Never vomit on your potential customers
TweetWhile it may seem obvious that you should never vomit on your prospects, its a very common move that sales people make.
No.. I’m not referring to actually spewing your chewed Shakeshack burger onto your customer – but spewing WAY too much information.
The easiest thing to do in a sales call is to just talk and talk and talk. Yet – this rarely leads to a sale. When you are more focused on getting all of your points out, and less on what the customer wants to hear – you are essentially losing lots of opportunities to learn what the customer needs – and responding to that need.
One of my least favorite phrases that a salesperson says is, “Thats a great question and I’m going to answer that later in my presentation…” This is the sign of a salesperson more concerned about getting all 27 of his points out rather than identifying the needs of THIS customer. Sales meetings should be ways of identifying how and whether you can solve a problem that they have. Your product may have hundreds of great things in it – but there may be one small feature which solves such a large pain that its enough to make the sale – and the rest is gravy. You need to route out and identify that pain and then focus on that feature and identify how to solve that problem. When the customer asks something, rather than tell them you will tell them about it later – take that opportunity to learn about why they are asking that question and find the problem they are trying to figure out if you solve.
Yes… this will derail your presentation – but you must know your product well enough to allow the customer to take you in any direction they want. After all, the meeting is about THEM not you. Take every opportunity to listen to them and close your mouth. Avoid vomiting.
Another time when salespeople vomit is answering a question. For example, “Does your product work internationally?” Wow! For a vomiter, this is a great chance to spew out 10 minutes on how great the product is internationally. Whats the right answer? “Why is that important to you?” And then sit and learn some more.
