Years ago, we hired a sales coach.
Rob Lime.
Rob was trained in the Sandler Sales method; as a result, so are we at K&J.
When we learned to sell, Rob taught us to look for milestones in our conversations.
The most important milestone in a sales conversation, according to Rob and one of the FBI’s best, Chris Voss, is getting a prospect to say, “That’s right”. Here’s what this looks like in practice – using two questions that have helped us close more leads than any other technique or script: Prospect: “I need help with my marketing”
Us: “Why don’t you read a few blogs and spend a few hours learning how to do this as opposed to hiring us?”
Prospect: “I don’t have the time and don’t want to be an expert in this area.”
Us: “Great, just so I can say I heard you correctly, you don’t have the time to pull together the skills needed to do this yourself?”
Prospect: “That’s right.”
90% of our closes come from some version of this conversation.
Asking a prospect why they can’t do it themselves illuminates a few things:
- They don’t have the skills
- They don’t have the time
- They vocalise the problem they’re having
Once they’ve shared that reason, you just need them to repeat it back to you.
Sales is essentially a conversation where each party tries to understand the value they bring to the table.
Our job as sellers is to help people realise the value we bring to the table and get them to agree to that.
P.S. If you want to connect with Rob, you can find him here on LinkedIn. The bloke is cooler than Vanilla Ice.
