Uncovering the Why
Sales, especially within the technology field is constantly changing and evolving. There is one constant that I have personally witnessed over the course of a dozen or so years in Technology Sales/Marketing--the need to have meaningful discussions with prospects. For however long we have on this Earth, there will be people needing something and rest assured there will be a salesman waiting on the other line. The key is not to be first, but to be better. The way that you do that is by providing honest value, give feedback, and most of all listen. What we are talking about is how you get to the point where you create enough value to uncover the prospect's "Why".
Step 1: Positioning Statement
A typical positioning statement will have at least these two elements: an emotional statement and an open-ended question. An emotional statement is a word or phrase meant to trigger an emotional response. An open-ended question is a thought provoking question that may lead to a deeper discussion.
Here's an example of a positioning statement that does just that: “We work with medium to enterprise businesses who find themselves trapped behind technology because many of their business systems are not fully integrated. So we take those separate systems and we integrate them, making everything work together. Do you find yourself spending too much time moving between multiple systems that don't talk to each other?”
Your positioning statement should help you break down the initial barriers and get the prospect nodding and hopefully adding their own commentary. This is typically a great way to segue-way into uncovering "the why". The way you start is easy, by asking questions pertaining to the prospect and their business. You not only have to be good at listening but also adept at interpreting what they are saying so you can use that information later in the conversation.
ALL THE TIME you will hear someone give you a superficial "why". I’ll tell you right now, that’s never it. You have to dig. Just pretend you’re playing Dig Dug and drop some boulders on those superficial "why’s" so you can uncover the truth. Once you have "the why" then you can start to introduce change. When you get to this point it will feel like a collaboration because you have LISTENED and asked QUESTIONS.
Now, how do you make this conversation as effective as possible? I suggest getting yourself used to the fact that you will need a CRM. You will have a lot of information to record and you will want the power to go back at any time and freely access this information. It's also great if you can record the calls as well. HubSpot CRM is a great tool to use for just that. It allows you to call directly from the browser window, it records everything, and it provides you with all the information you need to prospect and follow up with prospects.
If you are interested in a free demo of the HubSpot CRM software and a chance to see if the tool can be useful for you, select the link below.
Book a One-on-One Demo of HubSpot
In the second blog of this series we will talk about "Finding the Gap", where we discuss how important it is to focus on outcomes and not tactics early in the conversation.
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