Is Deep Curiosity on Your Sales Skills List?

Are you a “What” salesperson, or are you a “Why” salesperson?

Are you a “From” salesperson, or are you a “To” salesperson?

Do you care to slow down and get curious, or do you just race toward the finish line?

Consider your response to the following comments from prospects in various sales situations with various products:

  • “I’m looking for great gas mileage.”
  • “We need four bedrooms.”
  • “I don’t want to spend more than $5,000.”
  • “We want to ensure a good warranty on the product.”

Typically, the answers from a salesperson will look something like this:

Customer: “I’m looking for great gas mileage.”

Salesperson: “We’ve got the highest mileage cars in this class.”

Customer: “We need four bedrooms.”

Salesperson: “That’s great – plenty of four bedrooms on the market.”

Customer: “I don’t want to spend more than $5,000.”

Salesperson: “That’s helpful. I can work with that parameter.”

Customer: “We want to ensure a good warranty on the product.”

Salesperson: “Have no fear. Our warranty is second-to-none.”

Over and again, we see salespeople simply smile obligingly and cooperatively, affirming that they have precisely what the customer is looking for.

So what’s missing? Only the most important factor in the buying decision: the WHY.

Let’s expand on each of the conversations above.

Customer: “I’m looking for great gas mileage.”

Salesperson: “Tell me more. Why is that important?”

Customer: “I got a new job, which doubled my commute. My current car is costing me a fortune.”

Customer: “We need four bedrooms.”

Salesperson: “Okay. Tell me how you’ll be using each of those rooms…?”

Customer: “Master bedroom, of course. One room for our daughter, a home office, and a hobby room – I restore antique clocks.”

Customer: “I don’t want to spend more than $5,000.”

Salesperson: “Fair enough. Tell me why that number works for you…?”

Customer: “I’m on a very strict budget. I’m not authorized by my boss for a dollar more.”

Customer: “We want to ensure a good warranty on the product.”

Salesperson: “Of course. Can you tell me why that is so important to you?”

Customer: “We got burned the last time we bought one of these. It was a lemon.”

Pay attention to how much the entire sales presentation changed by digging deeper and finding the why behind the what.

How curious are you? How much do you need to know the customer’s true motivations?

Dig for the why my friends. It will put you on the fast track to changing someone’s world.


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About the Author: Jeff Shore

Jeff Shore is the Founder and CEO of Shore Consulting, Inc. a company specializing in psychology-based sales training programs. Using these modern, game-changing techniques, Jeff Shore’s clients delivered over 145,000 new homes generating $54 billion in revenue last year.