A Question to Ask Yourself

by Graham Denton

Salespeople can get proficient in questioning their customers, but if they don't begin by asking themselves one question, all their open-ended and control questions will be for naught. Before you even think about going out on a sales call, you should ask yourself "What am I selling?" This may sound obvious, and maybe even a little silly. But failure to ask it is the trigger for countless botched sales.

That's the considered opinion of Brian Tracy, who has trained over half a million salespeople around the world. In his book Advanced Selling Strategies, Tracy draws a distinction between amateur salespeople, who believe that they are selling a product or service, and professionals, who understand that what customers really buy are the results of what your product or service can accomplish for them. It's the distinction between "is" and "does" that makes the difference. If you want to know what you're selling, begin by asking: What deliverables do my customers get from doing business with me?

Tracy's observation isn't new. Miller Heiman Inc. has been teaching for decades that the beginning of every good sale is understanding your customers' Concepts, that is, the "solution images" that they have in mind, or what they believe will get done if they buy from you. In Miller Heiman terminology, when you focus on the "is"-the inherent features and benefits of the product itself-you actually make it difficult for the customer to buy, because "Nobody buys a product or service per se." They buy the sense of "mission accomplished" that the purchase can provide them.

As Tracy rightly insists, that sense may be justified logically, but it's basically emotional. "People buy the feeling that they anticipate enjoying as the result of purchasing what it is you are selling." Therefore, you should begin by discerning "the exact need that this particular customer wants to satisfy." The fulfillment of that need is what you are selling.

If you doubt that you're really selling something this intangible, consider Tracy's experience as a consultant to a retail tire chain. The chain was promoting itself as the lowest-priced vendor, practically insisting that its customers take price as the deciding factor. That strategy backfired, because whenever another retailer undercut them, they lost business.

Tracy's advice was to have sales management find out what their customers really wanted in a tire, or rather to confirm, as he suspected, that even more important than price was a sense of security. This shift of focus began by having salespeople ask their prospects whether their car was going to be used to transport children or loved ones. Since the answer was usually yes, this enabled the salespeople to explore the prospects' safety concerns-and point them toward higher-priced but more dependable tires. By redirecting their efforts toward what their customers wanted them to be selling, they were able in very short order to "dominate the market."

If you have any doubt about what you are selling, ask your customers. Tracy recommends that you call a handful of past customers and put it to them straight: "Why did you really buy from me, rather than somebody else?" You'll probably find, he says, that 60 to 80 percent of them will have the same or similar reasons for doing business with you. That information can be invaluable when you're shopping for new customers, because it will enable you to answer the question "What am I selling?"