Selling More: Get the Customer to Call you FIRST -- Posted by admin on Tuesday, March 16 2004
How many opportunities have you lost to competitors who seemed to have the inside track? It’s likely your competitor established a connection early on so when the time arose, the customer called your competitor first. It happens all the time.

Selling goes beyond communicating the value of your products and services. Selling is about communicating the value of doing business with you. It is about connecting with your customer and becoming their ‘Emotional Favourite’. Success in sales requires three things:

1) A viable product that address a need
2) Credibility
3) Timing.

Some claim in sales timing is everything; experienced sales professionals know timing is the ONLY thing.

There are plethora credible businesses with viable products. To be truly successful at selling you need to the first or second person your customer talks to when they need something. There are three simple ways to get timing:

1) Sheer numbers – if you make enough calls, you’ll eventually find opportunities
2) Referrals – one of your contacts can tell you the customer has a need for your product or service
3) Getting the customer to call you first – By becoming your customers’ ‘Emotional Favourite’

Value of being first

Being in front of your customers at the time they need what you sell is key to maximizing the potential of getting the business. Because once the customer begins to shape a solution around a vendor’s product they become emotionally tied to that solution. People tend to make a decision and move on to the next problem.

What is the emotional favourite?

Think about the last time you purchased a product or service. When you picked up the phone, did you call the person who helped you succeed? The person who adds value to your business or your career every time you ask for their assistance? Chances are you did. The fact of the matter is most people do.

It used to be that people only buy from those they know, like, and trust. To be successful in sales today, you need to go one step further and connect with your customers to become the person your customers know, like, trust…and want to see succeed.

The emotional favourite is the person your customers call first, regardless of what they need, because they trust that you have their best interests at heart and will help them be successful.

Becoming the emotional favourite

So, if being the emotional favourite means you helping your customers fulfill their needs, how do you create this relationship where your customers think of you as their one-stop resource?

Start by asking questions about your customer when you meet for the very first time and at the end of EVERY sales call.

Think about the last time you encountered a ‘stereotypical’ sales professional, the one who immediately launches into a sales pitch. How did you react? After a minute or two, did your eyes glaze over? As the sales professional drones on, her audience stops listening waiting for an excuse to exit the conversation. Ultimately, that professional falls to the bottom of the list people call when they need something. Not where you want to be if you’re going to become the Emotional Favourite.

Asking the right questions

Obviously, you’re not going to start with ‘Hi, I’m Craig. What’s your greatest challenge?’

Start with open-ended questions: Ask about how the latest government policy changes, or shifts in technology has impacted their business. Relate their business to your other industry contacts and share some of your own insights. Then you can ask about their greatest challenges and you will likely get the answer you are looking for.

Frame your questions outside the sales professional prospect relationship because by default, your customer will answer in terms of your products or services. Start with “Let’s forget about what I do for ABC Company for a minute” and ask:

• What is the biggest issue you have that you just can’t get to? or,
• What is the one thing you are looking for but can’t seem to find? or,
• What issue have you tried to solve but can’t find a satisfactory solution to?

Now shut up and listen! When your customer stops talking, wait 6 seconds and listen to what they tell you next. First they’ll tell you about the problem. If you don’t interrupt them, they will tell you how the problem impacts them and the rest of their organization.

Now you have the enough information to connect your customer with a solution and if it’s not available through you perhaps you know colleague who can solve the problem.
What are the benefits of asking the right questions?

• You gain a better understanding of your customer and their organization.
• You will improve your customer relationship during a time when your customer does not need what you sell.
• You will get more time with your customer.
• You may learn of opportunities to sell.

Your customers normally won’t tell you about needs they think are unrelated to what you sell. The problem is often our customers don’t understand our business well enough to know the difference. When they tell you about their needs, you have an opportunity to help them see that what you sell addresses their need.

Next: First Call Effectiveness: How to prevent your customers from calling your competition.