I stubbed my little toe while I was walking around the house in the dark. I had forgotten that the furniture was moved for a dinner party. My little toe just caught the edge of a chair leg while I was in full stride. I won't tell you what I said when it occurred but everyone in the house knew something had happened. If this has happened to you, you know that it can really hurt.
If a salesperson came to me with a special pain reliever designed to eliminate my small toe pain, I would purchase it today. However, time is running out. I will only be interested if that little toe strikes another chair leg soon or if it gets worse.
Each time I put on a pair of shoes I am reminded of the evening event. I expect that someday, hopefully soon, the pain will be completely gone and it will be a distant memory. The little toe has struck a few things over the past few weeks and each time it has reminded me of the first occurrence.
The Crying Toe
If we relate this story to businesses that have problems and situations that need to be resolved, there are thousands of little toes that hurt out there. Just like mine, their pain will come and go. Some of our prospects situations will become aggravated at seasonal times and we must be there for them. If we are not, they will turn to anyone who can help them. Timing is everything with this type of situation and if we are good salespeople and businesses, we will be there for our customers.
Just because we asked a client about a service and or product before and they said NO! This doesn't mean that they can't use it. It might have been just timing. Or, maybe we didn't step on the right toe or probe with more questions. Sometimes we need to help our customers realize that they have a problem and we have a solution.
Making it hurt
When we go to the Doctor for a checkup they ask us all kinds of questions about our habits and what and where we hurt. They are searching for problems just like we should be as salespeople. If you tell a doctor that you have a small pain somewhere, look out! The next thing they do is to make it hurt even more. They want to know just how bad it is. They might ask the question "does this hurt?" You know the routine.
We should apply the same practice of doctors and twist or bend the problem till it really hurts. If we don't do this we might lose the opportunity because in time, the pain might go away. When we uncover a problem in a business we should try to uncover all the problems associated with it. For example, it hurts to walk or run with a damaged toe, this affects productivity. We can't think as well with a hurt toe because it requires us to focus on it more and takes away from other areas. When we combine all this, it becomes a bigger problem. The bigger the problem, the greater the opportunity we have for increasing their desire to have a remedy for the pain. Make it hurt enough and they won't care how much the prescription is and they will want to know when they can have it.
Steve Martinez implements sales management strategies with a focus on automating sales for printing organizations. Selling Magic teaches businesses how to automate and customizing ACT or Outlook with the best practices of sales management while integrating email marketing and technology for greater profits. http://www.sellingmagic.com
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