I was traveling for the last few days so didn't get to Blog yesterday so making up for it this Saturday morning. When we sit down with prospects / customers a salesperson's first intuition is to talk and talk and talk about how great our product is and how much less expensive it is etc etc etc. We basically get diarrhea of the mouth and puke all over our prospects / customers. During this time we never figure out exactly why they took the appointment, where there need is or pain is and what they are looking to accomplish. The only way we can help the prospect / customer figure out that we have a product that he should invest in is figuring out for ourselves how our product can help him. In my experience the best way and pretty much only way to uncover this is listening to the old adage "God gave us one mouth and two ears so we can listen twice as carefully". Ask questions and shut up and listen. But don't ask yes or no questions ever unless you preface it with for example Mr. Customer, if we were able to show you how we could provide you with enhanced security in your web application infrastructure while lowering capital costs, would you invest in our technology? You should ask OPEN ENDED QUESTIONS. For example, and this is the best one ever, Mr. Customer, what is your experience with ................ (put here what you are trying to sell or provide or uncover more info etc) Something like this. Mr. Customer, what is your experience with web application firewalls? Or What is your experience with managing your web application security infrastructure? The question sounds a little off but I challenge you to ask your customer this question. Most of the time they will be shocked at the question cause I guarantee they have never heard it before and they have to stop what they are thinking about at that moment and figure out how to answer your question. And remember, you have now shifted the conversation to him / her and will respond in terms of what they think. In addition, it will not result in a yes or no answer. You will get details. Sometimes it is a short answer cause they are a little puzzled at the question which is fine but you will impress your customers with hard questions. But most of the time they will respond with something like, Well that is a good question and I don't specifically work with the app security. John Doe does regularly and is on my team and that is someone I will introduce you to. In fact, we are looking into changing, optimizing or installing a new App Security solution. Soooo, ask as many open ended questions as you possibly can in a meeting. You will see a transformation in the flow of your meetings, the information gathered and the ability for you to help your customers with what they really need.
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Shawn
