I have been involved in sales for the last 30 years and the last 20 of those years specifically selling legal technology solutions to Corporate Counsel and Law firms Globally. Throughout my experience, I've noticed that regardless of industry or sales methodology, many reps often overlook certain fundamental principles. Even with the abundance of sales technology available, getting these basic principles wrong can undermine any technological advantages. This is the third article in a series about breaking down 10 principles that, when followed, will help you stand out from the majority of reps who assume their prospects automatically care about what they have to say.
If you missed part two you can find it HERE.
All businesses have goals that are usually set by the top, CEO, Managing Partner, etc… Almost all of those goals or OKR’s (Objectives and Key Results, as they are sometimes referred to) usually involve growth or some type of business improvement. These goals then flow down to each department, where stakeholders in those departments develop action plans to help achieve those goals. Many things can get in the way of those goals, causing frustration. Understanding those hurdles can provide you with nuggets of critical information that, when uncovered, are the magic dust from which many sales stem.
We found a Business Issue, now what?
Assume that we used questioning (a methodology I described in the previous article) to start digging in, and we found what we think is a business issue. These are often derived from larger concerns like:
- Decreased revenue
- Low customer satisfaction
- Business risk
- Inefficient work practices
- Market Expansion
Those concerns are potentially preventing your prospect from achieving their own goals and often cause problems downstream that they need to address. We can use the same set of questioning techniques as before to uncover the underlying problems being caused by the business issue, which may be relevant to the solution you're providing.
Let’s play this out.
Assume you're working with a company selling document automation, and the concern you've heard is that there is a concern about business risk, which trickles down to the IT department you're dealing with as a heightened focus on security.
Q: Tell me what you think is causing concern about security ?
A: Part of it is that the firm has a conservative approach to anything that might cause risk to the business.
Q: What is the impact of that on the buying decisions you make?
A: We tend to be quite conservative in our approach too.
Q: Does that reduce the innovativeness your department might bring to the business?
A: Yes, it can be difficult to find cutting edge solutions that solve problems but are also sufficiently secure.
Q: What would you need from a solution in order to prove to the business that it is secure?
A: Generally both ISO 27001 certification and SOC 2 compliance, and ideally, the ability to install on prem.
Q: Then confirm the problem back to them to make sure you got it right, then rinse and repeat! Then probe for more problems you can potentially solve.
You can see where this is going, now we have a problem associated with the Business Issue that we hopefully can solve. Perhaps your document automation solution is cutting edge and also compliant with the relevant security regimes - this gives you a way in to offering information about your product that comes across as less "salesy" and more problem-solving for your customer.
This technique, although it opens with you asking questions, ultimately helps you tell a story that is genuinely relevant to your prospect, which is the beauty of these quite simple techniques. They can work in all types of sales and don’t have to be complex. For example, this kind of gentle probing could work even in a “one call” sale such as event sales. You are selling delegate seats for a legal compliance conference and perhaps the business issue you uncovered through a few questions is keeping up to date with legal compliance! By attending the event your buyer will stay abreast of compliance issues that could save a costly fine. Oversimplified but you get the gist.
But wait! What about my product? I want to sell something. Patience, Grasshopper.
How do I solve it?
Going back to child psychology, “I can’t find my toy, it's lost forever!” “Where have you looked?”
So we need to ask our customer what they have tried to do before to solve the problem, because obviously it didn’t work as the problem still exists. Keeping things simple, we can use that information to make a better case as to why our solution can help them solve their problems, but also address the Business Issue. If we do that right we can them make our prospect the hero of the story.
By going through this process with your prospective client you will cement the relationship and show that instead of being like the vast majority of salespeople they have encountered, you actually genuinely care about their business. You have demonstrated empathy through building rapport and questioning. If you can pull that off you have a customer for life. And the next time they have a problem, they may very well call you, which means you move from sales rep to trusted advisor. That is gold dust!
As you might have guessed there are a few more areas we should cover: next time we get personal. Tune in for part 4 to find out more.
I value your feedback, how has uncovering business issues worked for you?
