“We were sitting the 7 of us in a typical mid-size board room. 4 from the client’s side and 3 on our side.” That’s how he started telling me about his last interaction with his client after he asked me to help him prepare for the follow up session. He said he is not sure how to approach it and that he took plenty of notes from the meeting.
I asked him to describe the dynamics of the meeting. I asked him to show me his notes. And after interviewing for a while I asked him a simple question. What do they want?
“How do you mean?” he asked.
Well, I am reading your notes and listening to your description of the meeting, and it sounds you and your colleagues did a wonderful job in keeping the emotional connection there, being relevant and…digging (a lot) into their issues, challenges, problems and even their current negative ROI.
“Yes, look here, I even wrote my short analysis of it in my notes. What do you think Alon? Seems they have major issues we can solve for them”.
That DNA of salespeople to constantly look at what they can offer is so innate that sometimes we simply ignore the client’s desire. For years we have been trained to ask questions about the current situation, the status at hand, the challenges, and the problems. “If you understand the problem, you will understand the solution” they said in oh so many types of sales training.
“Then dear good salesperson, then you step into the world of great sales and client relations. Then you stop showing them the way and start showing them THEIR way”
Alon Zaibert
The difference is that many buyers today have become sophisticated and knowledgeable enough that many of them already know what they want the solution to look like. However, they know what it should look like, how it should feel, and they know their desired impact, but they do not know exactly the elements of it nor how it will be translated into their reality. When today’s problems are solved, when their challenges are met, how does it really look like?
Moreover, they tend to keep it to themselves. Maybe because they are afraid it may sound too grandiose, maybe they think it is unrealistic or just believe it is too different than the status quo. Regardless of the actual reason behind it, they do not share their future fantasy. And it is up to us to ask them, spend some time with them probing, distill it down and then, and only then, to start formulating a path to get there.
Once we break down (together with them) how their future might look like 3 things occur:
They said it out loud and the sky did not fall. They get the sense of reaffirmation that their intimate thoughts about this future solution have real merit. At this point they really share all of the relevant details.
They feel they are already a part of the solution because now they imagined it in details, understood the impact and particulars of it.
They would want YOU to be the one leading them there because you were the one experiencing the exploration of the future solution together with them
The gap between what you believe the solution could be based only of analyzing present aspects of their situation VS. also really understanding what they want their future to look like could be small but super substantial and effective both for your sales process as well as your level of trust with them.
Here is an example how to go about it with your client while you are at an exploration session (yellow pad session) during a sales process:
Let’s look at a year from now. Imagine that everything went well, all of these problems and challenges we described and went through are solved to the utmost possible way. It’s a smashing success. What does it look for you? How does your world look like at that point? What are you focusing on? How does it impact you personally?
Give them time. Take them there. Hold their hands and be patient. You will be surprised with how much more you will discover when triggering your client to fantasize about what an ideal scenario could look like. And psychologically, when they do it with you there, they will feel automatically that you are part of this fantasy.
“So, what do they want?” I asked him again. “How does it look like?”
“That’s a good question Alon. I am going to have to ask them."
“I guess you got my answer as to what the follow up session should look like after all.” I continued.
"Send them a follow up email, let them know you have a good understanding of their current situation and that on the next session you would like to have a discussion around just one question.
What do they want”.
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