No arguments here Michael! As I said in my original reply to James,
"As we all know - people being people - we will never always agree on everything.", this happens to be one of them.
Sales techniques are as varied as the people who wield them. I have been around a few sales people whom I believed would just fall flat on their faces and starve, only to see them move vast amounts of product! Apparently their rough and stumble stuttering technique would hit the 'sympathetic nerve' of a prospect! They felt so bad for them they bought!
My issue with the original three step system is not a critical one. It obviously works for you and others, but would never work for me and others like me. For this reason...
I firmly believe a prospect has a better
"Ownership" of a problem, if
"They", are the ones to bring it to my attention, and to their forefront. Instead of me pointing out a potential problem to them. One way it's their problem, the other way it's
my perception of
their potential problem. Because it is NOT a problem until they say it is. And I do this by asking probing questions to surface a potential problem to the mind of the prospect.
Example: They may not be aware they aren't receiving adequate customer service, or having a problem to begin with. But instead of stating,
"Mr. Prospect, you're not receiving adequate customer service and I can fix that." Or
"You have dirty windows and I can fix that." They may not be perceiving them as dirty or perceiving themselves as having a customer service problem.
Even if they are! You might walk away if they say no...
I simply state, as described in the 2 page questionnaire at
http://www.CrashCourseMarketing.com , something like this:
"Mr. Prospect, when your guy comes out to review your service agreement 6 months into your contract, so you can rate his performance and make any suggestions... I'm curious... How does that go for you???"
First of all, you will always see a time element, a testing of an area, and input from the prospect in most all of the questions in a conversation/statement, while visiting with a prospect. Then I want to know "how it goes". This allows the prospect to answer basically three queries, of which I am certain, is not being met by the other service provider.
The killer part is, most likely the' other guy' is not doing any of this. A German word, 'gestalt', describes the action of someone finally realizing something for the first time. I compare it to something in the back of your minds subconscious, coming into the forefront extremely fast. The
"OH YEAH!!!!" syndrome. The light bulb going off in their heads! They say
Hey you know what??? I REALLY DO have a problem! Whaddya know!!!!"
Typically the response back when I ask a question like the one above is,
"They don't do that for me". To where I come back with,
"Oh really??? You know Mr. Prospect, I work with a business much like yours and they like it when we come in at 6 months to review their agreements and to see how we're doing. They often have some great input into how we are doing for them. That makes sense, doesn't it???" :::note: Tie Down::: (Now I am pretty much grinding the point home and making it hurt.)
Well obviously they'll say yes. Then I confirm the who, what, where of the 'future 6 month meetings'. (pre-closing: getting the prospect to agree to terms of working with me.)
Anyhow Michael, I don't believe your concept or approach is wrong. I simply
disagree with it on the basis of it is YOU who are pointing out a problem. And by surfacing problems from within THEIR mind, you will have a greater success.
My method takes possibly a few seconds longer than yours. But the prospect is the one who comes up with the problem. Plus I don't stop there. I point out, or get the prospect to bring up at least 5 different problems. So by the end of it, even if you were his brother-in-law cleaning his windows, he'd be so pissed at the service he was getting from you, I would be handling his account!
All from being aware of the buying/selling process from a psychological point. Realizing how a buyers mind operates. Does your method work. Certainly it will.
Does my method work. Most definitely. This is the same method I used to win a $122,834.45 a year account in under 25 minutes. Now had I simply pointed out what appeared to be a problem to me, I very likely would never of had the opportunity to work on the account.
Is it a fine line we are discussing. Yes.
Is our attention focusing on a problem the prospect may be having. Yes.
My method allows the prospect to determine what is or isn't a problem.
Yours allows you to point out a problem, then move on if the prospect doesn't believe it to be a problem.
The method I use, if the prospect doesn't believe the 6 month visit to be a problem, allows me to simply say
Great glad to hear that. and move onto my next area. I am uncovering their wants.
Both no doubt work. My method involves letting the prospect "uncover" their problems, needs and wants from their perspective. I simply amplify them once they surface.
Neither method is wrong. It's a philosophical thing!
You point out. I allow the prospect to surface the problem. Mine too is an extremely low-pressure technique since I am not pointing anything out, but just "visiting" with a prospect. It's part of the "10-15 minutes to see if you qualify".
Man I love talking sales!
As always... Success and Regards Michael... Mike
P.S. Anyone desiring to know more about this technique you can get all of the details by visiting
http://www.CrashCourseMarketing.com and having it sent directly to you!.