Don't think of it as a SALES CALL

Similar to golf, or to playing any sport, a lot of success in selling is mental. Think about how mentally strong Tiger Woods was this weekend, winning the US Open on basically one leg.

Somewhat ironically, you'll have your greatest success if you don't think of the meeting as a sales call. If your mindset becomes "I need to sell this guy", it's likely that you'll quickly fall into the trap of pitching your solutions BEFORE you've uncovered what the needs are. This one tendency is probably the biggest killer of sales effectiveness.

Stephen Covey in his book, "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People", said it best. 'First Seek to Understand, before being Understood.'

By focusing on Understanding-Client-Needs, it reduces a natural tendency to bring out the Solution Bat, and whack the poop out of the prospect once he mentions a problem that you might possibly be able to solve.

So how do you make sure that you uncover Needs before you start explaining what you can do for the client?

The key is to...ASK GOOD QUESTIONS.  If you look at what separated the excellent meetings you sit in on, from the lousy ones, you will realize that it is the ability to ask good questions. And that's a skill in short supply.

Asking questions seems to be a lost art. I don't know about you but I frequently find myself in situations in which I have to strike up conversations with new people. I've found that most people are okay at answering questions (although some even struggle with this), but precious few have the ability to formulate a question to ask of their own.

This ability to ask questions is crucial for success in face-to-face meetings. But what types of questions? Let me give you some thoughts.

It's often helpful to think about questions as falling into four buckets. 1) Goals. 2) Problems 3) Impact and 4) Meaning. And that's the order in which you should ask questions.

Within each bucket there are specific question that you'll want to ask.

You can't learn how to golf, ski or play the piano by reading a book. You can only really learn by doing.

It's the same with marketing and selling. And with all of these skills, we aren't born knowing how to do them. That's why coaching is so important.

So what are the specific questions you should ask?

For questions about GOALS, just ask what their three most important goals are this year.

When asking about PROBLEMS, you simply ask "What problems are stopping you from achieving your goals?" (Although this sounds obvious, I'm amazed at how often this question isn't asked.) You should also ask, "How do you know this problem exists?"

For IMPACT questions, you'll want to ask, "What happens if this problem doesn't go away?" "What would you like to have happen?" "How is success defined?" And most importantly, "Best-case scenario, "What's the payoff if success is achieved?"

For MEANING, ask: "What does it mean to you personally to achieve these goals?", and "What does it mean to you not to achieve these goals?" This is where the emotion should be drawn out.

The key is to ASK GOOD QUESTIONS. And please don't leave it up to chance. When you're finally in the meeting there's a lot of self-induced pressure to make a sale. (Especially for those of you who don't have a marketing system, and as a consequence, don't get a lot of meetings.)

The tendency, if you're not careful, will be to just start your mouth running, and spew forth some sort of verbal diarrhea about what you do, and how you can solve your prospect's problems, many times before you even know if your prospect has that problem (which you really have no idea about since you didn't ask questions.)

So here's the key...WRITE DOWN the question before you go into the meeting.

Don't let your ego get in the way. Resist the temptation to say to yourself, "I don't need to do that." Yes you do. Even if you never refer to the list of questions, they'll function as a safety net.

And do it, no matter how long you have been in the business world. I still do it after 34 years, and it does help.

They'll remind you that you need to "Fully understand" what your prospect's problems are, and what they want to accomplish, BEFORE you start talking about how you can help.

I know you've heard all this before, but so have many people I've observed over the years. Looking back on those calls, it reinforced in my mind the enormous gulf that often exists, between knowing something intellectually, and actually being able to do it.
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