Last week, I answered a “Hot Question” about customers who make ‘wrong’ decisions. After considerable thought – and the realization that I am one of those customers who frequently makes ‘wrong’ decisions – I decided that the question deserved a full article.

To refresh your memory, here’s the question, which I edited down a bit for space: “Troy, I have a situation that is a bit unique. I’m an optometrist. Many of my customers come to me with a fairly large amount of spending capability on their health plans, but instead of spending all of it on a quality pair of glasses, they’ll instead buy the cheapest Chinese stuff available to them.  How can I get them to make a good decision with their money?” The questioner further elaborated that the customers would come in with a spending capability of up to $400 – enough to buy a quality pair of glasses from him – but instead would buy the cheap “3 for $99” deals you see on TV, leaving both quality and free money on the table.

On the face of it, that would seem like a very bad decision. Even I would agree with that. However, there’s a lot that we don’t know. To solve this problem, however, you have to understand one key facet of selling in the 21^st Century: Customers don’t make “bad” decisions. They make the decision that is right for them at the time. Let’s talk more about this.

Our optometrist is making one of the most common mistakes in sales: He’s viewing the customer’s decision through his own criteria for a successful purchase, not the customer’s. When you’re selling, the only criteria that matters is the customer’s. That means that we have to understand what the customer’s decision making criteria is, and then sell to that, not our own. Before I break down how to do this, let’s talk about another example of “bad” decision making.

A couple of days ago, I visited one of my favorite retail establishments: Barnes and Noble. I’m a book nerd (no, really, I am, I say to all of you, who are probably nodding right now). I love bookstores, both new and used, and I hit the magazine rack at B&N at least once a week. Barnes and Noble is really hardcore on their discount program. You buy a ‘membership’ for $25 annually and you get 10% off all products, and bigger discounts on best sellers. At least that’s how I understand it. As a loyal B&N customer, you’d think I’d have one of these, wouldn’t you?

I don’t.

I have two reasons for not having one. First is that in some things I stand on principle. I refuse to purchase a ‘discount.’ If B&N would like to reward me for being a frequent customer, they may do so (Borders used to without a fee), but I’m not going to pay for the privilege.

Second, I hate to carry discount cards. I’m a man. That means that I carry my wallet in my hip pocket, and the thinner it is, the more comfortable I am. Hence I don’t carry discount cards. Yes, they could look me up through my phone number, but then I’m back to paying. With what I spend at B&N, the card might save me $75-100 annually. It’s not worth it.

But I know that when I go to the cash register, I’m going to be asked if I have the card. I reply with a firm but polite “no.” Then I’m asked if I want to hear about it. I reply “no” again. At this point, if I’m lucky, the clerk will respect my wishes and ring me up. If not, the clerk might start by saying, “But, you would save $2 on this purchase…” or whatever. At that point, I get annoyed and ask if it’s OK for me to purchase magazines there. The clerk looks at me as if I’m stupid. Clearly I’m making the “wrong” decision. The trouble is that the clerk doesn’t know my criteria.

The optometrist is in the same situation. He’s looking at the value proposition through his own eyes and not the customer’s – but the customer is the one who will buy. The value proposition always makes sense to the salesperson. So, why in the world could a customer prefer cheap, badly made (he’s assuming) glasses in quantity over one high quality and more attractive pair of glasses, especially when there’s no cost to the customer?

There are reasons, much like my reasons for not getting a discount card. Perhaps the customer seldom wears glasses, but wants a pair in multiple locations (I have sunglass shades for my glasses, and I have multiple ones so I can have a sunglass in each car, for instance). Hence, quantity becomes more important than quality. Perhaps the customer doesn’t understand their own buying power. Or maybe they want multiple pairs of glasses with different “looks.”

The problem is that, usually, we don’t try to understand the customer’s criteria for the decision – instead we try to ‘educate’ the customer on the ‘right’ decision. That seldom works. It seldom works because WE say it, and it’s a transparent effort to ‘push’ things that the customer doesn’t want. There’s a better approach.

Ask, don’t tell. The customer’s words are always more powerful than yours; the key is to tease out of the customer what their criteria is, and ask questions that influence the conversation. Let’s take a look at our optometrist again, and how he might work questions into the conversation. Questions like:

“How often do you actually wear glasses?”

(If they don’t wear them all the time): “Do you carry them with you all the time?”

“What kind of impression do you want your appearance to make?”

“How important is it to you to be able to have different looks?”

At the very least, these questions would tell the optometrist if the customer is a good candidate to ‘upsell’ into better frames; at the most, there might be lead-ins to good selling.

So, if you want to succeed in this situation, you have to set up the criteria early, BEFORE you present. Here are the steps involved:

• Respect your buyer’s intelligence. Your customers (usually) aren’t stupid, so don’t treat them like they are.
• Be open to other viewpoints. This goes along with the previous step, but realizing that buyers have their own worldviews is vital.
• Set up the criteria by asking, not telling. Your customer’s words are the most important ones; ask good questions early in the process before you work toward a presentation.
• Ask “what if” questions to address or shift the customer’s criteria. The two most powerful questions in sales are “what if.” Use those words to your advantage by painting an advantageous situation.
• Find a way to solve the customer’s problem, not yours. The key to winning the sale is to get the customer’s agreement that your solution can solve their problem within their own criteria.
• Don’t argue. When you go down the road of believing that the customer’s criteria is ‘wrong,’ you’ve lost the sale. If you can’t get agreement on the criteria, it might be a better strategy to back off and preserve the relationship.
• Respect the customer. Remember, the customer is buying SOMETHING from you (in the case of the optometrist, it’s an exam). You don’t want to make the process so unpleasant by trying to upsell that they avoid you entirely.

Like anything else in sales, this won’t work all the time. NOTHING works all the time. This, however, will give you the best shot at succeeding when you think the customer might be “wrong.”

One of the things I’ve always prided myself in is that I am a student of those activities about which I am passionate. When I get involved in something and I get excited about it, I dedicate myself to learning as much as I can about that activity. It’s been the pattern of my life. When I was in the debate program in high school and college, I ate and slept debate (well, at least with the energy that didn’t go into chasing girls – I was a teenager, after all). I’ve been a student of cars and racing all my life (which has led to me being virtually invincible in games of NASCAR Trivial Pursuit).

More to the point, I’m a student of the three disciplines that make up my career (and are the reason you’re reading this): sales, professional speaking, and training. I’m amazed at how often there is crossover between the disciplines; when I learn something from one discipline, it often bleeds into another. Such is the case with this week’s article. A concept that I learned long ago in speaking has really crystallized a way that salespeople can become much more effective than they currently are, and it’s all summed up by three little words.

Those words are: “Do, Think, or Feel.”

When creating a speech, professional speakers always ask themselves, “After this speech, what do I want my audience to Do, Think, or Feel?”

That’s a pretty good question, isn’t it? What if part of your pre-call planning included those words? “On my next call, what do I want my customer to do, think, or feel?” The answer sounds obvious, of course. “I want them to buy!” But many times, and on many calls, that’s not realistic. Yes, some of you sell in an environment where it’s completely realistic to think that your customer can buy on the first, and every, call. Some of you, however, sell in environments where your sale is one of incremetal steps.

“Do, Think, Feel” can make a huge difference in these multi-step environment, and here’s why. It’s customer-focused; your attention is on what the customer does, not what you do. That’s vital. Too many sales processes get extended beyond the point of any viability because the salesperson continues to move things “forward” unilaterally when the buyer isn’t motivated to buy. I call that “pushing a rope uphill.” It’s a huge waste of time, and “Do, Think, Feel” can help you get away from that.

Try this as a way of definining your call objective (and keep in mind, every call should have an objective, or a reason for being – if not, it’s not a good use of your customer’s time or yours):

What do you want your customer or prospect to DO? “Do” always specifies an action, and the question asks what the customer will do, not you. Depending on where you are in the sales process, there could be many actions that the customer takes. They might:

• Set a next appointment.
• Gather data for your next conversation.
• Entertain a proposal.
• Give a referral.
• Make an introduction.
• Or, some other definitive action that advances the sales process or the relationship.

You might want your prospect to THINK something different after your meeting. This can be early or late in a relationship, and it usually involves a change in perception. For instance, your customer might:

• Accept you as a brand leader.
• Gain respect for you.
• Qualify you as a vendor.
• View you as a resource and not a salesperson.
• Have an elevated perception of your quality.
• Again, there are an infinite number of possibilities here. The key to remember is that “think” is an intellectual or logical acceptance of a fact or reality.

Finally, you might want your prospect to FEEL something after your sales call. In my own selling style (and frankly, my own speaking style), these moments are fairly rare; however, they do happen. My own style focuses more on “Do” and “Think.” However, there is room for “Feel” in the sales process. Some examples of what a customer might “Feel” after an effective sales call are:

• Comfort with you as a contact.
• An affinity for you or your company.
• Fear for the consequences of not taking an action.
• Again, there are numerous possibilities here.

It’s worth pointing out that “Do, Think, and Feel” are not mutually exclusive. You can have sales calls that target more than one of the three. For instance, you might want a prospect to qualify you as a vendor (“Think”) which results in beginning a sales process (“Do”). “Do, think, or feel” doesn’t have to be your approach to sales, but if you’re searching for a way to define your call objectives, this can be a great way to put reason to your rhyme.

There’s an awful lot of bad sales advice floating around out there right now. Sometimes I think that our profession is caught right between people advocating old-time sales tactics that just don’t work anymore, and other people trying to be ‘hip’ and ‘techno-savvy’ by focusing on social networking as the all-encompassing solution for everything – but that doesn’t work either.

A prime example of this is a recent column I read talking about the popular “when to close” topic. The author’s answer – fueled by his Xerox sales training and illustrated by a personal anecdote of his experience in 1976 – was that the salesperson should always be closing. This the old A/B/C (Always Be Closing) philosophy has done more to kill sales and irritate customers than anything else salespeople do. There’s a right way, though, and let’s find it, shall we?

It’s appropriate that the anecdote was from 1976; A/B/C is very much a 1970’s sales approach. For that matter, so is the Xerox approach. The old Xerox approach, heavy with tactics, pressure, and technique, worked back when Xerox dominated its market. Today? Not so much. Today’s customers are more savvy, more educated, have more information available to them, and ultimately have been trained by years of salespeople using heavy sales tactics, and are more capable than ever to resist. This means that today’s customer responds to an approach that is more customer-friendly and respectful.

First, let’s learn how to recognize when you have an actual opportunity to sell:

• The customer must be motivated; e. the customer has a need that he/she wishes to solve through a purchase. If your customer is not motivated to act, you can be the best closer ever and it won’t help.
• The customer must have investigated that need; the customer and the salesperson must both understand the need, and your product must fulfill it (and the customer must agree that your product fulfills it).
• The customer must trust you.
• The customer must believe what you say (i.e. you have credibility in the customer’s eyes).
• The customer must respect you.
• The customer must not dislike you (I know that conventional wisdom says the customer must like you, and certainly that’s a huge help – but I’ve found it’s better to seek respect and trust that is genuine than to seek a like and friendship that is phony).
• You must have presented a proposal that is to the customer’s liking.

The trouble with the A/B/C approach is that it interferes with several of these things. Closing is the part of the sales process where customers are most likely to put up defenses; if you are always in some phase of a close, your customers will be defending themselves too much to be able to give you the candid answers you need to be able to match your products to their needs. Closing too early will interfere with trust and credibility, as well; the customer will perceive you as reaching for their wallet. (Answer to the old question: Why do customers perceive salespeople as pushy? Because too many are.)

Instead, today’s salesperson must have patience as part of the selling/closing process. To assess motivation, accurately assess needs, present your product, check customer agreement, build trust, etc. takes time. Sometimes it can all be done within a single sales call, but even those sales calls can get long. It’s very important that you are patient enough to allow the customer to move through their buying process properly (see my book, Sell Like You Mean It!, for more on this) and get to the closing arena at the same time you do.

You have earned the right to close when:

• You have accurately assessed the customer’s needs, and gotten his/her agreement that they are the needs.
• You have presented a solution(s) to the needs, and gotten his/her agreement that these will fulfill the needs.
• You have presented a specific proposal, including price and terms.

Once you are at this point, the close becomes a natural part of the sales process, and how you ask for the business matters less than the actual asking. In fact, the simpler the closing question (“So, are you ready to buy?”) the better. Forget fancy closing techniques; what works today is clean, straightforward conversation. What’s better is that, by handling this in a customer-friendly manner, you are more likely to get invited back for repeat sales opportunities! Isn’t that better than a one-shot quick close?

Just because it worked for Xerox in 1976 doesn’t mean it will work for you today. Success in today’s selling arena requires a different approach.

One of the things that surprises a lot of clients is my insistence on doing formal annual written evaluations of salespeople. “But, they know how they’re doing,” I’m told. Nonsense. Annual evaluations are a great tool for improvement; unfortunately, too many of the evaluations used don’t really cover the important areas that salespeople should be evaluated on. Today, let’s talk about the most important evaluation you will ever have – your own self evaluation.

At the end of the day, you are responsible to your customers, your co-workers, your employer, and your family. Most of all, you’re responsible to yourself, and the best salespeople are able to accurately evaluate how they have fulfilled that particular responsibility throughout the course of the year. For those of you who have never really evaluated your own performance, never fear: I have a four-point evaluation structure that will help you develop yourself now, and in the future. This comes with one warning, however – it only works if you’re completely honest. To take your own personal “check up from the neck up,” click below and read on.

Criteria one – the numbers: Obviously, the most important measure of achievement is results. So, how have your results been? Compare your performance to your goals, and give yourself a 1-5 rating by the following criteria: Give yourself a 1 if you’ve never gotten close enough to your quota to see it. Give yourself a 2 if you’re usually under quota, but every now and then, you’ve had a breakout month and made it. Give yourself a 3 if you’re usually at or close to quota. Give yourself a 4 if you’re usually well over quota, but still miss every now and then. If you can’t remember the last time you missed quota (more importantly, neither can your boss), and you’re usually 20% or more over, give yourself a 5. Now, multiply this result by 2.

Criteria two – the funnel: You should have targets for your sales funnel activities; i.e. appointments, proposals, etc. Rate yourself 1-5 again, with this criteria: If you’re consistently 20% or more below your targets, give yourself a 1. If you’re usually below target, but sometimes make it, give yourself a 2. Those of you who almost always hit target should give yourself a 3, while those of you who always meet and sometimes exceed targets should give yourself a 4. If you’re always over by 20% or more, give yourself a 5.

Criteria three – customer relationships: In this criteria, we will evaluate the quality of your customer interactions and relationships, as this is a predictor of your future ability to make your numbers. For the purpose of this exercise, focus on those customers that generate your top 80% of business. We’ll rate your relationships in terms of your ability to retain this business in the face of adversity as well as your customers’ willingness to evangelize for you, again on our 1-5 scale. If 50% or more of your top customers are one service failure away from leaving, give yourself a 1. If 20% to 49% of your customer base is one screw-up away from leaving, give yourself a 2. If 0-20% of your base is one mistake away, give yourself a 3. If you can withstand a screw-up with all of your customers, give yourself a 4. If you can withstand failure with all your customers, AND at least 25% of them are willing to refer you or serve as testimonials, give yourself a 5.

Criteria four – internal relationships: Some people don’t believe that it’s important for salespeople to be good internal citizens of their companies. To that, I say B.S. If you’re a negative influence inside your company, you’re costing that company money in lost productivity from those who are negatively affected by your poor attitude. On the other hand, being well liked and respected can pay career dividends in many different ways. Rate yourself 1-5 again on this criteria: If a conference room or office clears within 2 minutes of your entry (because no one can stand you), give yourself a 1. If you’re usually afraid to ask co-workers or support personnel for favors because they’re not willing to grant them, give yourself a 2. If you have at least three “go-to” people that you can get favors and help from, AND have people that you avoid because you can’t, give yourself a 3. If you are nearly universally respected, and have at least three “go-to” people, give yourself a 4. If everyone is your “go-to” person, give yourself a 5.

By now, you should have a feel for the criteria. 1 is awful, 2 is bad, 3 is average, 4 is good, 5 is superstar-level. We double-weighted sales results because, frankly, that’s the most important criteria. But it’s not the only criteria. In any criteria that you ranked yourself a 1 or 2, you have work to do. Seek help from co-workers, customers, and your boss to develop yourself. Overall, here is the scale:

25 to 30: You’re either a superstar or on the edge of superstardom (or at least you think so).

20 to 24: You’re good, a cut above average, and unlikely to have job worries anytime soon.

13 to 19: You’re average. Very, very average.

7 to 12: You’re below average to the point that you’re a constant worry for your boss.

1 to 6: Unless you’re brand new with no experience, in this category, you need overnight change of either behavior or career.

If you’re truly honest with yourself, this can be a very productive exercise. Don’t be afraid to solicit help from your boss, co-workers, and your customers. If you’re committed to self improvement, they’ll be happy to help.

If I ask salespeople how they describe themselves, one of the most common ways would be as a “relationship salesperson.” Unfortunately, “relationship selling,” which should be one of the most meaningful phrases in selling, has become meaningless through overuse.

When I drill down on what these candidates mean by “relationship sales,” 90% of them give me an answer that is some variation on the Stuart Smalley Affirmation on Saturday Night Live: “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and gosh darn it, my customers like me!” Well, not to diminish the importance of being liked by your customers, but there’s a lot more to successful relationship selling that that.

Successful relationship selling has several different elements, which we will get to in a moment. But, for me, the key questions to the quality of a relationship are:

Can you monetize the quality of your relationship with your customer? This is selling, after all, not running for Homecoming King (or Queen). Being liked is great, but if you can’t turn that into money, you are not engaged in “relationship selling.”

Can you maximize your business relationship with your customer? By “maximizing,” I mean the ability to extract all, or nearly all, the potential opportunities with your customer. If they’re buying stuff they could be buying from you, but buying it from a competitor, you’re not “maximized” within that customer.

Essentially, there are three different levels of customer relationships, and most salespeople will have customers in all three:

The Loyal Customer: This is the Holy Grail of customer relationships. When they buy, they buy from you. When competitors call, they not only don’t buy from them; they don’t entertain proposals or appointments. You have contacts at all the appropriate levels within the company, you are able to maintain good profit margins. Moreover, Loyal Customers evangelize for you; when they hear of others that could make use of your services, they recommend you freely and willingly. Ideally, you should have a game plan for any customer who is NOT this level to move them in this direction.

The Habitual Buyer: The Habitual Buyer can be deceptive; Habitual Buyers sometimes look like Loyal Customers. When they buy, you are their default source. However – and this is an important distinction – you have very little leeway with a Habitual Buyer. Mess up a delivery (and, let’s be honest, we all sometimes make mistakes), and you lose their business. Raise a price, and you reopen the buying decision. Often, Habitual Buyers will also screen you from getting multiple contact levels within the company, and will be much more guarded in their dealings with you. The dangerous part about Habitual Buyers is that salespeople can be lulled into thinking that they are Loyal Customers – then a competitor picks their pocket, seemingly out of nowhere.

The Occasional Buyer – The Occasional Buyer is just that. They shop you every time, and typically have no real pattern to their purchases (although if you’re losing business on price, Occasional Buyers will be where you lose it). The Occasional Buyer has no real affinity toward you or your competitors; you’re just a place to get stuff, as are your competitors. Most of the time, if you’re dealing strictly with a purchasing agent, the customer is an Occasional Buyer – which is as good an argument as any against dealing strictly with purchasing agents.

The true “relationship salesperson” will have more customers at the Loyal Customer level than other salespeople; more importantly, they will have a game plan in place for advancing Habituals to Loyals, and Occasionals to Habituals. Getting there isn’t easy; it involves a lot of hard work and preparation, and focus in the selling process. It also involves a level of honesty that is uncomfortable. Ego-driven salespeople (which is most of us) want very badly to think that all of our customers are Loyal Customers; recognizing that many are not is tough. But if you want a good way to build your business in 2015, identify all your major customers by the three levels above, and then create a game plan to move them up. Your boss – and your wallet – will thank you.

A few weeks ago I attended a conference that featured a “motivational speaker.” You should have seen this guy. He had a loudly printed sport coat featuring the New York skyline. A tie with rhinestones in it (I didn’t even know they made those). A big belt buckle, cowboy boots, and bright yellow pants. His advice was this: “You have to be ALWAYS ON in this business! If you’re not, someone will spot you in an off moment and you’ll be exposed.”

He then began getting in people’s faces, yelling, “Are you ALWAYS ON?” And the person would yell, “YES!” and he’d move on to the next. It was like a tent revival meeting. Then, he turned and spotted me….and suddenly I realized that I had chosen the wrong seat for the morning’s festivities.

He high-stepped over to me, reading my nametag, and yelled, “Troy, are you ALWAYS ON?” I did the only thing I could. I clenched my fists. I got into my best power stance. I looked him square in the eyes. And I yelled, “NO!” And he stammered, “Uh, beg your pardon?” Then he got himself back together and yelled, “What do you mean, you’re not ALWAYS ON?” I said back, in a normal tone of voice, “I’m always ME.”

You see, as goofy as this guy was, he did have a point. When you’re “ON” in any environment where you’re observed – such as selling or speaking – you set a standard to live up to. And when you’re not at that standard at other times when you’re “off stage,” you do become inauthentic. Inauthentic is the worst thing you can be. More than once, after I’ve been speaking at conferences, I’ve had people approach me at various settings – over lunch, even by the pool at the hotel – and have a conversation. And they’ll say, “Gee, you’re the same guy out here that you were in the room.” I tell them, “No, I’m the same guy in there that I am out here.”

Like the old saying goes, “Be yourself. Everyone else is taken.” That goes for salespeople too. Of course, you should be the very best version of yourself that you can be, but don’t have a “sales personality” that you put on like a sport coat. What does “Be the best version of yourself” mean? Simple.

• Constantly learning: You should be constantly learning about your customers, your products, and your sales skills. Your goal should be that you are just a tad bit better on every sales call than you were on the last one. Customers will perceive your professional growth and they will appreciate it.
• Personal grooming: We can’t all be Brad Pitt or George Clooney. Or, if you’re a woman, well, just pick your own personal equivalent of Brad or George. But we can be the best we can be. I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen salespeople making sales calls with wild, unkempt hair, unshaven, or in clothes that looked like they were slept in the night before. Come on. Put some effort into it. If you can’t be your best in front of the customers, you shouldn’t expect the customers to give you effort. Every salesperson ought to carry a small grooming kit with them in the car. When I sold industrial supplies, I kept a spare clean shirt, just in case.
• Be prepared: I’ve written about this before, but it’s vital that you be prepared with whatever you need to take the sales call to its logical conclusion. And yes, that likely means you’ll need to carry a briefcase. That’s OK. When you carry a briefcase you mean business.
• A game plan for the call: As I explained in my Teleseminar, “The Purpose Driven Sales Call,” you should have call objectives for every call, and be prepared to execute them. That means having questions prepared, any presentation materials prepared, etc.

None of this means that you have to be anyone besides yourself – but being prepared and professional means being the best version of yourself. That’s what you should be shooting for. And unlike the speaker, you’ll never have to worry about being “Caught.”

I’m a child of the 80s, and in the 80s, we basically had two types of acceptable music – hair bands and new wave. I enjoyed both, and one of my favorite hair bands was the Scorpions. The Scorpions was (in my opinion) a great band with some great songs. They were also German. More to the point, they were Germans who understood not a word of English. Hence, when they recorded those great songs like “The Zoo,” they pronounced them phonetically, not with understanding of the words. That was fine – in the studio.

In concert, it was a little different. I saw them live a number of years ago, and, well…the pronunciation broke down. Because they didn’t understand the language, they’d emphasize the wrong words and syllables. Some songs were partially in German. In the audience, we were stuck between rocking out and laughing uproariously. This memory has caused me to coin a term, and it’s one you’ll want to avoid. I call it “Scorpions Syndrome.” That’s where a salesperson knows the words, but not the meaning. Allow me to explain.

I was speaking with a client recently and he told me of a salesperson whom he had trained. He drilled this salesperson relentlessly on the company’s presentation – and she’d do a great job of delivering it. However, she didn’t know or understand the technicalities of what was behind the presentation, nor did she really know how to answer questions. She had “Scorpions Syndrome,” and retraining is the best option.

Here are some ways you can avoid “Scorpions Syndrome,” whether you are a salesperson or a manager.

Learn concepts, not questionnaires: I’m a big fan of having a game plan for a sales call (in fact, my Teleseminar on February 25 is about that very thing – get more info here). A good game plan includes the information you want to GET through the questions you ask, the information you want to GIVE through the presentations you make (which should depend on the answers to your questions), and a COMMITMENT for a next step.

The problem is that too many salespeople rely on rote questionnaires for their game plans – without ever learning the meaning behind the questions, or what to do with the answers they get. You need to make sure that you understand not only what questions are good to ask, but what the reasons are behind the questions and what to do with the answers.

Learn real benefits, not rote presentations: Many years ago, on my college debate team, I was assigned a debate partner that, to put it gently, really didn’t understand what was going on. My coach advised me to ‘can her up’ because she was a decent speaker, and we’d be OK. “Canning her up” meant providing her with evidence to read and the order in which to read it. There was only one problem – after every speech, the opponent got to cross-examine her. Since she didn’t really understand what was going on (and frankly, wasn’t all that teachable), everything she did in her speech fell apart in cross-examination because she couldn’t explain the logic behind the points.

The same thing happens when a salesperson gives a rote, formatted presentation without understanding the real effects that their product or service has on the customer or its environment. The presentation sounds great and convincing – but invariably, the customer has questions that the salesperson can’t answer. The salesperson’s credibility is destroyed, and so is the opportunity.

Learning the concepts and ideas before learning the questions and presentations takes longer, but it’s a good investment of time – for you and for your company. Don’t shortcut. The Scorpions Syndrome is real, and if you don’t learn your company’s “language,” you might get laughed at, too.