Sell More by Doing One Simple Thing (That Everyone Says Not to Do)

“If you want to demonstrate your expertise, if you want to gain client’s trust, ask a lot of good questions.”

“You were given two ears and one mouth for a reason. Listen twice as much as you speak.”

“Throwing ideas against the wall and seeing if something sticks…that’s what amateurs do.”

However you want to put it, the advice of “ask a lot of questions and wait before you put forth ideas” is given to people new to business development perhaps more often than any other piece of advice.

Is it a bad piece of advice? No. Asking questions is a necessary part of any sales process. You want to start a dialogue, and questions are great because they can demonstrate that you:

• Understand the buyer’s industry.
• Understand the buyer’s situation, indicating that you “get” what they’re going through and you have done your homework.
• Understand and have done homework on the buyer’s company.
• Can get buyers thinking about topics essential to their success that they haven’t yet considered, showing your insight and forethought.

However, asking questions alone won’t win you deals. You need to capture attention, develop interest, and inspire action. In the name of “asking the right questions” you can get caught up thinking that you need to ask questions incessantly to prove you’re a good fit, valuable asset, and engaged listener.

While buyers value service providers that listen, they are not interested in a pseudo-psychologist session where they yammer on for 75 minutes while you ask questions, listen, and take notes (and, thoughtfully nod your head and say, “hmmmm”). You can prove that you’re a listener by simply listening at the appropriate times, confirming what you hear, and summarizing as is helpful. Volume listening and long periods of talking can frustrate clients.

Advocacy—the part where you recommend, promote, and persuade—is just as an important part of the conversation. How can you get prospects excited about your services if you don’t tell them what your services are and how your services can help the prospect in their situation?

Power in Advocacy

By now you should be familiar with the RAIN Selling^SM model and know that RAIN stands for:

• Rapport
• Aspiration and Afflictions
• Impact
• New Reality

As discussed in the Selling Consulting Services Report in pillar #4, the “A” and the “I” also double for Advocacy and Inquiry. It’s a reminder to use both and not to over-emphasize one or the other.

Inquiry (the part where you ask questions) we all know and love. Asking questions can be powerful and add value.

Advocacy is also necessary and can be just as powerful. Here’s how:

1. Capability. Buyers must jump two hurdles when choosing to work with consultants. First, they must determine if the consultant is a good general fit for their company and for their needs.  After that comes the buying process, the part that includes needs assessment, solution crafting, and provider selection.

In both cases, buyers need to know what you do! Especially at the beginning. Buyers ask themselves, “Who can help our company solve a problem like the one we have?” If they don’t know what you do and the problems you solve, then you can’t get in the game. No seat at the table. No at bat…no home run.

Don’t assume that buyers read your website service descriptions, case studies, and intellectual capital. Even if they’ve read it all and know what you do, they still need to hear it in your words, from your mouth, at a live meeting. Fail to share your capabilities or advocate for your services and you’ll miss opportunities.

2. Credibility. Asking questions isn’t the only way to demonstrate credibility. Sharing a story about how you solved a problem in the past, describing how a client’s situation matches the dynamic you’ve seen a number of times, and simply sharing parts about your background and accomplishments also establish credibility.

Again, avoid assuming someone knows about you and all you’ve done.

3. Landscaping. Don’t underestimate how smart some buyers are. While some babes in the decision maker woods are truly lost, many buyers are just waiting for you to paint them the picture of what’s possible to do with you. They want to hear your list of services, how you typically apply them, and how they all work together.

These systems thinkers want to know the big picture of what you do so they can file away in their brains where to apply your capabilities and assets at the time they need them.

Failing to give people the big picture story—often in more detail than the sales training books tell you to—can leave buyers confused as to how to plug you in and leave you missing out on challenges they would have tapped you to solve.

Naysayers will call this the “spray and pray approach.” Dear faithless: prayers get answered.

4. Agenda: All business leaders should have an agenda—where they’re taking their companies, their divisions, and their careers. As confident as many leaders seem, most yearn for trusted advocates to help them see a vision and set a direction.

A few simple words, “Here’s how I think you should move forward,” are among the most powerful words in your vocabulary as an adviser. Naysayers would say that this is too presumptuous, that leaders need us to help them find their own paths to success, that the danger in being wrong is just too high.

Phooey! Decision makers yearn for people to help them set an agenda they can believe in. They don’t always need to be taught to fish; sometimes they just need the right answers. Provide them, and they’ll value you highly.

5. Inspiration: Decision makers are looking for fresh ideas and new and elegant ways to solve problems.

Professionals worth their salt have methodologies to share, passion to stimulate, and inspiration to trigger. When you show people what’s possible by sharing your ideas, telling stories, and putting stakes in the ground, you can inspire buyers while at the same time shaping the solution and making yourself the front runner.

Your advocacy can start people on journeys down new long and fruitful paths—paths that include working with you.

Jake and Elwood didn’t see the light until the Reverend Cleophus James showed them they way. Are you ready to unleash the Reverend Cleophus inside of you? The answer might be a little more advocacy and a little less inquiry.

Amen.

Tagged as: Selling Consulting Services 101