Sales consultants constantly are selling themselves on their own product or service. Each delivered presentation can have the effect of reinforcing their earlier mental purchase when they originally accepted their job offer. It seems logical then, that if prospects had the same data you have had, they will buy.
Newer sales training consulting takes a slightly different view however, as it has been discovered, over the years, that too much data leads to confusion, and you get prospect hesitation and procrastination. All of us have experienced this.
This prospect characteristic of not being able to decide seems to have gone viral within many sales teams and their prospect base. Week after week, or month after month the hesitating prospects stays “on-the-board”, but seems to never close. This is frustrating for sales consultants, sales managers and the vice president of sales, not to mention owners.
The subject of giving too much data to a prospect has been addressed by many others. What is not being addressed enough, is the concept of what is the right data to give a prospect? The answer is elementary. Only discuss the data that is important to the prospect, and no more.
Gee, that’s just great, how will you know? Ask them! Remember, one has to diagnose first! What the prospect thinks they want may not be the best solution, but prospects always buy what they want, so do you – all of us do. This is why in our company, we always go by the company motto that you “sell them what they want, but deliver what they want and need”. That is a good solution for those of us in the sales training field. It may, however, not be a good solution if you are selling a product. Solutions that the prospect perceives as specific to their perceived needs earns easier decisions and fewer objections, if it is feasible.
Your job description as a “consultant” requires that you give advice. After all, a consultant is an expert who gives advice. The only way you can do this is by fully researching your prospect’s industry, their company and by talking with them to discover where problematic areas are. The use of a very specific Targeted Needs Analysis is working for many. The Targeted Needs Analysis must be salient and brief to be effective. A buyer’s time is valuable and should always be respected.
To garner the data needed for a Targeted Needs Analysis, ask some current clients and find out why they purchased your product or service. Current clients are a rich and fertile field to do research on to find out your company’s good, bad and ugly points. Correct, as quickly as is possible, the bad and ugly points and take the good points and convert that data to a question format for your Targeted Needs Analysis.