Fishing For Sales? Try New Bait! Knowing your unique features and asking the right questions can help hook prospects.
by Dan L. Schoepf
“And I’m feeling more and more like less and less.”
Those words sung by the rock band BoDeans may describe the malaise experienced by salespeople utilizing traditional methods in their sales efforts. This feeling is often found in salespeople working for companies that emphasize quantity (“dialing for dollars”) over quality in their endeavors. Salespeople fail as a result of flawed premises, priorities, beliefs and habits. There are two issues, in particular, that can hamper success.
Go Fish! Remember the game you played as a child? The object of the game is to collect all the cards of one number before anyone else can collect their own set. This is accomplished by continuing to ask the same question: “Got any _____’s?” More often than not the player has to pick up more cards, having been told to “Go Fish” for the cards they need.
Are your salespeople using this as their sales technique?
“Got any need for copiers?”
“Got any positions we can help you fill?”
"Got any pending orders waiting for me?”
Ask an empty question and invariably you will get the same response. “Go Fish.”
But, prospective customers are more creative in how they tell salespeople to “Go Fish.” They say, “I’m busy,” when they mean, “You’re just like everyone else.” They say, “We have a provider already,” but they’re thinking, “You’re a complete stranger.” They say, “We don’t have a budget for that,” when the real answer is, “You’re not getting my money.” They say, “I can’t talk right now,” because the truth is, “You haven’t made me curious.” But it all means the same: “GO FISH!”
Me, Too Another malady associated with poor sales performance is the frequent use of “Me, too” marketing. Imagine a key prospect saying, “The company we use will provide a toll-free number.” You respond, “Me, too.”
Then the prospect brags, “Our provider gives us free (fill in your perk here).” You cleverly respond, “Me, too.”
Now they have you playing defense. “Big mean competitor of yours has nationwide service.” And you say, “Me, too. See, we’re just like them.” Wrong! At this point you can only match what they have, with one exception—price. Congratulations, you’ve just turned your product or service into a commodity.
Sun Tzu once said, “To be successful, you must not follow strategies that your top competitor is pursuing; if you try to be someone else, the best you can be is second best.”
Now What? How do we stop playing “Go Fish” and “Me, too”?
Grab a sheet of paper and make a list of all the features of your product and service. Don’t hesitate. Write as fast as you can and you’ll likely come up with at least twenty. How many of them could your competition say, “Me, too” or your prospects say “Go Fish”? Cross those off the list. Ideally, you have at least five remaining features unique to your company, product and service. If not, keep writing. It’s a rare company that doesn’t have at least five powerful features to differentiate from competitors.
Now make a list of features about you. How many years have you worked for the company? Been in the industry? Do you have any certifications? Are you a subject matter expert? What is your territory? Are you bilingual? What is your status in the company and in the industry? This list should be comprised of a combination of characteristics unique to you. A competitor may be able to match each item individually, but it’s unlikely they will be able to match the entire list.
Combine both lists and develop a unique profile of you and your company. This is the ammunition you will use to avoid falling into the “Me, too” trap. Keep this list handy and have co-workers do the same. This will allow you to compare notes and strengthen the list.
New Bait Another powerful tool to break away from “Go Fish” and “Me, too” is questions.
James Thurber said, “It is better to know some of the questions, rather than all of the answers.”
In a courtroom, who controls a majority of the dialog? It’s the individual asking the questions.
We must formulate questions that address five areas of customer value: risk, return on investment (ROI), motivation, brand and time. For example, if you call on chief financial officers, prepare a list of questions related to risk and ROI. In most cases, CFO’s lose sleep over issues involving those two values.
A production manager, however, may be more interested in time (downtime, uptime and overtime). Questions relating to time as a value are needed to increase sales to production managers.
As salespeople, we can control the conversation with prospects only by asking the right questions. But, what are the right questions? The most effective questions are those that elicit responses that point toward your unique solution. Refer to the list you developed earlier as you contemplate this scenario:
You are the only local provider of your product or service. This is a unique feature that a competitor cannot counter with, “Me, too,” even if they wanted to take that weakened position. A leading question may be: “How important is response time?” It is rare to find anybody that ranks delivery time unimportant. Just ask Federal Express. As the only local provider you have positioned yourself to play a strong hand. And, you’ve taken away one reason for the prospect to tell you to grab your fishing gear.
Study your list of unique features and develop questions that will point to solutions that only you can provide. Use these suggestions to strengthen your position in a marketplace, sell more and feel better about your career. Combine value questions with features unique to your company and benefits unique to the audience, and you’ll catch more fish.
Dan L. Schoepf is president of Prospects…to Partners, a Prairie Village company specializing in assisting small businesses to align sales management, sales goals and sales team performance. He can be reached at (913) 449-8608 or
