Why Not Teach Your Salespeople This Great Technique?

The critical ingredient in a successful sales outcome is the ability to get adequate and accurate information as early in the sales process as possible. Those of you who have read my books, previous tips, or have attended one of my sales seminars are well aware of the importance I place on the ability to ask good questions in the right way, at the right time. It is unfortunate that many salespeople are still selling by going into a feature DUMP too early in the sales process before they have learned:

the buyers dominant emotional buying motive.
the buyers critical needs, wants, issues or challenges.
the buyers personality style.
what is preventing their prospects from getting a good nights sleep.
where future potential sales resistance will come from.
Etc., etc., etc.

I came across the sentence completion method several years ago when I was reading a book on psychotherapy. (Now dont jump to any conclusions here, folks!) There are a number of techniques therapists use when counseling with a patient. One of the ones that I thought might be of value in the sales process is called the sentence completion method. I have used this technique with great success ever since. Here it is.

What the therapist (salesperson, manager, parent, etc.) does is say to the prospect: I would like to give you some sentence stems and I would like you to complete the sentences by putting some endings on. For example:

You would like your employees to_________________.
You wish your salespeople would__________________.
You would like your managers to stop______________.
You could achieve more if you would_______________.
Your relationship would be better if your partner would begin_______________.
You would feel better about yourself if others would stop__________________.
You could take control of your life if_________________________.
Your organization would be more profitable if every employee______________.

Why do you think this is an excellent way for you to discover your prospects concerns, needs, etc? Well, there are a few examples. Why not come up with some additional ones that would work with your products/services on your prospects/customers.

Tim Connor, CSP is an internationally renowned sales, management and leadership speaker, trainer and best selling author. Since 1981 he has given over 3500 presentations in 21 countries on a variety of sales, management, leadership and relationship topics. He is the best selling author of over 60 books including; Soft Sell, Thats Life, Peace Of Mind, 81 Challenges Managers Face and Your First Year In Sales. He is also the CEO of Sales Clubs Of America. He can be reached at tim@timconnor.com, 704-895-1230 or visit his websites at http://www.timconnor.com or http://www.SalesClubsOfAmerica.com

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This entry was posted on Monday, June 30th, 2008 at 12:32 pm and is filed under Sales Training . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.