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How To Find the Right Time to Pitch #421
If you’re new to the show, this episode and the vast majority of the episodes are based on the Tao Te Ching, an ancient Chinese philosophy, founded on the notion of non-doing or “effortless action”. By non-doing I mean letting life happen of its own accord. Not pushing, no pulling, allowing events to take their own course and accepting the pace whatever it may be. Which is the topic of this episode, on how to find the right time to pitch. Here’s the secret: it’s not your schedule, but the schedule of the buyer.
Today’s Chapter: The Craft of Sales
Like a watchmaker building precision timepieces
The Master Seller hones their craft to exact perfection.
When hunting, embrace cold calling
When meeting, listen deep for understanding
When negotiating, be patient and kind.
In speech be honest
In judging be fair
In business be competent
In action, watch the timing.
The Craft of sales is for few
Rejected by many.
Today’s Story
The company was rolling out a new business solution and had aggressive goals to promote the product. Pat and Chris met twice monthly for one-on-one coaching and a sales funnel review for the new product. During the meeting they reviewed a few recordings of Chris’s prospecting calls.
Pat was pleased Chris always started strong in the calls by asking open ended questions to qualify the prospects. But there was a recurring issue. Each time a prospect mentioned they had a problem the new business solution could solve, Chris leapt into action and started pitching! The same thing happened during three of the calls they reviewed.
“Whoa whoa whoa” said Pat. “You’re jumping too quickly to a solution. We’ve yet to hear if this is the only problem they have, the most important problem they have and if there are any other problems they have that might be struggling with. Your timing is way off. There is a time to listen and a time to act.”
“Let’s take it down a notch and slow the sale. Next time, keep qualifying until you understand all their problems, then make your pitch in the context of helping to solve their challenges. Remember timing is everything.”
Take Action Quote
I’ve attended a fair number of networking events and invariably I’ll meet somebody who asks me a few questions and once they hear something that’s relevant to them, they jump on it and start hard selling me on their stuff. Ugh. They probably think they’re good at asking questions and qualifying. But in reality, I’m just annoyed. It’s not ask listen pitch, but ask listen, ask listen, ask listen and then once you’re certain you’ve heard it all, ask listen once more, then pitch.
To quote Yogi Berra, “You don’t have to swing hard to hit a home run. If you got the timing, it’ll go.”
Thank Our Sponsor Wingman
I’m excited to share that Sales Babble has a new sponsor, Wingman. Wingman is an actionable conversation intelligence platform that unlocks insights from every sales interaction. You can use Wingman to record your calls, review deals, scale coaching and build a repeatable sales machine. Wingman uses best-in-class Automatic Speech. Recognition (ASR) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) algorithms specifically for sales.
Go to trywingman.com/salesbabble and get a free trial today. Wingman, your source for actionable sales intelligence.
How to Connect with Pat Helmers at Sales Babble
Sales Babble shares selling secrets for non-sellers. There is no need to be pushy, aggressive or uncomfortable reaching out to prospective buyers. Masterful selling is understanding what buyers want, discerning if you can help, showing what you have and helping them to make a decision that is good for their business and yours.
You can be yourself when selling. It’s all about helping others with their challenges and aspirations. I’ve interviewed 100s of sales experts and discuss all things sales: prospecting, qualifying, value propositions, presentations, demos, closing, generating referrals, earning references, upselling, marketing, lead generation, copywriting, and most important the right selling mindset.
Stop fearing sales and embrace it. Learn the selling secrets for non-sellers and start making a difference today. Here is the entire back catalog of episodes in the sales podcast.
This is a production of Habanero Media
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