The Lane Report -- Sales December 2001


	SALES -- December 2001 by Jeffrey Gitomer Crystal Ball Predicting the outcome of a sales meeting is easy. Sort of. Crystal balls. Don’t you wish you had one when you were preparing for a big sales call? Or maybe when you were getting ready for a big sales presentation? Predicting the future is actually pretty easy, if you’re armed with three things: Information about the prospect and his business. The right questions. The ability to see the big picture. Susan C. Gatton, a sales consultant who specializes in sales strategies for Fortune 500 companies says, “There are three places to gain crystal ball information. Past, present and future. Just look at the elements of each time period, and how they affect the prospect and his use of your product and/or service, and presto, you create your own ability to predict the future.” Pretty cool huh? Here is the information you need from each of the three in order to become a successful predictor of the future (of your order): The Past. Success and failure have their roots in what has already transpired. Your job is to gather the historical information so you can understand the best way to communicate your ability to help in the future. Knowing the past is an easy way to gain an understanding of the present. Review the customer’s original needs. Review how and why they bought before. Review the players and their personalities. Review how the decision was made. Review problems and how they were resolved. The Present. The present is fleeting. No one has time to do much more than put out fires and deal with the day-to-day. If you are able to get your prospect to see the important, you can get him away from what he perceives as urgent (but really isn’t). Urgent is his situation – important is your ability to communicate help. (NOTE: Help first, get the order second.) Collect information about what is and isn’t working from the customer’s point of view, and share your company’s perception of these issues. Collect information about the changes that have taken place in the customer’s company, and how that relates to their present situation. Read all company literature and industry trade magazines. Become fluent in the prospect’s company and industry. Determine what past problems still exist – and may be preventing present success. Share with the customer the recent changes in the industry, or other experiences, and what the impact of those changes will be on the prospect’s business. Share the changes that your company is going through and the impact of those changes on the customer. Share your big picture and experience in a way that creates a leadership image. The Future. People love to talk about their dreams. If you can get them going, they may see (and verbalize) how you fit in. You need to know the path your prospect wants to take so you can get on that path and become part of that vision. Ask about the company’s specific future plans and needs – find out the one big goal or project for the year. Ask the decision makers about their future plans. Ask the customer about what changes they see, future industry trends and what impact they will have. Share your industry trends that will affect how your company will do business in the future. Share some of your company’s future plans and show how that will establish (or maintain) a leadership position. Nothing complicated presented here – on the surface it appears to be just basic fundamental blocking and tackling. Almost. It’s fundamentals from the customer’s perspective. It’s information from the prospect’s point of view – you know, the only one that matters. Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, and Customer Satisfaction is Worthless, Customer Loyalty is Priceless. He can be reached at 704/333-1112 or e-mail to salesman@gitomer.com. Back to Sales Index Back to December Issue

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