Ian Altman 0:02

Welcome to the same side selling podcast. I'm your host, Ian Altman. You get a phone call, the person on the other end of the line tells you, look, we've done our research, we've even talked to some of your competitors, and we know exactly which product that you sell, that we need to have. I just need some basic information, some pricing, and we can make this deal happen. Sounds like a good deal, right? Sounds like this is the dream opportunity that just fell into your lap. That's fantastic news. But just like attacks in Star Wars, it's a trap, and we need to realize why it's a trap. So the first thing I want you to think about is this, what percentage of the time when someone contacts you and says this is exactly what we need. When you fast forward to the end of the deal, did it turn out that what the client actually needed was what they thought they needed, and without knowing you specifically, I'm going to suggest that it's somewhere dramatically less than 100% of the time. In fact, more often than not, what they actually need is not what they thought they needed. So when we get those types of calls, it's easy for us to get excited. It's easy for us to think, Wow, this is fantastic. This is a no brainer. I'm going to land this deal in no time. And so what happens is, we very often just say, Great. Here's some basic information, here's the pricing, here's how you can order it. Just let me know what you want to do. And then a couple days go by, a week goes by, you haven't heard anything. And then your follow up sounds pathetic. Your follow up, hey, just calling to check in see if you made a decision yet. I know you asked about this product. Haven't heard back, and the reason why is we don't know enough about their situation for to have a meaningful follow up. And it may be that they, in fact, wanted to get your product, but now internally, they can't make a business case for why they need to buy it. See, they were excited because they initially found you. Maybe they did a chat GPT search. Maybe they stumbled across someone on your website. Maybe someone in Reddit said they should get this, but whoever's approving this isn't sold on it as well as they are, or someone else has asked them additional questions and now they say, Oh, well, maybe your solution isn't the right solution anymore. But the problem is we don't know enough, and those are the traps that we tend to fall into. And so I'm going to give you some insight on how we can solve that. So the first thing is, when someone says, oh, this is what I found. Say, Oh, well, how did you come to the conclusion that this is the right product for you? I want to make sure that I'm pointing you in the right direction. Sometimes people buy that product, and we find out after the fact that they actually needed something different and it doesn't meet their expectations. Would it be okay if I asked you a few questions to better understand how you're planning to use this so I can make sure it's the right thing for you? Well, at that point, what you've just demonstrated is that you're more concerned with the outcome than you are with the sale. Now, once we get to that point, and now we get them to say, Oh yeah, you can ask a few more questions. The questions I want to ask are not about the specifications of the product, then what I want to ask is questions like, So what exactly are you trying to solve with this application? What's going on right now? Help me understand the problem that we're trying to solve, because I want to make sure I'm not missing any of the important elements you need for a good solution. And then, oftentimes, they will start to tell you now you might be getting someone who, let's say, is a purchasing person. They say, I have no idea, just someone said we should contact you about buying this. So what do you do in that situation? Well, in that situation, you say to the purchasing person, you know what you and I have the same goal, which is to help your end user get exactly what they need. Sometimes, if we don't ask them key questions, we'll ship something that's exactly what they asked for, but doesn't actually solve the underlying problem. Is there no way you and I can include them in a brief conversation to make sure that I'm giving you the right information and we're delivering the right product that will actually solve the underlying problem. See if we do this right, we're now on the same side trying to solve the same puzzle, and the bottom line is, very often, our clients and prospects with the best of intentions believe they know what the answer is, but it's our job to help them diagnose the condition so we can apply the right solution to meet the outcome they're looking for.

Ian Altman 4:58

I. So that first piece is, hey, I want to make sure I understand so it's the right product. If I get someone who, let's say, is a purchasing person, now I want to include the line of business people, and once I get to the right people, the questions I want to ask are things like, how long has this been going on? What else have you done to try and solve this? What's worked and what hasn't worked? What happens if you don't solve this. And the reason I want to ask those questions is I'm trying to better understand what they've tried in the past and what the impact is of not solving that problem. See if I understand what the impact is, and they do, then I start giving them the tools to answer the questions they will need in order to justify the purchase. Namely, the questions that people ask are, what problem does this solve? Why do we need to solve it, and what's the likely outcome or result if I move forward with the solution? So first we ask, Hey, what's going on? Like, what are the problems? Then we ask, what happens if you didn't solve this? Now we get a sense of the impact to them of not solving this. And then we ask, we get to ask a question that says, hey, if we're wildly successful, what would you and I measure together six months down the road, a year down the road, to know this was the right solution, and now we're giving them what the potential outcome would be. See, we're just trying to help our clients build a business case. So let's say now you fast forward and you haven't heard back from that person a week. You're not calling up saying, Hey, I'm just checking in on this order. You get to instead say, when we spoke, you mentioned you were having this problem, and if you didn't solve it, this would happen, and this is the outcome you were looking for. I haven't heard back. Did you find another way to solve this? So when you get that initial call. When you get someone who's all excited, what I want you to consider is slow down in order to speed up. Don't jump to the solution. Instead, make sure you're working with your client or prospect to define the business case. So they actually understand what the result needs to be. They understand what the impact is. They understand the value of your solution, and you're giving them enough information that they can get buy in from other people along the way. So when you get that initial inquiry, don't get excited. Instead, follow these simple steps to make sure you're building the business case with your client or prospect. If there are other topics you'd like me to cover, just drop me a note to Ian at Ian altman.com we'll see on the next episode of the same side selling podcast. So long Ian.

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