by Tim Roberts
True story. I’m in the dentist chair. It’s root canal time. Palms sweaty, nervous smile. The doctor allegedly numbs me up. I don’t feel so numbed up so I say, “Doc, I don’t feel numb enough. I feel like I still feel the nerve.” Doc says, “You’re numb. I got the nerve. You’re just nervous.” I heard, “Shut up. You’re a wuss.”
He starts to jiggle instruments around my gum and every cell in my body screams, “Danger Will Robinson!" I say to the doctor again, “Doc, I don’t feel numb. Are you SURE this won’t hurt?” “Sit still, Timbo, you’re being wimpy.”
The cold steel strikes raw, exposed nerve. I slip into a coma (not really, for effect). The pain is excruciating. I never, ever, ever want anything on God’s green earth to touch a tooth nerve again. Ever.
Why didn’t I defend my pain when I was so sure it was present?
Have you ever thought about making prospects defend their pain? How many times did you uncover their problem, present a solution, and then they didn’t act on it or worse, chose someone else? How many times have you misdiagnosed a prospect’s pain?
Today, doctors are terrified of medical malpractice and must pay astronomical sums for malpractice insurance. They must be sure their diagnosis is spot on.
Why shouldn’t salespeople have to do the same? On your next call, do something different. Deny the prospect’s pain. Make him defend where it hurts. Ask a ton of questions and make him prove to you that he has a problem and he wants it to go away. If the prospective client doesn’t want it to go away bad enough, why should you put a proposal together?
I’ll promise you something: If you can get prospects to defend their problems, you’ll see their commitment to taking action skyrocket. You’ll also note that they’ll want you to fix it and at your price.
Slow down your desire to close the deal. Make them swear the pain is real.
At Sandler Training, Trustpointe, we help our clients eliminate sales malpractice. To learn more about extracting a prospect’s commitment, contact Tim Roberts at tim@thetrustpointe.com or 317.845.0041.
Root canal, smoot canal. I ain’t afraid.
