Victor Antonio Start Selling 2009

S.T.A.R.T. Selling

An Investigative Approach to Bridging the Sales Gaps!

Victor Antonio

S.T.A.R.T. Selling An Investigative Approach to Bridging the Sales Gaps!

By Victor Antonio

1st Edition

Sales Influence Publishing

An Investigative Approach to Bridging the Sales Gaps! 3

S.T.A.R.T. Selling

Sales Influence Edition Copyright © 2009 by Victor Antonio Published by Sales Influence Publishing All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be produced in any form or by any means, mechanical or electronic, including photocopy and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the author or publisher; exceptions are made for brief excerpts used in published reviews. This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services. If legal advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought. This Sales Influence Publication Edition is published by Victor Antonio, Chief Sales Officer 11770 Haynes Bridge Road Suite 205-501 Alpharetta, Georgia 30004 www.SalesInfluence.com Printed in the United States of America First Printing: July 2009 Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Antonio, Victor S.T.A.R.T. Selling: An Investigative Approach to Bridging the Sales Gaps!

ISBN Pending (U.S.A.) 1. Business 2. Sales


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S.T.A.R.T. Selling

Victor Antonio, Founder of Sales Influence

From food stamps and welfare to being the CEO of a high-tech company, Victor Antonio is proof that the American dream of success is alive and well. A poor upbringing in one of the roughest areas of Chicago didn't stop Victor from earning a BS in Electrical Engineering, then an MBA, and building a 20-year career as a top sales executive and manager. Prior to being CEO, Victor was President of Global Sales and Marketing for a $420M company and Vice President of International Sales for a Fortune 500 $3B corporation. He was selected from over 500 sales managers to join the President’s Advisory Council in 1999 and 2000 for excellence in sales and management. He has conducted business in Europe, Asia, Australia, Latin America, the Caribbean, South Africa, and the Middle East. Today, he trains salespeople to achieve quicker selling results with his program Sales Influence. Victor i s a dynamic trainer who specializes in taking apart complex subject matter and breaking it down to simple, applicable, everyday strategies for sales success. His workshops are


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loaded with sales strategies backed by research in the field of consumer behavior. What makes this program different from others? Sales Influence isn’t about “how to sell,” but about “how people buy” and the thought processes that drive their decisionmaking behavior. When you understand how people buy, it’s easier to sell to them. That’s a new approach to selling!

For more information go to: www.SalesInfluence.com .


S.T.A.R.T. Selling


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Table of Contents

Introduction Chapter 1 - Bridging the Sales Gaps Chapter 2 - The Awareness Gap Chapter 3 - The Urgency Gap Chapter 4 - The Solution Credibility Gap Chapter 5 - The S.T.A.R.T. System Chapter 6 - Situation Questions Chapter 7 - Trouble Questions Chapter 8 - Amplify Questions Chapter 9 - Reward Questions Chapter 10 - Consistency Theory Chapter 11 - Tie-Down Statements


S.T.A.R.T. Selling


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Introduction “It’s quite elementary, my dear Dr. Watson.”

Before I get into the investigative side of selling, let me begin by confessing upfront that I am a fan of the old Sherlock Holmes movies that featured that wonderfully stoic actor Basil Rathbone. There’s nothing better on a rainy day than sitting back and watching an old, grainy black and white Sherlock Holmes movie. For movie aficionados, you may have noticed that almost every movie follows the same formula with slight modifications to the overall script it seems. The characters may change, but thei r roles ar e still th e same. A crime is committed. Scotland Yard calls on Sherlock Holmes to An Investigative Approach to Bridging the Sales Gaps! 11

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come in and find out who did it. With a keen eye for detail and an incessant commitment to asking poignant and incisive questions, Holmes is able to begin putting the mystery of ‘who done it’ together. Holmes’ strategy rests on asking key questions, but more importantly it also rests on the consistency of testimony offered up by the suspects (i.e., does it make sense and does it fit with what the evidence is telling him). The key to Holmes’ success again lies in his ability to ask cruci al questions each aime d at getting at the truth of what happened. If you watch enough episodes of Sherlock Holmes you begin to notice a pattern in his questioning technique. The first few questions are aimed at formulating a general idea of what happened and who the primary suspects are. He then questions the suspects to get their alibi (e.g., where were you the night of killing?) Every response to his questions is monitored for tone of voice or facial gestures; anything that might give Holmes some insight into whether or not they’re telling the truth. He then begins to put together a mental picture of what may have happened. He revisits the physical evidence to help him confirm what the suspects are claiming. And after


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all the evidence is analyzed and all the usual suspects have been vetted, Holmes points to the murderer which is usually someone no one expected.

The suspect feigns

surprise and accuses Holmes of making a mistake. It is at that moment that Holmes will walk through the scene of the crime in elegant detail tying up all the loose ends. The suspect is forced to come clean and usually breaks down and confesses in the face of overwhelming evidence.

What does all this have to do with selling? Everything! Every sale is a “crime” to be solved.

What is the crime?

The fact that prospects aren’t buying from you is a crime in of itself! Why aren’t they buying from you? The only way to find out is to go and ‘interview’ the main characters in this debauchery and to bring those prospects to sales justice — sorry, a bit of melodrama to illustrate my key point. This book is about developing a questioning strategy that you can use over and over again (i.e ., repeatable) and more importantly effective in getting your clients to ‘confess’ that they’ve committed a heinous crime by not buying from you in the first place. If you learn how to do it An Investigative Approach to Bridging the Sales Gaps! 13

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right, at the end of your sales pitch you’ll have your clients screaming, “Alright! You got me! I confess. I’m ready to buy! I’m sorry!” Alright, maybe that’s taking it a bit too far.

But

seriously, what if we could develop a sales questioning strategy that you could use repeatedly to get clients to view your product as the obvious choice; would that be of benefit to you? I think so, which is why I wrote this book. The sole purpose of this book is to outline a questioning

strategy or system that you’ll be able to use over and over again without thinking twice about it.

What makes

Sherlock Holmes good at what he does is that he understands that the answer to solving any crime lies in the ability to asking the right questi ons. More importantly, at the heart of this book, is that he uses a sequence of questions, a system if you will that he knows will get to the truth quickly. In selling, you as salesperson need to develop a system that is comprised of a sequence of key questi ons that will help you do several things: a) Qualify the prospect as soon as possible b) Identify the prospect’s needs


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c) Make the prospect cognizant of those needs d) Create a sense of urgency to act and e) Identify a credible solution that fits the prospect

Once you’ve done this, you will be in a position to then offer the prospect a solution that fits those needs. Underlying this system is the fundamental belief that a prospect will not act (i.e., move to purchase your product) until a need has been clearly identified and enough urgency has been created to spur the prospect to take action.


S.T.A.R.T. Selling

Chapter 1 Bridging the Sales Gaps

Here’s an age old question in selling, “Why do people buy?” Ask a hundred different salespeople why people buy and they’ll give you a hundred reasons why buyers are motivated to take action.

Reaching a consensus on a

United Nations resolution would be a much easier task than trying to get a group of salespeople to agree on why people buy. That said I will now give you a conceptual framework of the decision-making process that people generally go through in order to make a buying decision.

In any

decision process, the buyer will go through what I’ve identified to be three major phases or three major sales


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gaps, which I’ve labelled as follows:

Awareness Gap,

Urgency Gap and Solution Credibility Gap. When it comes to learning, I’m a very visual person. The word ‘phase’ doesn’t conjure up in my mind a clear and concise picture of what that represents. But when I use the word ‘gap,’ my mind’s eye immediately seizes upon a picture of me standing on one side of a valley seeking a way to get to the other side. A gap is simply the space between two objects or two end points. In selling, when we can’t close a deal it’s usually because of a gap between the salesperson trying to get the order and the prospect being ready to buy. Selling is about bridging the gap so we can move the buyer mentally from where they’ re at to where we need them to be in order to make the sale. As I’ve mentioned, there are three major gaps we have to bridge in order to make any sale happen. a) Awareness Gap b) Urgency Gap c) Solution Credibility Gap


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Often, the problem in selling is that: a) salespeople don’t know that the gaps exists or b) they don’t know how to walk the buyer acros s the gaps to get to the other side, in order to close the deal. Take a look at the illustration below. Imagine that over on the left side is your buyer who you need to move over to the right-side in order to close the deal. How do you do it?

How often has this happened to you?

You set up an

appointment to meet with a prospect and you ask all the right questions, do a marvelous job in presenting the features, benefits and the value your product can bring to their business. You then try to get some feedback from the prospect on what he thinks about your product.

The

prospect casually mentions how he does see the value in


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what you’re offering but beyond that he doesn’t seem to be that excited. At that moment you’re a bit confused, or at a minimum, put off by his reaction.

You were expecting a more

enthusiastic response and you can sense the meeting losing some momentum. You iterate to the prospect the problems that your solution solves but the prospect still doesn’t seem to get it. Soon afterward, the prospect thanks you for your time and tell s you how much he appreciates you comin g in and taking the time to present your product solution.

He

promises to give your product and proposal some thought and if need be, he’ll give you a call if he’s at all interested. You walk out of the office building back to your car thinking, “Well, maybe he’ll call.”

As you’re driving

home, you begin to question whether or not he will call back and something in the back your mind is nagging at you asking, “Why didn’t he seem too excited about what I had to say?” Doubt starts to creep in by the time you pull into the parking garage of your office building. You wait a week and still no response from the prospect. An Investigative Approach to Bridging the Sales Gaps! 19

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You call to get an update, but you either get voicemail or his secretary telling you that he’s much too busy, and that she would be more than happy to take a message. After several phone calls and messages, you are now convinced more than ever that your initial hunch was right, ‘the prospect didn’t understand the value’ of what you were offering. You finally admit to yourself that the deal isn’t going to happen and you move on to the next prospect.

Sound

familiar? Was it the prospect’s fault for not understanding the value, or was it really the salesperson’s fault for not being able to tie the value of the product to the buyer’s current needs? It’s easy to make a case for the latter. In my sales seminars I often get the question, “Yes, but what if the customer doesn’t know what he needs?” Ah ha! That’s exactly my poin t. How can you sell to a prospect that isn’t aware that he has a need? How is that possible to sell to someone without making them consciously aware of a problem they’re having? It isn’t!


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Chapter 2 The Awareness Gap The first step in any sales situation is to help the prospect bridge the gap (i.e., cross over) between being unaware of any problems with his business to the prospect becoming fully aware of these problems and his needs. Simply stated we need to help the prospect become aware of the problems that exist within his business and help him make the connection to the product as his solution. Only by first making him aware of his problem will you the salesperson be in a position to begin selling.


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An example might prove useful.

Let’s say that you’re

trying to sell a high-end industrial printer that costs somewhere in the neighbor hood of $50,000. Your printer is highly efficient and uses less ink than your competitor’s which means the cost of buying replacement cartridges is significantly lower. You have your first meeting with the Chief Financial Officer in charge of all the company’s finances. The goal of every CFO should be to try to cut costs wherever possible. Before you can get the CFO to listen to how great your new printer is, you first have to create awareness. You do this by simply asking key questions about what type of printers they’re currently using. The CFO may or may not know, but will certainly be able to provide you with that information. Once you know what printers they’re using,


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you’ll describe and show how much more efficient and cost effective it is to use your printer. Caution!

Just because you’ve made the prospect

‘aware’ of a problem doesn’t necessarily mean you can jump into your product pitch. Up to this point, you’ve only made the CFO discontented with what they’re currently using.

Don’t confuse discontent with a decision to move

forward or wanting to make a change. That could be a big mistake! We’ve all been in situations where we don’t like the product we’re using, but we’re also not in the mood to go out of our way to fin d an alternative. We’re aware of our ‘unhappiness,’ but that isn’t enough to motivate us to search for alternatives, let alone implement a change.

Rationalization – The Enemy of Change Human nature is a funny thing.

You can point out to

people that something is wrong but if they view the change as too cumbersome or worse — an annoyance, they will invent reasons why they should leave things as they are.


S.T.A.R.T. Selling

The CFO in this example may tell the salesperson that they have a long-standing relationship with their current supplier and they’d hate to change that. He may also praise the curren t supplier’s willingness to help when one of the printers goes down and how great their technical support has been over the years.

He may point to the fact that it

isn’t only about saving money, it’s about loyalty and working with people who he knows he can count on. You get the idea. When people don’t want to change, they look for reasons why not to change.

These are called

rationalizations or as I like to point out, the ability to ‘ration lies’ to themselves. Whether you as a salesperson agree with CFO’s line of thinking or not is irrelevant. What matters here is that he sincerely believes in what he is saying and if you try to challenge his belief system head on, you’re only setting yourself up for a contentious relationship with him in the end, which you will lose. So what do you do?


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Chapter 3 The Urgency Gap The next step is to bridge the Urgency Gap by creat ing a sense of urgency (i.e., a big enough reason for the prospect to reconsider the status quo).

Although the prospect is

aware of the problem, he doesn’t have a big enough reason(s) for making that change.

So your job as a

salesperson is to create that sense of urgency, keeping in mind that human beings will always prefer the path of least resistance.

And that path has a name; it’s called ‘Do

Nothing.’


S.T.A.R.T. Selling

Let’s go back to the example of the CFO who is aware of the problem, but feels that there are enough reasons (i.e., rationalizations) for NOT taking any action. Your job as a salesperson is to create enough human capital and financial pain to make the CFO stand up and take notice and reconsider the compan y’s complacency. How do you do that? By digging for pain! What if we made the CFO aware of how much the replacement cartridges were costing him over a given period of time, let’s say a year, do you think he would listen? If the numbers were high enough, I think you’d get his attention. Let’s talk operations and down time. What if you could also show that having to replace the cartridges is costing him more than he real izes. For exa mple, let’s say tha t it


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takes 1 hour to swap out one cartridge, and then multiply that by the number of cartridges that have to be swapped out in a week or month. He would quickly start getting the idea that just replacing them is costing him money. But why stop there. What if you could also add to the pain by describing the effects it’s having on their ability to meet turnaround deadlines due to delays caused by the swapping of cartridges. Or how about what happens when an existing cartridge runs low on ink ruining a perfectly good printing run because it’s begun to produce streaks on the paper being printed. We’ve all had that happen with our home printers. Once the ink gets down to a certain level it starts streaking and you have to start over and toss the messed up paper out. On a large scale, the cost of tossing expensive printing paper could begin to impact the company’s profit margin on that project. You get the idea. If you’ve presenting this painful scenario in the appropriate way, the CFO prospect should be experiencing a great deal o f discomfort given the amount of man hours An Investigative Approach to Bridging the Sales Gaps! 27

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and money the company is losing based on what you’ve mentioned. I’m often asked, “Doesn’t the prospect already know how much it’s costing him in time and money?” They’re smart people shouldn’t they be able to figure things out on their own? The answer is yes and no. Sometimes employees are too close to the problem that they can’t see the forest from the trees . Psychologist call this ‘selective perception’ where you only see what you want to see or what your mind is prepared to see. A good salesperson is one who knows how to dig for this type of information or pain in order to get the prospect to pay attention. This is extremely important given today’s fast paced environment and the increasing number of competitors in the marketplace. You as a salesperson have only so much time before the prospect stops listening to what you have to offer. Don’t be afraid to go at the prospect with tough hard hitting questions that are aimed at getting at the heart of a problem the prospect may have or simply not be aware of how much the problem is costing him.


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Asking tough questions is not a license to be rude. Find ways of softening the questions, but maintain that focus of digging deep for potential problems that may be affecting the prospect’s business. When the prospect begins to contemplate how much inefficiencies are costing him and the company, you can bet you’ve now bridged the sense of urgency gap. At this point the prospect should be open to listening to a solution to mitigate or alleviate the problem.


S.T.A.R.T. Selling

Chapter 4 The Solution Credibility Gap The last and final gap to bridge over is the Solution Credibility Gap. Imagine for one moment in the printer sale scenario where you’ve managed to make the prospect not only aware of the need for your product but you’ve also created a sense of urgency and the prospect says, “Ok. I get it. I have a problem and it’s costing me money. How do I know your solution can help me?” The first thing you should do is mentally celebrate what you’ve just accomplished.

You’ve managed to move a

prospect from a sense of indifference and apathy to one where he is not only listening, but he is also hoping that you can solve his problems. At this point, you are now


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ready to deliver the best damn sales pitch you’ve ever delivered. The key to success in the solution credibility phase is the ability to tie the problems you’ve identified to the benefits your product offers. In the case of the printer salesperson, the goal now is to tie the benefi ts of his high end printer cartridge to the needs he’s already highlighted. There are several ways you can demonstrate your product’s capabilities. You can do a show and tell, but what I’ve found is that clients also like to see hard numbers and the more you can substantiate your claims the more likely they are to buy into your product without questioning you too hard.

Here’s a typical sales pitch a printer

salesperson might use to demonstrate the cartridge’s capabilities.

Prospect: Alright, I’m listening. Show me how your cartridges can help save me time and money. You: Mr. Prospect, I mentioned early on that our printer cartridges use Everlasting Ink. In several studies we conducted, our cartridges printed an average of 75% more than the brand you are currently An Investigative Approach to Bridging the Sales Gaps! 31

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using. Given your workload today, that translates into a direct cost savings of $2,000 per month. Prospect: How do I know what you’re telling me is right? You: Well, there’s two ways to answer that question. One is that we can give you the names of people who run companies like yours and have used our products and let them confirm for you what I’m saying. Second, we would be more than happy to go ahead and install a few of these on a trial basis and you can then measure for yourself how effective they are. Both options are available but before you decide, I’d like to share with you some other facts about our cartridges with your permission of course. Prospect: Go ahead.

much doesfor it cartridge cost you in terms of labor You: aHow when printer is down replacement? Prospect: I haven’t given that much thought. But if it’s down an hour, I’d estimate it’s costing me about $500 to $1,000 when I have to stop the whole production line. You: We’ve calculated the numbers and figured out that by using our cartridges you only have to replace them half as many times compared to what you’re doing today. That said we estimated that on top of the $2,000 you’ll also save an estimated 5 hours per day in


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uptime. Using your numbers that could be an additional savings of $2,500 (5 x $500) to $5,000 (5 x $1,000) per day. If you multiply that by 22 working days you stand to save an additional $55,000 to $110,000 per month in labor and efficiency costs. Prospect: I have to admit, that’s a significant savings. But what’s the catch? You: There is no catch with the exception that our cartridges are 20% more expensive than what you’re currently using now (hand him a pricing proposal). But if you run the numbers you’ll see for yourself that you’re still going to come out way ahead when it comes to reducing your overall printing cost and labor. Prospect: I see. You: That said, I mentioned earlier that you can speak to any our existing clients. To save you some time, here’s a copy of a letter a company similar to yours sent us confirming the cost savings. His contact information is available and I’ve asked him to make himself available during this hour so we can call him right now if you’d like. Prospect: No, I believe you. You: I appreciate your confidence inme. When would be a good time for us to ship you the first batch of


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printer cartridges so that you can try them out for yourself and begin lowering your costs? I’m sure you get the idea. And in case your thinking this example is an ideal case, you’re right! It would be great if all sales presentations and pricing discussions went this smoothly. But what is real in this scenario is the salesperson’s ability to get to the point where the prospect really wants to hear your solution. I can’t guarantee that you’ll be able to get all of your prospects this excited, but I will guarantee you that if you can bridge the Awareness and Urgency Gaps successfully, you should see an increase in your sales close rate. It goes without saying that this is contingent upon your delivery and effecti ve sales pitch of course. And if all goes well, you should celebrate!


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You now understand how buyers buy and how critical it is to bridge each sales gap before you begin selling. It’s now time to develop a questioning system that will allow you to bridge each of these sales gaps effortlessly.


S.T.A.R.T. Selling

Chapter 5 The S.T.A.R.T. System I’ve had a chance to study a plethora of sales training books and programs out on the market. Each book, much like this one, purports a strategy or approach to selling; a system if you will. I lined up all these programs next to each other and found that there is a basic pattern, a common sales process that runs through each of them that looks something like this: ·

Prospecting: Finding new potential buyers.

·

Qualify: Once found you need to ask key questions to see if there is a fit for what you’re selling and what they’re buying.

·

Investigate: Once qualified, you can then begin to ask key questions to uncover a need for your product or service.


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·

Present: Present or demonstrate your product or service capabilities.

·

Proposal: Layout how much it will cost for the prospect to buy from you.

·

Close: Solidify the deal with a contract to buy.

Each step above is an important part of the overall sales process. I’m often asked, “Which of these phase would you consider the most important?”

This is a tough

question to answer since each phase plays a vital role in convincing the client to buy from you. If you don’t find new clients (Prospecting) then it’s a sure bet you’ll fail.

You can have the best pitch

(Presentation) in the world, but if you don’t ask (Close) for the order you’ll fall short. If you don’t take the time to build rapport and trust (Preliminaries) from the onset, the client may like the product, but not trust you enough to cut the order. If you don ’t take the tim e to find out what the client needs (Investigate), you may be proposing the wrong solution altogether. Suffice to say, all play an important role in selling. An Investigative Approach to Bridging the Sales Gaps! 37

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The question I think they’re really asking me is, “Of the six steps, which is the most critical when it comes to sales success?”

If I had to choose one, I would say that

prospecting is without a doubt the single point of failure. (i.e., no clients, no sales), Second only to prospecting, I believe the next critical step in selling is the investigative phase. Unfortunately, this is the stage that is often overlooked which is the purpose of this book.

It is during this stage, the

investigative stage, where you have the opportunity to uncover the prospect’s need (i.e., create awareness) and help the prospect understand how important it is to act (i.e., sense of urgency) so that you’ll be able to position your product accordingly (i.e., demonstrate solution credibility). Getting back to my Sherlock Holmes analogy, when you want to get to the heart of why someone will or wo n’t buy, you have to ask probing questions that will get you the answers you’re looking for in order to be able to sell more effectively. Most salespeople just go into a sales call and think that by simply asking a lot of questions they’re doing their job.


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The reality is that simply asking questions without an aim or purposeful intent is a waste of your t ime as well as the prospect’s time. What you want to do is go in with a questioning strategy that will allow you to extract the pertinent information from the prospect, and at the same time, you want to be able to create sales momentum towards getting the prospect to buy.

Learning how to ask the right

questions, in the proper sequence, will allow you to gently move the prospect along a desired line of thinking. To illustrate my point here, I’d like you to participate in the following exercise. I need you to answer the following eight questions and when you’re done, I will attempt to read your mind.


S.T.A.R.T. Selling

Step 1: Pick a number 1-10:

Step 2: Multiply that number by 9 and write down the new number: _____

Step 3: Now add both individual digits together (ex: 13 = 4, 23 = 5, 57=12) to get a new number:

Step 4: Now subtract the number 5 from the above number:

Step 5: Now assign the number the corresponding letter of the alphabet (example: A=1, B=2,…):

Step 6: Think of a European country that starts with that letter and write it here:

Step 7: Take the 2nd letter of the European country you wrote down and think of a large mammal that begins with that letter and write it here:

Step 8: Last question.

Write down the color of that

mammal?


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Page left blank intentionally to prevent you from peeking at the answer on the next page.


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Answer: Did you know that there are no Gray Elephants in Denmark!


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If you’re like 90% of the people who do this exercise, you should’ve picked Denmark as your coun try, an Elephant as your large mammal and as we know, most elephant are indeed Gray. How was I able to guess the answe r you wrote down? Simple. I used a line of question that led you directly to the conclusion I wanted you to reach. Here’s how it works:

Step 1: Pick a number 1-10: (Any number will do in this case) Step 2: Multiply that number by 9 and write down the new number (Simple enough) Step 3: Now add both individual digits together (ex: 13 = 4, 23 = 5, 57=12) to get a new number. (Here’s the heart of the trick. If you mul tiply ANY numb er by the numb er 9 you will get a two digit number that when added together will ALWAYS equal nine. For example, 9 x 5 = 45 and when you add the digits together 4+5 you’ll get 9. So no matter what number you start out with between 1-10 you’ll always end up with a 9 at this point. Step 4: Now subtract the number 5 from the above number. (Since it will always be 9, your result will always equal the number 4)


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Step 5: Now assign the number the corresponding letter of the alphabet (The 4th in the alphabet is the letter D) Step 6: Think of a European country that starts with that letter and write it here. (I limited your thinking to a country in Europe so you wouldn’t choose a country like the Dominican Republic. The only European country that typically comes to mind is Denmark) Step 7: Take the 2nd letter of the European country you wrote down and think of a large mammal that begins with that letter and write it here. (By hav ing you take the 2 nd letter from Denmark, E, and limiting your choice to a ‘large mammal’ (i.e., an elephant), I again controlled or limited your choices so you wouldn’t choose another animal like an ‘Eel’. Step 8: Write dow n the co lor of tha t mammal? (Most Elephants are grey) The purpose of this exercise was to drive home the point that you can control, to some extent, the flow of a conversation and guide the prospect’s thinking.

If you

structure your questions and arrange them in the proper order in such a way to get the client to think the way you want them to think. S.T.A.R.T. selling is a question system that you’re going to learn and use so that when you go in to see a


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prospect you already know what questions you want to ask, and in what order, to get the client to be more receptive to what you’re selling. Let me begin by defining what the acronym S.T.A.R.T. stands for: Situation, Trouble, Amplify, Reward and TieDown. Each letter stands for the types of questions you will be asking your prospect. Each stage is designed to elicit specific information which will help move the sales forward.


S.T.A.R.T. Selling

S.T.A.R.T. Questions

Questions

Objective

Situation

Find out what the company is currently using or doingorto solvesolves. the type problem product service Youofneed to findyour out what they’re currently doing, what they’re buying and who they are buying from.

Trouble

Gauge their level of satisfaction with their current supplier and identify areas of dissatisfaction or trouble spots.

Amplify

Take those identified trouble points and Amplify the problem so the client can get a real appreciation of how it is impacting their business.

Reward

This is the ‘what if’ question stage. Have the client tell you how resolving those problems will benefit his company or him personally.

TieDown

Obtain a verbal commitment or some form o f acknowledgement from the prospect that resolving a specific problem or having a particular capability would help.


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Chapter 6 Situation Questions Once you’re in to see the prospect and after all pleasantries have been exchanged (e.g., nice weather we’re having, great office, great location, how long have you been with the company, love your company’s product portfolio, etc.), it’s now tim e to get down to busi ness. It all begi ns with easing into asking Situation Questions that are designed to get the prospect to give you some background information, and the current state of affairs as it relates to what you and your company is offering in terms of products and services. Here are some t ypes of Situation Questions that you may want to consider asking: Supplier questions: Who do you currently use as your supplier? ·


S.T.A.R.T. Selling

·

·

How long have you been using your current supplier? If there was one thing you could improve from a supplier standpoint, what would it be?

Motivation questions: ·

·

What contribute to your success with regardfactors to (yourtoday product or service)? Why are you looking at other alternatives? Or, are you looking for alternatives? If so why?

Buying process questions: When was the last purchase you made? How often do you purchase? What led to deciding on that particular vendor? How does your decision making process work? · · · ·

Market questions: Who are your current competitors? · · ·

How do you see our product helping you compete? What are some marketing advantages you’re seeking?

When asking Situation Questions, the objective is to really understand the current situation with the company and quality of the current supplier relationship. Each question should be aimed at answering two essential questions: 1) Are they a match for my product or service?


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2) Are they in the right fram e of mind to consider my product as an alternative to their current supplier?

Let me throw in a word of caution. You have to be careful during this initial stage of questioning. Asking too many Situation Questions may come across as an interrogation rather than an exchange of information. Many decision-makers, whose time you’re taking up, will quickly become annoyed if you ask too many Situation Questions. Why?

Think about it for a moment. The

decision-maker is giving you his time and what are you giving him in exchange for this courtesy? A barrage of questions he’s probably answered a hundred times to other salespeople who’ve come before you. The faster you can move through the Situational Question phase and into the Trouble Phase, the better. New salespeople like to ask a lot of Situational Questions because they’re safer than asking the tougher question about problems the prospect might be having with their current suppliers.


S.T.A.R.T. Selling

You will do well to remember that Situation Questions only benefit the salesperson, and not the buyer. Use them sparingly upfront and learn to incorporate them into natural conversation throughout the sales process. Every good relationship starts out with a healthy dose of mutual respect. Respect the prospect’s time by keeping in mind that he has agreed to meet with you in exchange for what he believes will be an exchange of information that will help him solve a problem or to help him extricate his company from some troubling issues they’re having. The decision-maker is not there solely to give you information, but to receive new information that will hopefully benefit his company in some way.

Keep this

thought front and center; it’ll help you focus on how to create a win-win conversation. But to get that conversations rolling, we need a fresh approach to getting information from the prospect while at the same time maintaining an air of openness.

Verbal Gifting: The Ultimate Rapport Builder


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As I’ve already alluded to, one of the biggest challenges we often face with a new client or prospect, is getting them to open up so that we understand their situation and then be able to provide an adequate solution. Unfortunately, clients and prospects today are somewhat jaded by the sales process and immediately throw up a mental defense perimeter when a salesperson walks into the room. Think back to the last time you went to a car dealership. Before you stepped one foot on the lot, you were already preparing yourself for mental warfare. In fact, by the time you got to the car dealership you felt this tense anxiety to turn back.

As you walked into the dealership you

repeatedly warned yourself not to give out too much information, because it might be used against you when it came down to negotiating a price. Sound familiar? Our clients today are more reluctant than ever to give out information.

But without this free exchange of

information and ideas, it’s hard to 1) build rapport and 2) offer the client our best product or service. So the question is ‘How do we get them to open up?’ An Investigative Approach to Bridging the Sales Gaps! 51

S.T.A.R.T. Selling

One of the best ways of building rapport or getting someone to open up is to apply the rul e o f reciprocity. In the field of influence and persuasion, most people are familiar with the rule of reciprocity which states that if we are ‘gifted’ something, we feel the social pull to reciprocate in kind. Since no one likes to be in debt or indebted to someone else, we move swiftly to cancel the debt by repaying the favor in kind with something of equal or greater value. When most salespeople go to see a prospect, after pleasantries have been exchanged, they dive right into asking

questions,

they’ll

listen

intently

and

then

demonstrate understanding by asking another question. As salespeople, we already know in advance what critical pieces of information we need to qualify and/or sell the prospect. So we prepare a list of questions and then engage in the following sequence to gather the information:

Step 1: Ask a Question Step 2: Listen Intently Step 3: Demonstrate Understanding (Back to Step 1)


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The danger with this question-listen sequence is that often times it comes across as an interview or worse, an interrogation.

A prospect who feels like their being

interrogated will resist ‘giving’ you information because it will appear, by virtue of your countless questions, that you are there to ‘take’ his information. In society, and as citizens in a society, we hate or resist takers in any form.

To illustrate my point, here’s an

example of a salesperson’s first encounter with Bob the prospect who’s looking to buy a car.

Salesperson: Man, it really is hot out here! Bob the Prospect: Yes it is. Salesperson: Well Bob you seem like a man who means business so let’s get right to it. Is it alright if I ask you a few questions? Bob: Go ahead. In the above example, no meaningful piece of information (i.e., a verbal gift) was offered upfront by the salesperson. The salesperson does demonstrate that he respects the An Investigative Approach to Bridging the Sales Gaps! 53

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prospects time by wanting to get right to business, but unfortunately at the cost of not taking the time to establish an atmosphere of mutual exchange.

Instead, Bob the

prospect is bracing himself for an interrogation by a ‘taker’. To avoid this stigma or any misunderstanding, it’s critical that from the onset when visiting a prospect you aren’t seen as a ‘taker,’ but rather a sharer of information. The best way to do this is to insert a ‘gift’ at the beginning by volunteering a piece of information first in the questioning sequence.

Step 1: Volunteer Information (The Gift) Step 2: Ask a Question Step 3: Listen Intently Step 4: Demonstrate Understanding (Back to Step 1)

Begin a conversation by first presenting the prospect with a verbal gift that will cause him to want to reciprocate. Let me define this verbal gift as some type of information about you or your company that has value and meaning to the prospect. Let’s step back in time with Bob the prospect, except this time, let’s try using the verbal gift approach.


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Salesperson: Bob, I remember buying my first car 20 years ago and it was a Cutlass Supreme. Man I loved that car. What was your first car? Bob: My first car was my grandmother’s old beat-up, wood panel station wagon; a real chick magnet for an 18 year old. (sarcasm) Salesperson: So I take it a wood panel station wagon is not why you’re here today. Bob: Nah, I’d like to look at some of your luxury sedans. The salesperson, by volunteering a piece of personal information with meaning (i.e., we all remember our first car), presented Bob with a verbal gift which he then felt compelled to reciprocate by sharing his own personal experience about his first car.

This allowed the

conversation to get started without the salesperson feeling as though he was forcing the other to participate and vice versa. The prospect saw the conversation as an exchange of information, not a line of questioning.


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The rule of the verbal gift is simple; share something of value and the other person will reciprocate. The next time you meet someone for the first time, whether in a social or professional setting, try it out. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how often people will open up to you by simply offering a verbal gift. Now is this rule 100% guaranteed? No, but I’m willing to bet that your conversations with prospects will see a dramatic improvement by simply applying this rule.


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ACTIVITY SHEET Situation Questions:

I’d like you to pretend that you’re selling highly efficient, industry grade ink cartridges. With that in mind, I’d like you to develop 5 Situation Questions that you would ask a new prospect to assess the current situation at their company as it relates to your product or service. Situational questions fall into four categories: Supplier questions, Motivation questions, Buying process questions or Market questions.


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ACTIVITY SHEET Situation Questions


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Chapter 7 Trouble Questions Once you’re in to see the client, after all pleasantries have been exchanged,

and enough Situation Questions have

been asked, it’s now time to gently shift gears and begin to dig for trouble spots (i.e., dissatisfaction with their current supplier or their curr ent way of doing thin gs). There’s no right way or one way of approaching this line of questioning, but you do have to be sensitive.

The Psychology of Consistency During this stage in the sales process, you will inevitably have to deal with the problem of internal consistency. It’s worth taking a moment to pause and reflect on the psychological state of the client. An Investigative Approach to Bridging the Sales Gaps! 59

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You are a salesperson who has come in to uncover some trouble or problems that the client may be having with a product they’ve purchased. Human nature dictates that people hate to admit when they’re wrong and they will become more defensive when a decision they’ve chosen is threatened. This is often times referred to as the Psychology of Consistency. Once a person makes a decisi on, they will behave in a manner that supports that decision. Studies have shown that a person’s conviction will grow significantly once a decision to buy has been made. In other words, once a person makes a decision, they will justify and rationalize why they made that decision. Another aspect of consistency that needs to be taken into account is the fact that the more public that decision is, the more the prospect will def end that position. If the person you’re dealing with was involved in the previous decision to go with another product, they will undoubtedly be more reluctant to tell you what the trouble spots have been with the product since the purchase. At this point you will experience “friction” in the sense that the client will resist giving you the answer you need to


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be more effective, which means you have to be more persistent in dragging it out of him. It’s very critical that you find out if the person you’re dealing with was involved in the selection of the current product you’re trying to compete against. If the person was, than you may have to find a way to “blunt” the consistency factor. Look for parameters that would allow the person to save face. Here are some face-saving strategies you can use to reduce the client’s need for consistency: Parameter Time

Sales Strategy to reduce consistency: Argue that enough time may have gone by where a new solution is needed

Technology

New technology, which wasn’t available back then, now brings newer solutions

Market

Mention how unexpected changes in their business model calls for new requirements and retooling

Resources

Maybe management’s change in attitude toward the problem has expanded the budget allowing them to buy what they need, and not just what they could afford An Investigative Approach to Bridging the Sales Gaps! 61

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Whatever tactic you want to take, keep in mind that the prospect on the other side of the table can’t be made to look bad. Do everything in your power to position them to shine in the eyes of their peers and boss. Listening Carefully for Trouble

When asking probing questions in order to uncover dissatisfaction, begin by asking general questions that relate to your product. Here are a few “improvement” questions you could ask: ·

·

·

·

What areas do you see need improvement? If there were two or three things you could improve, what would they be? What are some capabilities you’d like to have tomorrow that you don’t have today? What would you say is your number one issue with the product you’re currently using?

These probing questions are meant to beat the brush to see what flies out of the prospect’s mouth. Listen carefully for soft trouble spots (i.e., the client shows dissatisfaction but


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minimizes it at the same time). Gather as many trou ble spots as you can during the conversation. Don’t React or Act Salespeople who are looking for trouble spots, upon

hearing one will immediately react with some visual cue or change in audi ble tone. As soon as you reac t, the client may notice it and decide to pull back and not speak so freely. In poker , the fas test way to lose you r money is to telegraph to your opponents the type of hand you’re holding. The way to win and win big in poker is to let the opponent think they have the upper hand and that they’re in control. Every time a card is drawn , smart poker play ers will lull the opponents into a false sense of security causing them to com mit deeper to the pot.

Once he’s gotten them

to commit as far as he thinks they’re going, he goes all in catching the opponent by surprise, leaving them confused and unsure of themselves. In selling, it’s no different.

If the client tells you

something critical that you know you can use later on to help you close the deal, don’t show any emotion whatsoever or you will cause the client to pause or even An Investigative Approach to Bridging the Sales Gaps! 63

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worse, stop feeding you good information. Allow the client to talk and encourage him to share as much as he can about the troubles they’re having. Don’t interrupt. Just shut up and listen and once in a while throw in some momentum phrases: ·

·

·

·

That sounds interesting, tell me more about that. You mentioned some discontent with this item, can you elaborate? When you first discovered the troubles you were having, how did you handle it? Sound like you’ve had it rough. What did you do?

The obvious purpose of these phrases is to nudge the client along in talking about trouble they’re having with their current vendor or produc t. The more the clien t talks, the more information you gain and the more the client starts to feel comfortable with sharing. You’ll build faster rapport and trust by listening and empathizing with the client’s situation.


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Preparing for Trouble The best way to uncover trouble spots is to formulate an idea of what the trouble is going to be. If you know your business, then you must have some idea of what your client’s troubles are going to be. The more years you have in sales, the more you notice that the problems don’t really change that much from one company to another or one client to another. Armed with this knowledge before seeing the client, it’s best to prepare questions that will point to the trouble spots. Let’s say that you’re in the business of selling printers. It’s not hard to figure out what every client must be experiencing if they’re having printing troubles.

Here are

few that come to mind: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Cartridges are too expensive Printer uses too much ink Constant paper jams Printer is down twice a week Doesn’t do double-sided printing


S.T.A.R.T. Selling

The next step is to take these troubles and convert them into questions, which you will ask your client. There’s two way to ask. You can be Direct or Subtle. Example:

1. Cartridges are too expensive: (Subtle) Can you talk about some of the costs associated with the printer you’re currently using? (Direct) Do you have an issue with your cartridges being too expensive? 4. Printer uses too much ink: (Subtle) Are you happy with how long the ink lasts per cartridge? (Direct) Do you constantly have to change cartridges because they use too much ink? The key here is to take each problem that you’ve uncovered and convert that problem into a question. These questions should be developed and rehearsed before you meet with the client. Keep in mind that the objective is to uncover as many trouble spots and keep the client talking. The more he talks, the more you learn how best to sell him.


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ACTIVITY SHEET Trouble Questions

Having a particular prospect in mind and based on your experience, I’d like you to develop 5 Trouble Questions that you would ask a new prospect and then label them as ‘Direct’ or ‘Indirect.’ Remember, indirect questions are usually more effective, less confrontational and allows the prospect to depersonalize his response (i.e., he won’t get defensive nor think you’re questioning his business acumen).


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ACTIVITY SHEET Trouble Questions


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Sales Milestone: Crossing the Awareness Gap

Earlier you learned that the first step before selling or pitching your product was to first make the prospect keenly ‘Aware’ that he indeed has a problem.

The way you

accomplish this is by asking Situational Questions and then converting them in to Trouble Questions that will raise the prospect’s awareness Level.


S.T.A.R.T. Selling

Congratulations!

You crossed over the first sales gap!

Take a moment to celebrate!


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Alright, that’s enough celebrating. Let’s get back to work!


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Chapter 8 Amplify Questions When confronted, a client may try to characterize the troubles they may be encountering as minor irritations that the company has had to endure.

The client may be in

denial or simply hasn’t thought through the consequences of these trouble spots. This is where you will now focus your attention — turning those trouble spots into tangible expenses for the company. The goal is to amplify the trouble spots to such an extent that the client begins to see the impact on a much broader, company scope. An “Amplification Question” typically follows an open or closed question that seeks to highlight the “impact” of a given problem.

Amplification Questions are used

essentially for exposing the real impact of a problem and


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creating a “sense of urgency” on the client’s part to act and correct it.

CASE STUDY

You’re selling a computer program that will allow a prospect to access their information 24/7 from anywhere in the world from any computer.

The prospect’s current

system can only be accessed from a company computer in the office and only during working hours. Step 1: Identify one Trouble spot the client has (e.g., No 24/7 access) Step 2: What question(s) would you ask the prospect to

highlight the trouble spot? (e.g., Trouble Question - Do you have 24/7 access?) Step 3: Write down 3 consequences the client faces from the above trouble spot:

1. Limited productivity 2. Delayed reports 3. Delays in paperwork create shipment delays


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Step 4: Put the three consequences above in question form to “amplify” the problem for the client:

1. How does not having 24/7 access impact productivity? 2. What kind of problems does it create when you have to generate reports? 3. Is limited access creating delays in paperwork? If so, how is it impacting delivery times?

Trouble Consequence No 24/7 Access

·

Limited to time work on tasks

Amplification Question(s) In terms of completing tasks on time, how does not having impact 24/7 your access business?

·

Pay for more overtime

How is the lack of 24/7 access impacting your payroll?

·

Inconvenient

Is the inconvenience of not being able to access the system


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24/7 affecting other parts of your business?


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ACTIVITY SHEET Amplify Questions

Identify one trouble spot YOUR prospect has today:

What question(s) would you ask the prospect to identify the trouble spots?

List 3 potential consequences of the above trouble spot: 1. 2. 3. Put the above consequences in question form to amplify the trouble spot: 1.

2.

3.


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ACTIVITY SHEET Amplify Questions


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Chapter 9 Reward Questions Once you’ve identified the trouble and amplified it to the point that the buyer now sees the full impact of what he thought was minor, he is now in a state of mind to listen to your product proposal. Most

salespeople,

seeing

that

the

client

now

understands the need for change would seize the moment to make their product pitch. This isn’t a bad approach. But there is a psychological mood at play that might hurt you unless you address it right there, it’s called the “Law of Association.” The buyer now associates you with bad news, which makes it unpleasant to continue the discussion. If you tell the client that you have a solution and here’s what you need to do, you are “telling” him what he should do. The most


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effective strategy here is to get the client to “tell you” how your products would help him alleviate his newfound concerns. Let me give you an example to illustrate my point. Early on in my career I knew an individual, we’ll call him Joe, who every time he saw me would tell me what I was doing wrong. He “told” me what I should do but for some reason I never wanted to listen to him because he was always so negative. It got to the point where just looking at Joe coming down the hallway would put me in a bad mood. My brain, without my consent, associated bad news with Joe. From that point on, Joe could’ve had the best ideas in the world, but my state of mind would not permit me to listen to him. When you talk to a client and all you do is bring up all the troubles he’s having and then go about asking him questions that only “amplify” those “troubles,” the client may have the same reaction I had to Joe. He might just shut down on you and go to someone else to help solve his problems.


S.T.A.R.T. Selling

People don’t like to be told they’re wrong, but they like to be shown how right they are.

So before jumping into the product presentation, let’s go ahead and make the client feel good about his need for change by “rewarding” him with compliments on his insights into the problem. For any real change to occur in someone’s behavior or attitude, the need for change has to come from the individual. External forces pressuring someone to do something will only work for the moment and lose their affect over time. So in order to get someone to modify their thinking, we nee d them to tell us what needs to be don e and make them feel good about it. A Reward Question is similar to an Amplification question with one key difference. A Reward Question is

positive and an Amplification Question is negative. Let’s go back to the example where the company doesn’t have 24/7 access to their computers which caused the following trouble:


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1. Limited productivity 2. Reports not on time 3. Delays in paperwork create shipment delays We then took these three trouble spots and created “amplification” questions to bring the totality to the prospects: 1. How does not having 24/7 access impact productivity? 2. What kind of problems does it create when you have to generate reports? 3. Is limited access creating delays in paperwork? If so, how is it impacting delivery times? Notice that these three questions are ‘negative’ in tone which is useful if you want to generate pain and a sense o f urgency. Reward questions on the other hand are positive in tone and allows the client to elaborate (i.e., dream a bit if you will) on what it would mean to have these troubles resolved. For instance:


S.T.A.R.T. Selling

Seller: (Amplify) How does not having 24/7 access impact productivity? Buyer: Right now we have reports begin generated late which in turn cause confusion and delays in delivery. Seller: (Reward) Would having access eliminate those confusions and delays? Buyer: Absolutely. Seller: What else might it improve? Buyer: Well, it would help us track our inventory better. Sometimes the reports are so delayed that they don’t reflect our true inventory. Seller: (Reward) And how would having accurate reports help you save money? Buyer: Sometimes we order products we don’t need because the inventory reports are old, which means we’re spending money unnecessarily which reduces our positive cashflow. The goal of Reward Questions is to get the buyer past the pain of ‘not having’ into a state-of-mind that sets up a “what if” scenario and allows him to think about the positive aspect of resolving other problems that are a consequence of the immediate problem.


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ACTIVITY SHEET Reward Questions

Amplification How does it impact you? Questions Reward Question How does it help you?

Negative Positive

List some Reward Questions you might use:


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ACTIVITY SHEET Reward Questions


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Sales Milestone: Crossing the Urgency Gap

The aim of asking an Amplification Question is to make the buyer keenly aware of the costs associated with not having the right product or service in place. The Reward Questions then allow the buyer to think about an ‘alternate reality’ if he were to go ahead and implement certain changes by buying your product or utilizing your service.

Therefore, the Urgency Gap is about helping the prospect see the real costs associated with not using your product and the potential upside of using your product over the long


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run. When you’ve done this, you have crossed over the second sales gap! Take another moment to celebrate!


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Chapter 10 Consistency Theory Before I get into the last and most persuasive step of the S.T.A.R.T. system, I think it would be educational and advantageous to take a mental step and look at how people in general make decisions and how those decisions then direct their behavior. In selling, we want people to be convinced to buy our products or services. But convincing them is one thing; getting them to sign on the proverbial dotted line is another. What every salesperson needs to know is how to convert that mental yes into getting the client to buy right there and then.


S.T.A.R.T. Selling

When you meet a client for the first time, whether you like it or not, prejudgments are being made about you. When you’re in front of a large group presenting, prejudgments are being made about you, your company, and your product. Whether these prejudgments are right or wrong, people will make decisions on whether to do business with you or not.

So it’s safe to say that first

impressions are everything. But what if these first impressions are wrong? What if the prospective client draws the wrong conclusion about you, your company, or your product? Is there anything you can do as a salesperson to correct those perceptions? I’m sure you would agree that these are important questions in the world of selling. To answer these questions, let’s review a study done by two prominent social psychologists by the names of Morton Deutsch and Harold Gerard. Deutsch and Gerard wanted to know to what degree it was possible to get people to change their mind after being shown that their judgment was erroneous.

They also wanted to know under what

conditions people would be more reluctant or willing to


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change their mind if they were shown that their judgment was proven to be incorrect. Simply put:

1) Would people change their minds if they were proven to be wrong? 2) Under what conditions would people be more willing or reluctant to admit their error in judgment? Deutsch and Gerard came up with a simple to test to get to these answers. They set up an experiment with college students and broke them up into three groups. The three groups were then shown a set of lines and asked to estimate the lengths of the lines and record their answers. The first group was asked to privately, in their own minds, estimate the lengths of the lines. The second group was asked to record their answers on a ‘magic slate.’ If you were lucky enough as a child to have had one, you’ll remember what these are. It’s a writing pad with a carbon base and a clear plastic sheet laid over it whereby using a pointed object you can write on it and upon lifting the plastic sheet, everything is erased. The third group was


S.T.A.R.T. Selling

asked to jot down their estimates on a piece of paper, sign off on it and then ha nd it in.

All th ree groups h ad to

commit to their answers but in a way that ranged from private (think of the answer) to semi-private (write answer on a magic slate than lift to erase) to public (write down answers, sign and hand in). What Deutsch and Gerard wanted to know is which of the three groups when presented with answers unlike their own would be willing to change their minds and accept the new answers. What they found was interesting. The first group, who privately held the answers in their minds, was willing to accept their answers as being incorrect.

The

second group, whose answers were semi-private, being written and then erased with the magic slate, was somewhat reluctant to change their minds. But by far the group most resistant to changing their minds was the group who had jotted down their answers, signed the results and submitted the answers to the experimenter. The results of this experiment will begin to make sense if we look at studies done by Leon Festinger, another prominent social psychologist. Festinger is responsible for


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the development of the theory of cognitive dissonance (also known as the consistency theory), which suggests that inconsistency between one’s beliefs and behaviors will cause an undesirable psychological tension. The only way to reduce this undesirable psychological tension is for the person to change his or her beliefs to fit his or her actual behavior.

So if you do something (behavior) and you’re

not in full agreement with it, you then have to modify your thinking (belief) to fit the behavior (i.e., to reduce the psychological tension) so that you remain in or attain a state of consistency. In the Deutsch and Gerard’s experiment, they showed that the more public a behavior is, the more likely the person is unwilling to change his or her mind in order to appear consistent. Those who were not required to write but only think of their answers demonstrated more malleability in changing their minds because there was no actual public act performed (i.e., writing it and submitting it) as opposed to the other two groups who were required to show some form of public commitment.


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Stepping back from the experiment, the consistency theory is about alignment or congruency between what you believe and what you do.

If you publicly state your

answers and someone shows you answers to the contrary, your immediate reaction is to defend your answers. Why? Your belief system (i.e., estimate length of lines) is now under a direct assault.

Therefore, your thinking, your

ability to comprehend or your judgment is in question. In order to reduce that tension, that anxiety surrounding your judgment, your immediate response is to reject anything to the contrary and insist that you are correct. At the other extreme we have the first group in the study that didn’t have to write down the answers. For them it’s easier to attribute their wrong answers t o simple errors in judgment and not think much of changing their mind since only they themselves know they were wrong. There are a plethora of studies that prove that consistency not only exists, but that it drives our behavior. Did you know that: ·

After placing a bet, a person is more assured of having a winning ticket.


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·

·

·

You have more hung juries when ballots are public (raise your hand) then if they are private (submit secret ballot). You are more willing to give a charitable donation if in the past you stated aloud you’re in favor of charity organizations in general. You are more likely to vote if asked by someone if you’re going to vote in the next election.

These four examples have one theme that binds them together: consistency.

In each example, a public

declaration of some sort is made. In each case, the person’s belief system has to be in line with what he has committed to publicly if the person wants to avoid any ‘psychological tension.’ What does this psychological tension feel like? Well, have you ever told someone you were going to do something and then didn’t do it? How did you feel? Have you ever told someone something to not hurt their feelings, but deep down inside you knew it was untrue?

Have you

ever found yourself in a position where you were cornered into supporting someone publicly when deep down inside


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you knew it was the wrong thing to do?

That’s the

psychological tension we’re discussing here. There are three lessons to take away here: ·

·

·

Inconsistencies between what you say and what you do will cause psychological tension. This will lead people to change their beliefs to fit their actual behavior. The more public the decision, the more likely you are to act consistently with that decision.


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Chapter 11 Tie-Down Statements Let’s do a quick summary of whe re we are at.

Up to

this point we’ve learned to understand the prospects current Situation

by

performance.

asking

key

question

about

current

We followed that up by keying in

specifically on Trouble they might be having with their current supplier. Up to this point, the goal has been to create awareness on the prospect’s part. The next step in the process was the need to really dig for some pain by highlighting to the prospect what the real price of not addressing key issues was really costing the prospect in terms of time or money. Using the Reward step, you get the prospect to see the upside and benefit to resolving some of the current issues. If you did your job, An Investigative Approach to Bridging the Sales Gaps! 95

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the prospect should be feeling a sense of urgency to resolve his problems. It is now up to you, the salesperson, to begin to tiedown the prospect’s needs by demonstrating how your product or service will help the prospect. The last and final step in this S.T.A.R.T. system is the Tie-Down.

A tie-down can best be described as a

summation question posed by a salesperson seeking to get some form of agreement or commitment from the prospect. Tie-down are powerful closing techniques that can be used to get the prospect to commit to buying or to simply get the prospect to agree with what you’ve stated. Tiedowns can be used in small (simple) and large (complex) sales, but how you use them to close a sale differs. The Simple versus Complex Sale In a small sale, where the prospect is less conscious of price, a tie-down can be used to gain the prospect’s commitment right there and then.

For example, after

having created the need and urgency, you may try to tie a prospect down for a commitment by using some commonly used tie-down phrases:


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Based on what I’ve shown you, you can see why buying now would be a good idea. Am I right? Now that you seen the product, let’s go ahead and get you?the process started. Does that sound good to

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Seeing is believing and you have to admit that buying this watch makes sense, don’t you think? Even you must agree this is a great deal for the price. Let’s go ahead and write up the order. How’s that sound?

If you’re selling an item that isn’t high priced and isn’t that much of a commitment to the prospect, these tie-down techniques are viable and have been shown to work. But what happens when you’re selling a high value item and the commitment to buy now requires a greater risk on the part of the prospect; do you think a decision can be made quickly? I have my doubts. The sales value equation is simple, the more a prospect has to pay, the more time he needs (i.e., hand holding) before they’ll commit to buying the item. Higher value


S.T.A.R.T. Selling

means higher risk to the prospect and simple tie-down techniques like the examples above may prove to be more harmful than helpful in your selling process. For example, if you haven’t built enough value into your sales presentation and then lunge into a tie-down to close the sale, the prospect will push back and say, “Whoa! Wait a minute. I’m not ready to lay dow n that type of money based on what you’ve told me.” Many sales books today apply a one-size fits all mentality when it comes to closing a sale. Using highpressure closing techniques (i.e., tie-downs) may work when trying to sell a ten dollar watch, but will fail miserably when you’re trying to sell a high-end item. A complex sale is one where the item to be purchased is so expensive that it requires multiple people to make the final decision.

More people involved means the sales

process just got a bit more complex and requires a more systematic approach to getting the prospect to agree to a purchase. In a complex sale, tie-downs occur throughout the sales process and not just at the end of a sales pitch. Every time you’ve made a point or demonstrated your product’s


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competence and seek the prospect’s agreement that is essentially a tie-down. A tie-down in a complex sale is more akin to an agreement or acknowledgment. Let’s go back to the previous computer software program example we asked the client

Seller: (Amplify) How does not having 24/7 access impact productivity? Buyer: Right now we have reports begin generated late which in turn cause confusion and delays in delivery. Seller: (Reward) Would having access eliminate those confusions and delay? Buyer: Absolutely. Seller: What else might it improve? Buyer: Well, it would help us track our inventory better. Sometimes the reports are so delayed that they don’t reflect our true inventory. Seller: (Reward) And how would having accurate reports help you save money? Buyer: Sometimes we order products we don’t need because the inventory reports are old, which means An Investigative Approach to Bridging the Sales Gaps! 99

S.T.A.R.T. Selling

we’re spending money unnecessarily which reduces our positive cashflow. From the above dial ogue, we know that we can show that the software can be used to access reports 24 hours a day which in turn will help the prospect by: a) Producing accurate reports b) Better inventory tracking c) Increasing cashflow (not tied into inventory)

A simple tie-down that can be used here after the above discussion could be:

Seller: (Tie-Down) Based on what you’ve told me, it’s a foregone conclusion that having a program with 24 hour access is critical to keeping your cost down? Buyer: Absolutely. Seller: I’ll be able to demonstrate that feature easily. But before I do that, I wanted to ask you about (insert Trouble #2). Notice that the seller is not looking to close the sale at this point with the tie-down question. The seller is seeking to gain a verbal commitment from the client before moving on to the next point.


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Also, note that the salesperson, having created the sense of awareness and urgency, moves to the next Trouble spot and repeats the whole Trouble-Amplify-Reward-Tie-Down sequence again. If done correctly, by the time you’re ready to present your product or service, you’ve already gotten a series of commitment statements from the prospect.

As you

demonstrate your capabilities, you tie each feature/benefit to the commitment statements (or agreements) the prospect has already made regarding the importance of a particular feature. It is at this moment that you have crossed over the final gap, Solution Credibility.


S.T.A.R.T. Selling

ACTIVITY SHEET Tie-Down Questions

Practice writing down some Tie-Down questions you might use:


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The difference between an average sales presentation and a closing sales presentation is the ability to cross all three sales gaps without cheating (i.e., going straight to demonstration of a solution).

Laying the groundwork by creating a sense of awareness and developing a sense of urgency will allow you to deliver a more focused demonstration of your product or service which is directly aimed at addressing the prospect’s needs.


S.T.A.R.T. Selling


Victor Antonio Start Selling 2009

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