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rick question. You have about as much chance of answering this correctly as you do of winning
the lottery, not only that, it sets us up to give the all the wrong answers.
Have you ever noticed prospects will sometimes ask a question and as soon as you begin to
give an answer they mentally check out? You can see they are not listening or paying attention.
What do you do when someone asks "What makes your company different, or why should I buy
from you?"
What usually happens when people in sales hear this? Unfortunately, they mistake this
question as an opening to drop into a sales presentation... All the details why, everything
their product or service can do for someone. Giving an 8 minutes response to a 2 second
question. The prospect, their eyes glaze over and they mentally check out.
- I wonder, how many people ask this question simply because they think they should or because
they don't know what else to ask? Realize, all the specifics we would give,
these are our reasons, the things we hope are important. Here's what we know, it's their
reasons that count. A man always has two reasons for doing anything:
a good reason and the real reason. - J. P. Morgan
So if you know this question is setting you up to fail, what do you do when someone asks?
Here's a thought. Share with them what your customer's think, what others say. Come up
with 3 specific explanations as to why your clients work with you.
It may sound something like this - "I can tell you some of our clients really
like the fact that _________, or _________. Sometimes, it's simply because _________."
In this case you are giving 3 examples but from a third party point of view. These are
the explanations other people have given for doing business with you.
Answering this question is not enough. Understand, while we provided them with a few examples
of what other people say, we have no idea as to whether or not these details are relevant
or even mean anything to them. As a result, we have to ask. This not only gets them engaged
in the conversation, we also bring the conversation to being about them.
Here's what that could sound like -- "Those are some of reasons why people decide
to work with us, but let me ask you, are any of those important to you?"
If they say yes, "Great, which one?" -- help them get specific, which one was most important
to them and why... If they say no, "What kinds of things were
you hoping I would bring up?" -- inviting them to join the conversation as it relates
to where they are, their aims, their goals. What's most important in their world?
It doesn't make a difference one way or another if they say yes or no, you still able to get
to what specifically it is that they are most interested in. really, this is the only one
that matters. At one point in your life, you'll have the
thing you want or the reasons why you don't. - Andy Roddick
Let's do some MST; MINDSET -- STRATEGY -- TECHNIQUE
Mindset; this is the WHY, the reasons and attitude we bring to what we do.
Unless your product or service is the only one of its kind available anywhere, there
is almost no chance of answering "Why should I buy from you" correctly. Besides, who wants
all the pressure of coming up with answers where we can only hope are the right ones.
Strategy; the HOW, How can we put this idea into our business.
People buy for their reasons -- not ours. They buy because of what you sell does for
them. Let's find out what is most important by sharing some circumstances and asking if
those have any relevancy to what they are looking for, the problem they are trying to
fix. Some people buy a drill because they want
a hole, others...well they just buy a drill because they like owning a drill.
Selling, it's not about you; it's about the person in front of you.
Technique; WHAT, what can we do today, this week.
Why do people buy from you? Find out, no guess work here... Call a few clients thank them
for their business and ask why they decided to work with you. As the saying goes, - Easy
to do is easy not to do. Big IF here, if you do this you will have the confidence and authority
to share real word reasons for that question: "Why should I buy from you..."
Let you competition deal with all the pressure of coming up with quick and witty answerers
to questions they have no chance of getting right.
You, share some of reasons people buy, then put the pressure back where it belongs, on
their shoulders. Ask if any of those reasons are important to them....then ask why. Start
building a list of their reasons.
The competition they don't have this Mindset, Strategy and Technique...
You're Selling More by Talking Less.