At ninety five 5 we believe that working with a coach, which we refer to as a guide, can make a BIG difference in individual performance. Well, I need some help. I have fallen off the exercise wagon. So I decided to find a program and a coach as soon as possible and talked my wife into tagging along (even though she is already fit). Fast forward a week and my wife and I are seated in a conference room in a very corporate setting with a fitness coach.
Here was our coach’s approach to fitness sales. She asked us typical questions for 10 minutes: what was motivating us, what were our goals, medical history and so on. It almost seemed as though she couldn’t wait to finish her list of questions. She was talking very fast and taking our answers as stated without clarifying or probing for more information. And then she was finished.
Now for the good part. Out came “the pitch book” and yes it was a book of laminated printed pages. She couldn’t wait to tell us everything she knew about the human body, health, exercise, fitness and how her company’s approach was unique. She went on for about 45 minutes. We were never asked a question. She never made a connection between our goals and her solution. She never checked in with us by asking “Is this helpful?” or “Is this the right type and amount of information?”. At one point my wife looked at me and gave me that “This is killin’ me” smile, which our fitness expert read as approval and a request for more.
An hour later I am back in my office and thinking about the sales fitness of the fitness sales approach. While thinking it occurred to me that what happened to my wife and me happens every day in all sorts of sales situations. Yes, everyone seems to get the idea that we need to understand the client first and that the client should do most of the talking. But in reality, I have observed first hand something very different. I have watched very experienced sales professionals talk and talk and talk as they attempt to sell multi-million dollar engagements.
Clients seem to put up with all this talking because it is so pervasive that they are conditioned to sit there just like my wife and I did. So is it any wonder that the clients say “This is a tough choice, everyone sounds the same”. In the spirit of good sales fitness the conversation could go very differently, something like this.
1. We give our discussion purpose: “By the end of our discussion you (Client) can decide if this sounds like a fit and we should keep talking or if we should stop.”
2. We ask thoughtful questions to UNDERSTAND our prospective client instead of just checking questions off a list.
3. We listen closely, clarify, explore where needed and summarize what we are learning.
4. We ask “What would be helpful to know about us, our solution or approach?”.
5. We present our thinking in the context of what we have learned about the client – nothing extra.
6. We check in frequently: “Is this helpful?”, “Am I providing the right amount of detail?”, “What’s missing”?
You might be wondering how the story ended. We signed up, it was her lucky day. We weren’t motivated to talk to a competitor – it’s only a few thousand dollars per year. We really felt that while her technique was poor her intent was to help us. And intent counts more than technique. Unfortunately most sales people don’t have prospects that are willing to forgo the competitive process and need both good intent and good technique.
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