E-Books are big
business on the Internet these days. If you are not familiar with e-books,
they are simply books (usually less content than a printed book) that are
available for immediate download after purchase from a website. E-books are
great because they are easy to create, free to distribute and have a high
profit margin.
Sales professionals usually ask a few questions in order to gain
a better understanding of their prospect's situation. However,
most of them don't probe deep enough into the size and scope of
the problem. I remember hearing a great phrase from another
sales trainer. He suggested that sales people "pick at the
prospect's scab" which referred to the pain or problem that a
prospect may be facing.
Your objective in taking this approach is to help your prospect
discover the implication or impact of an issue or problem. When
you talk to a new prospect and they express a particular concern
or problem, take a few moments and probe a bit deeper. For
example, if they say they experience a few customer complaints
ask them often they get complaints. You may discover that a "few
complaints" actually means three or four per month. Follow up by
asking about the financial impact of those problems. In other
words, how much does it cost the company to resolve the
problems? Then, ask how those problems affect the prospect in
terms of stress, time, and aggravation. This helps the prospect
see the bigger picture and understand the impact of the problem
on their business AND themselves.
Here are a few examples:
My wife had a client who needed to record the break times of its
employees. Records were kept of the times people when workers
left the floor and returned to work and every Monday morning one
person was responsible for sifting through the previous week's
information (approximately 5000 Excel records) to determine
payroll deductions. When my wife asked how much time that
employee spent on that one activity she was told "approximately
5-6 hours." Further questioning uncovered that this manager
could use her employee to work on other projects.
My wife was able to create several macros in the Excel
spreadsheet that cut the employee's time to complete the task by
three hours every Monday. Three hours doesn't seem like much
until you extrapolate that into a year. My wife's solution saved
over 150 hours of time which is the equivalent of almost four
weeks of work. A month of productivity freed up from one
solution!
A client of mine specializes in the packaging and shipping of
large and awkward items which include valuable artwork. One of
their art gallery customers used to spend hours or time figuring
out how to package their work so they could send it to their
customer without being damaged. This process interfered with the
operation of their gallery because they did not have the
necessary space, knowledge or experience. When they enlisted the
services of my client, they reduced their stress, improved their
customer experience, and increased their reputation in the local
marketplace. All because my client knew how to ask more
questions and pick at the scab.
The challenge here is that most salespeople accept what their
prospects say at face value and they make assumptions. Which
means they fail to ask the right questions. Many people feel
that they are prying and this prevents them from probing deeper
to discover the impact and implications of the problem. However,
if you have opened the conversation and your prospect is
comfortable responding to your questions, they will probably
give you the information you need.
Here are a few questions you can ask to uncover that
information.
- How has this situation affected your business, sales, customer
service or market share?
- How much time do you or your employee(s) spend on that?
- What would it mean to you if that particular problem was
resolved?
- What does this problem cost you or your company (in lost
sales, customers, market share, image)?
- How does that affect your reputation in the local market?
- If we could solve that issue, what would it mean to you, your
company, or your shareholders?
- If each of your sales reps closed one additional sale per
month, how would that affect your sales/profitability?
These are not easy questions to ask. However, when you develop
the courage to ask them, you will help your prospect think
through extent of the pain of the problem. This will then give
you the opportunity to better position your product, service,
solution or offering. Pick at your prospect's scab then offer
them a Band-Aid.
