The Desert of Arizona
Clear 27 Degrees
I used to work with a savvy sales guy who had a unique way of selling.
He actually didn’t “sell.” That would have implied that he did something to the prospect. And that wasn’t really true. At least not directly.
Instead, he extracted information from the prospect until the prospect sold himself (or didn’t!)
He’d also repeatedly ask questions like, “What else do I need to know?”
Or he’d say:
“If we were going to work together, and I’m not saying that we are, what might that look like?”
Just blatantly asking for what he wanted. He needed information.
And as for proposals, he didn’t do them. No presentations either.
He didn’t want to be perceived as a vendor. That meant, he couldn’t act like one.
When you really understand what things like proposals and presentations are and the function they serve, you might not do them either. They aren’t usually in your best interest.
You’re basically saying:
“Dear Mr. Prospect… allow me to go prepare a long list of things for you to object to. Just sit back and relax… I’ll be back!”
But if you’re not going to do those things, what ARE you going to do?
You are going to have conversations. And you are going to focus on getting an answer to a very specific question:
The question for the prospect is: do you have a problem I solve? Do you have the resources and desire to have me solve it?
I believe David Sandler referred to this as getting to the TRUTH.