Understanding Your Customer's Storms
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August 23, 2006Continuing on yesterday’s track of God’s guiding principles; we are talking about bringing peace to our customer’s storms. The tempest your prospect or customer is in may be well hidden from view. It may be an internal storm of discontent with their web hosting company or copier service company, etc. and your job is to recognize the symptoms, diagnose the problem and prescribe a sound solution. Depending on the strength of your presentation, it’s possible to calm their storm before you deliver on the solution.
People generally don’t like problems or storms in their life. They want everything to go smoothly, but it rarely does; finding someone who is able to bring peace to their storm is of great value and those peacemakers who solve client storms, will be thought to be the offspring of God (Mat 5:9). If you want that kind of reputation, become very skilled at uncovering pain through good questions that identify not only the pain, but the cause, effect and implications of that pain. Learn what peace looks like to them. Understand their dreams, their goals and what’s standing in the way. Get familiar with their history and in the process, build a relationship upon which they find themselves resting.
If you ask good questions, you will instill confidence and by the calmness you exude, develop an expectation of a good outcome. Don’t try to bring your solution to bear until they know that you know about their storm and that usually comes from asking questions and listening with care. Bring peace.
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Powerful daily sales advice in this email. I've been in direct professional sales for twenty-five years. It never hurts to be reminded that its not about me or my master plan and that I need to be about other people and the Master's plan. I'll put in a plug for the Moses Questioning CD's too. Great for developing strategic sales questioning plans but very applicable to helping those who are yuong in sales to figure out which direction is the right direction for them. Make it a great day...
Stephen at 7:52am EDT - August 24, 2006
This is an excellent piece of insight. I have been incorporating the Moses Questioning Strategy in my conversations with clients recently. And for sure, asking questions that uncover pain is certainly one of the most, if not the most, effective ways to get the opportunity to serve. I have always been of the mindset that I \"serve\" my clients, and I don't try to \"sale\" my clients. And asking the right pain revealing kinds of questions has afforded me the chance to see how I can serve better. My thrill or \"high\" comes from providing my clients with solutions to their problems, and having applied the questioning strategy, I have been on a real \"high\" lately. Thanks, Michael, for allowing God to distribute such insight through you!
Allen Davis at 8:53am EDT - August 24, 2006
Stephen & Allen;
Thank you both for weighing in on this topic today. Appreciate your comments about the Moses Questioning Strategy CD's as well. Learning not only to ask questions, but to ask the right ones has made all the difference in the world. All the best to you both!
Michael Pink at 8:59am EDT - August 24, 2006
Just found this site and read my first email from you and am very blessed already! I am a travel agent and can really see how this can help me give people a true vacation that can meet their needs the best way! I truly want my business to be one of servanthood, not \"sales\"
Heather Simpson at 6:29pm EDT - August 24, 2006