TouchPoint Selling

May 11 2009 12:53PM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (0) |
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By Rick Heaston

Some time ago I wrote about registration cards and their role in collecting information. After being off my soapbox for quite some time, I feel compelled to jump back up and do some more ranting and raving.

In the last month or so, I found myself doing competitive shops for a builder I was working with in Texas. I was amazed, to say the least. It was like I was talking to a bunch of robots. Sure, there was an original “Jane or Joe” every once in a while, but they didn’t represent the rule, they were the exception.

Let me start my by saying, if you haven’t read Spin Selling, you need to read it. It’ll forever change your view of selling and how you deal with your customers.

For those who don’t know, Spin Selling, by Neil Rackham, takes a look at the differences between selling a product that costs a lot of money, compared to selling a product that doesn’t. And even more than that, it’s about how to deal with a customer whose decision process changes as the price of a product changes.

One of the sections in the book discusses situation questions. I call them direct questions, or fact-finding questions. In a nutshell, these questions are all right to a point, but beyond two or three, you’re setting yourself up for a disaster.

Rackham's research points out that situation questions benefit you and not your customer. Think about it, what signal are you sending if you ask half a dozen questions or more and they all benefit you. And that’s just the beginning.

What happens if you do it twice? In other words, ask a bunch of fact-finding questions when your customer arrives and then turn around and ask them to fill out a registration card with the same questions. See what I mean? You’re not just getting your customer a little bit upset … you’re working for a whole bunch. The answer is simple?

Think about selling from today’s customer’s point of view. Think about each part of you’re selling process in terms of how it is received based on advancing the sale. Take qualifying for instance.

Do you absolutely have to have qualifying information the minute a customer arrives, or can you wait ten to fifteen minutes? And what do you gain with fact finding questions, when “feel finding” are much more powerful? And the list goes on.

You all know that I’m not a fan of “old style” selling and believe we must move forward … which the research supports. But as always … the choice is yours.