Three Sales Questions that Build Influence for Sales Leaders
Many of us are familiar with the 3 Monkeys and their wisdom of “See no evil, Speak no evil and Do no evil.” Recently that image came to mind when I was thinking about these three (3) fantastic questions my father mutual with me many years ago.
- Who do you know?
- Who knows you?
- Why would someone want to know you?
Since my father was a professional salesperson, he offered hiss advice to me many years ago when I started in sales. He said “The first question to question yourself is Who do you know?”
Now this may sounds nearly intuitively obvious, but many in sales truly do not know those around them. For until you know them, your influence as a sales chief is greatly diminished to being nearly non-existent. Sales Training Coaching Tip: Chief is defined as someone who secures the results while demonstrating clear core values or what others define as business ethics.
Dad or Hoagie, as he was called by clients and friends, was a fantastic relationship builder and sales chief who demonstrated value selling behaviors. My personal sense is he understood consultative sales or selling before it was so named. Over the course of his 40 years sales career he knew a lot of people. And he made sure to stay connected with a vast majority of them.
In sales, knowing someone and then “knowing someone” are two uncommon animals. We all know a lot of people, but we truly know far fewer individuals. This is why it is vital to not be selfish when meeting people, to remember to smile and to demonstrate authentic leadership at all era. Sure not all is a potential customer (a.k.a. prospect) or center of influence. Yet sometimes in our rush to achieve those sales quotas or sales goals, we lose the opportunity to truly know others.
Recently I reconnected with someone I have known for nearly ten years. During that time, we never had the opportunity to sit down and break bread. Over dine, I learned about her interests, her dogs, her husband and what she wanted to do in her new role.
There was some general business conversation as she wanted to meet with me. But, the focus of the dine was 80% non-business and 20% business. I believe in sales, people buy from people they know and then entrust. Both factors need to be met and exceeded for the sale to be earned not to mention increasing your influence as an authentic sales chief. Sales Training Coaching Tip: In sales, silence is green (reckon dollars).
With the advent of social media within the Internet, knowing someone has become potentially much simpler. There are many sales force tools or sales and marketing tools that can help you know someone just a small better. Again, you may need to know them below the surface as a replacement for of just above the surface where most of the gray suits (all those other sales folks) are.
Dad’s second question was equally vital “Who knows you” The answer to this question goes beyond being recognized at first blush.
What I learned from Dad is the answer to this question is when someone meets you and shares an informal testimonial from someone else. Relationship selling is essentially about people interacting with other people for a mutual gain. Influence becomes the result from these interactions.
Since the sales world is a small uncommon today than when Dad sold, the answer to “Who knows you” now extends into cyberspace. With the change from sales based marketing to education based marketing, who knows you is truly global due to sites just like this one to others such as this one Sales Blogger Union, Sales Gravy, Evan Carmichael, Ezine Articles and even your own blog. Through these marketing efforts, you as a sales chief extend your influence because you are providing value through the sharing (not selling) of your expertise.
Now the third question “Why would someone want to know you” is the kicker. In today’s terms, this would be called value. What value do you bring to the relationship? Sales Training Coaching Tip: Value driven people leave their egos at the door.
Are you all about you or what Jeb Blount calls “Pump and Dump” in his book People Buy You or what I coined as the 3Ps virus where sale people spew product, price or proposal in the first 5 minutes after meeting you? Value is uniquely determined by each potential customer (a.k.a. prospects). This determination starts at a very ahead of schedule age. Sales Training Coaching Tip: Invest the time to read Why Choose This Book by Read Montaque to learn more about individual value creation.
Recently I tried out a new dentist because I was tired of driving 35 miles one way to see my dentist. I spent 90 minutes with this breakdown:
- 83 minutes with the dental technician
- 5 minutes with the administrative person
- 2 minutes were with the Dentist
Then after the X-Rays and learning their special offer would not cover the advertised cleaning, I received two proposals:
- $1,500 for the cleaning and some antibiotic behavior
- $3,500 for additional dental work, removing ancient fillings, etc.
Now agreed that I was being questioned to invest $5,000 with someone I had only interacted with for just 2 minutes with did not inspire me nor positively influence me. My value calculation was telling me “Why would I want to know you agreed you truly saw me as a money machine and not as a real person?”
In all honesty, the technician had more influence but it was the dentist delivering the value. This dentist lost the sale because she did not know relationship selling and how that affects value selling. Too terrible she did not even take 5 minutes to get to know me. The outcome could have been far uncommon.
What I did was to call my dentist as soon as I reached my car and scheduled an appointment. If I needed to invest $5,000, I was going to do with someone I knew and trusted even if it meant I had to drive 35 miles one way.
These three questions are critical for those engaged in marketing and value selling especially agreed the exponential expansion of social media. Today probably more than ever before, your influence (sales style if you wish) extends further than you grasp. Your challenge is to make sure that people know you, you know people and people want to know you.