Sales Experts Elizabeth Lotardo and Lisa Earle McLeod, in their LinkedIn Learning course Sales Fundamentals, describe it as the “game-changing question” you should ask yourself throughout the sales process.
Why?
Because, according to McLeod, “it’s the one question that will help you keep up your own momentum and give momentum to your company.” And it does that through these three ways, according to McLeod:
- “It reinforces your own personal sense of purpose. Because it highlights you're making a difference in the lives of your customers and their businesses.”
- “The second thing asking this question does is it solidifies your company's impact story. The results your customers experience to fuel your company's story.”
- “And the third thing is, when you ask (it), your ability to prospect and ask for referrals in the future elevates because you have clearly demonstrated value to yourself, your team, and your customers.”
Okay, so what’s the question you should ask yourself? It’s straightforward –
“How will this customer be different as a result of doing business with us?”
The benefits of asking yourself this question routinely.
The aim of any good salesperson is to be buyer first. The most successful salespeople focus on their customers' success, as that’s the key to building lasting relationships.
Except, even the best intentions can get lost in the minutia of daily work. Perhaps you are trying to get a deal through legal or ensuring all of the technical specifications are met – it’s easy to lose sight of the impact your deal could have.
Lisa St. Germain, a vice president at Fiserv, can relate. She works selling banking software, and her deals are generally lengthy and complex. That makes it easy for her and her team to lose sight of their solution's potential impact.
Which is precisely why she and her team continually reflect back on this question.
“There are long implementation cycles, long sales cycles,” St. Germain said. “I think any time you hit a barrier, a hotspot, misalignment with the client, it's time to ask that question again. Because if you don't stay re-centered on it throughout the entire process, then the translation of what needs to be done will get out of sync.”
Additionally, even early in the sales process, the question can help you better connect with your prospect, St. Germain said.
“What answering this question with the client being at the center of it does is you end up speaking to them on their own terms for what their own needs and objectives are,” she said. “And you don't get caught up in the technical interpretation of that need.”
That’s what makes the question so effective, McLeod and Lotardo said.
“Your ultimate goal is to keep customer impact front and center,” McLeod said. “When you ask, ‘How will the customer be different as a result of doing business with us,’ it's energizing, it's engaging, and it results in a more fulfilling experience for you, your team, and your customers.”
Well said.
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