  

In the book The Challenger Sale, Brent Adamson and Matthew Dixon published an interesting study about the most successful sales reps. One of the core points of the book is that the most successful reps offer insights. The highest performers offer information so compelling that the “customer would have been willing to pay for the conversation itself.” The insights aren’t about a product or service but a unique perspective on what will help the decision-maker excel in their role. 

The book does an excellent job demonstrating what the customer values — to be taught and led by sales reps who know more than they do. But you know by now, we cannot teach an unreceptive “student.” We need to lead and to demonstrate our expertise, but early in the process, it is difficult to shift from seller to leader.

The most subtle and effective way to demonstrate your expertise in the first few meetings, while remaining focused on the customer, is by learning to attach a Disruptive Truth to your question.

Here are a few examples:

“Three things drive employee engagement: autonomy, meaning, and mastery. How are you ensuring engagement, especially with your Millennials, by communicating the “why” – the purpose behind this initiative?”

 

“Ninety percent of social media strategies fail because they invest in content and channels that don’t reach the intended audience. How would you assess your current social media strategy?”

 

“Dramatic change happens one-to-one and not in a workshop. How are you planning to invest in developing your leadership team once the training initiative ends?”

 

“By working with the hundreds of medical professionals over the last 5 years, we’ve found that the most effective way to ensure HIPA compliance is to automate ____ not ____. How is your staff currently managing patient information?”

The truth is disruptive if it is counter to conventional wisdom. Each one of these questions begins with a statement that demonstrates a unique insight on the problem but puts the focus back on the customer.

Does the truth have to be disruptive? No, but predictability determines impact. The more disruptive the more you capture the attention of the audience and the more credibility points you score.  

A Disruptive Truth followed by a thought-provoking question, prompts the other party to think differently about the problem and, more importantly, think differently about you: 

“This is no ordinary conversation with a product pushing sales rep. There may be something for me to learn.”

The goal is to identify and catalog the best practices in the industry and the typical mistakes people make. Think less about what you sell and focus on what has to happen to solve the customer’s problem. Most likely your solution only addresses a portion of the problem but the decision maker isn’t interested in solving part of the problem. If you have all the insights required to solve their problem, you become invaluable.

 Once identified, phrase those insights as a principle—an equation that’s always true.

A+ B + C + D = Outcome you seek

“To build an effective retirement plan, four things need to happen….” 

You may only sell life insurance, but elevate  the conversation by broadening your view of what the customer is trying to accomplish. Questions about how much money you need when you die is necessary, but boring. Imagining a life of luxury, no more work, stress free, traveling is exciting. Demonstrate you know the formula and how your life insurance policy will help them achieve their dreams. 

You may only be able to provide “A” or a portion of “A” but to lead an effective discovery meeting and enhance receptivity, know the formula.

You may be thinking, “I don’t know the formula. I don’t have a list of Disruptive Truths.” 

I know it may feel a little like the old Steve Martin joke: “How do you make a million dollars and never pay taxes. First, get a million dollars.” To be a thought leader, you need leading thoughts. If not, you do have some work to do.

 Ask your clients what works, what are the best practices, what didn’t work, read what your clients are reading, look for consistencies. You have a unique advantage that your prospective customers don’t have: you can talk to everyone. They can’t. 

In my experience, this is the most underutilized strategy readily available to every sales professional. If you seek to discover new information about your customer’s business (in every conversation), in six months you will know more about the market you serve than most CEOs.

 Once you have developed your formula and identified your Disruptive Truths, ask yourself, “Would they pay for this information?” If so, link those truths to your library of questions. This is the most effective way, early in the process, to shift from product peddler to thought leader status.

What’s Next?

In the meantime, if your team is struggling to make the transition to virtual selling, or for more on how to get at the truth in any selling scenario, click here for our new program. 

We would be happy to understand your challenges and see if we can help.  We started as an inside sales training company in 1996, working to help sales teams overcome the very same challenges we are all facing today.

Tom Stanfill

As Co-founder and CEO, Tom’s primary role is to create content that helps people live, sell, and serve more effectively. Find him on LinkedIn