Your Hopes of Problem Solving are Fading

by Ton Verleg

Recently I was approached by a salesperson selling Sales Enablement platforms. His call was out of the blue, I didn’t know who he was. Before the call, there was no initial contact or even a Linkedin connection. Still, I stayed on the phone listening to what he had to offer. To my surprise, the Seller was asking me questions about our current Sales Enablement platform. How satisfied I was, or actually, how dissatisfied. This call went totally the wrong way. On top of that the Magic Wand question came up and I hung up in a politely way.

What value do I as a potential buyer get out of such calls? Nothing. The Seller didn’t share any knowledge to give me confidence that he had done his homework before the call. There were no insights shared. Within 2 minutes my interest level to contribute to the call was below zero.

What about you? Are you still asking your potential buyers these questions? If you do, then you are not selling with the Buyer’s Perspective. You are selling with the Seller’s perspective hoping to find pain points you can solve. But your hopes of problem-solving are fading. Do customers really have problems ready to be solved by you? If you think about it, their first point of contact to solve any problem is their current supplier. They demand them to fix it. Customers prefer a fix over a change.

So, what should your approach be? First, change your attitude from being a person who sells something, to a person who wants to help someone to do better in whatever they are trying to achieve. Selling is helping. Customers want to be treated as business people. They have goals, targets, or business outcomes to achieve. When you meet with them, they expect a different type of conversation. One where you come with information that is new, relevant and insightful to them. Information that is changing their perspective on how their business can improve in an unexpected way. Politely, you share the risks you see of not changing. Will they achieve their desired outcomes by doing nothing? You come with alternatives, with ideas they had not been thinking about before. They start to see the opportunity to advance with new strategic value. They will start to respect you because you share the same objectives.

Invest time to develop yourself to become such a salesperson. Acquire business acumen to understand how this ever-changing world affects businesses and their goals and strategies. Become that Trusted Advisor that can help companies to prosper. Stop problem-solving, start advising.

Tags: Ton Verleg