by Tim Roberts
It's true--two brains are better than one, especially in the whacky world of sales.
A customer of mine recently expressed frustration with a member of his sales team. He laughed and said, "My guy's brain must've shut down." A prospective buyer had simply said to this salesperson, "We'd like to switch from our current supplier over to you." Now, in fairness, the salesperson didn't do backflips or jump for joy, but he did go about the business of planning the proposal. "This is going to be big," he thought, "So I better marshal all of our troops and resources together for maximum bang.” And he thought, "Everybody's gonna love me.”
Upon hearing the commotion of the sales-pitch planning, my customer chose to inspect what he expected. He began with the frontline questioning of his salesperson, asking specifics about why, when and how many. The red, uncertain sales face sitting across from him suggested no further questions would be necessary.
Of course, we know this story ends in an unholy fashion: no order, no switching, no commission, no respect.
A dangerous feature within the workings of our powerful yet vulnerable brain is a hijacking, fact-robbing, primitive emotional center (the amygdala) that is wired to hear candy and cake. The electrical and chemical discharges within this brain's core shouts, "New car!" or "Bills paid!" or "Hawaii, here we come!" and rapidly disengages us from the questioning process. It fails to notify another area of the brain (the prefrontal cortex) to slow down and consider a modicum of sales due diligence.
We hear what we want to hear. At Sandler Training, Trustpointe, we teach salespeople, managers and company owners that two brains are better than one. To learn more about thought-process control, questioning techniques, and avoiding mutual mystification, contact Tim Roberts at 317.845.0041 or tim@thetrustpointe.com.
This brain ain't bound for glory, this brain...
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