Warming Up Our Buyers

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During my past thirty-five years in sales and sales training, I have constantly heard about the best ways to warm up a buyer when meeting them for the first time. Until recently, it seemed that trainers would suggest that sales people should pay attention when entering a buyer’s office. We were told to notice if there were articles or pictures or something displayed that could be used to build rapport with this person.

Some trainers have suggested that we should notice if the buyer plays golf, or if they fish, or if they display a model car or plane – anything that we could use to open conversation. It has been suggested that this will show our buyer what a great person we are to know by demonstating that we care about the person! Be careful here, because you could fall into a major trap that could actually get you thrown out of their office.

Years ago I learned of a website called SalesAutopsy.com. The author, Dan Seidman, writes stories about sales situations that people have submitted to him about screw-ups that have occurred during sales calls. One of the more dramatic examples centered around a sales rep who noticed a picture of his potential customer standing with John Madden, or at least someone very large and burley who looked like John Madden. The sales person asked: “Wow! How did you get to meet John Madden?” The buyer seemed confused and asked what the sales person was talking about. The rep pointed to the picture sitting on a credenza. The buyer then said sternly: “That’s not John Madden. That’s my wife!” How much do you think that guy sold that day?

Instead of looking around a buyer’s office for pictures of the buyer fishing or for a golf trophy, we need to get down to business and minimize the small talk. 85 % of buyers in a survey indicated that they don't have time for small talk and frankly don't want to be “warmed-up” with discussions of personal business.

Instead we should be asking questions that have to do with information that the buyer knows better than anyone else – the buyer’s job, their department, and his or her company. We need to focus our questions on business-related topics dealing with what is happening in the buyer's department or company right now. Through this discovery process we are looking for opportunities to uncover the hidden, or latent, business needs of our customer. More on this topic in another issue.

Next time we will discuss how to use the phone and email to obtain sales appointments.

For questions or comments, please email me at john@mccannmotivations.com or call me at 864-968-0262. Thank you and good selling!