There is a reason why, people rely on people who work in the ground level. In the field.
Lets say, If I were to ask quote for an interior project from an architect… the next question he will ask me is “can I visit your site and check it out?” which means, he needs to visit the place and see what it possible, what is not possible, dig deep, diagnose and give me a solution.
Similarly when top management launches new products or solutions, they do surveys, they do research by meeting people, understanding what has changed, what has evolved and so on an so forth.
Managers go to monthly, quarterly client review meetings to understand what is happening with their business and how it is growing or changing.
So wise men spend time with the ground level people to understand the difficulties in the execution and the true requirements.
Now how do you diagnose the problem?
Let us take the example of going to a doctor… When you go the doctor… and tell that you have a running temperature… he doesn’t pulls out his prescription slip and starts writing medicines…
He asks the right questions to understand how you got the running temperature…
You only tell the symptoms, but the doctors digs deeper to understand the root cause of the problem, and if needed the doctor prescribes to take certain medical tests and then go with the medication plan to cure the disease.
Diagnosing in sales is no less than this process.
You start with asking right questions, bold questions in the right spirit and your dream client will be happy to answer you.
Now there are six steps in diagnosing the problem or how to improve your diagnosing ability:
Point No 1 Prejudice:
Now, when a prospective client is talking about his challenges… most sales people immediately jump and start suggesting which product he should buy…. Or they start pushing the products they have…
This is called prejudice…
without digging deeper… if you start trying to fit the solutions you have with the problems he is facing… you are going to fail…
The point of diagnosing is to learn and discover more about your prospects problem.
Diagnosing requires you to listen and understand your prospects problem at a much deeper level.
Once you have a deep understanding… you can later apply which product of yours will be a right fit for him… so stop jumping and start digging…
Point No 2: Your client’s vision:
It is important to see things from your client’s point of view rather than trying to justify that the product you are offering is the right fit.
One of my client vehemently refused to go with facebook promotions stating that his target audience are not present in facebook at all.
I knew that he was wrong…. The more I tried justifying it… the more he drifted away from my ideas….
Later on I understood that where I failed is to see things from his perspective… it was his belief that his clients are not present on facebook…
Many a times… it might look like that your client is wrong… he can actually be wrong… but you should believe them… assume that what they think is right and work from there…
So in this case…. I started with linkedin campaigns and later on based on the results… we eventually moved to facebook promotions as well… so….. the lesson is… always try to look at things from your clients perspective and understand his vision.. or ideas…
Point No 3: Deal with constraints and obstacles
It is very easy to ignore the constraints, make a onetime sale and move on…. There are incidents where sales people completely ignore the constraints…
they sell the product and move on… now with those constraints your dream client will not be getting the results he wanted….
The constraints can be internal, external, it can be finance or process related or manpower…
now make it as a point to discover these constraints and provide him with the solutions required to overcome those constraints…
For example…one of the sales person whom I know… works for a manufacturing company which sells a particular kind of machinery… and his prospect had finance issues… now that is a constraint… so… this salesperson went and spoke to bankers and got his prospect a deal to finance his machinery…
After this… he made that as a point to grow his connections with bankers from different banks in the term loan financing department.
Whenever there was a finance constraint… he connected his prospect with these bankers to finance the machinery… it was an extra mile which he went to solve his prospects problem…
Point No 4: Ask Powerful Questions:
Asking powerful uncomfortable questions will help your prospect to face the ground truth…
For example questions like…
1. Who might oppose this solution inside your company?
2. Why the problems have not been solved before?
3. Do you know the cost of not improving your performance in the area?
Weak sales people are scared to ask such questions…. But best salespeople run towards the challenge by asking such tough questions….
Point No 5: Let Your Prospects show you.
Most of the time… your prospect wants to solve the problem…. he wanted to help you… but the problem is…. you need to help him to help you…
There are two things required to get deep insights from your dream client… and these insights will help you to win the deal…
If you want to such insights from your dream client… you need 2 things… first thing is you need to be curious and second you should also have the patience…
If you are curious… you will dig deep to understand the real issue… when you dig deep… he will understand that you are curious to solve his problem… when he understands that you are genuinely interested in solving his problem… he will give more information and insights and indirectly help you to win the deal…
I adopted this method with one of the sales manager in my clients company… I had a 121 meeting with him for 1 hour… during this conversation… when I went ahead and asked more questions… he understood that I am investing my time and I am curious in solving his problem… he actually came out with wonderful insights to improve the online campaign outcomes which otherwise I would have not found at all….
I used those insights to give a successful campaign plan to the managing director of the company… who is my dream client and won the deal.
Now this wonder will happen… only when you are patient…
if you get bored, desperate… lose your cool when your client is dragging and not taking decision… you will miss on the opportunities…
Point No 6: Report
It is important that you list down your findings and send your prospect a diagnosis report… because this will serve him as a document to get a deeper understanding on the problems his company is facing and how your solutions which you are going to offer is going to solve it… it is like matching the puzzle…
lets say… if you are taking up a blood test… the lab gives you a report right… you can do that here… which is going to increase your reputation and the trust…
so remember these six points next time when you come across an opportunity to diagnose a prospects problem in the sales process..
you can actually use email marketing automation to find out your prospects problem in an automated mode even before your start meeting them and having conversations with them…
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Keep rocking in your life work and business… have a great day… bye bye…