Sales Training Article:

The Quest for Clarity

by Skip Anderson

Selling to Consumers

www.SellingtoConsumers.com

There is a direct link between achieving clarity with prospects and achieving top sales performance. Let's define clarity as "accurate mutual understanding between the prospect and the salesperson."

The Need for Clarity
Wildly successful salespeople understand the need for clarity with their prospects on issues large and small. Anxiety envelopes top-performing salespeople at the slightest hint of a lack of clarity with their prospect. High performers understand that lack of clarity leads to decreased closing rates, wasted time, misunderstanding, and disappointed customers. Consequently, they constantly and actively look for evidence of the presence of low clarity during a sales interaction with their prospect.

In contrast, low-performing salespeople do not experience this anxiety. Because of low perceptiveness (perceptiveness is a trait of top sales performers), these salespeople are less likely to be aware of low clarity situations.

Clarity in the Needs and Desires Investigation
The purpose of the needs and desires investigation is to identify prospect needs and desires so the salesperson can present product or service solutions that will meet those needs and desires. But if the salesperson's understanding of these needs isn't perfectly congruent with the prospect's understanding of his own needs, sales activity will be ineffective. 

Six Ways To Increase Clarity with Your Prospects
Our sales training programs teach six strategies to increase clarity during needs and desires investigations:

1. Don't jump to conclusions. Jumping to conclusions is a common behavior among low-performing salespeople. If you work in a retail sales environment selling appliances, and a prospect asks you, "What do you think of flat ceramic cooktops?" don't conclude that the prospect is interested in selecting a flat ceramic cooktop (they may or may not be considering this product). Instead, give a brief answer, and then ask if the prospect is considering a flat ceramic cooktop. 

2. Listen without bias. Pure listening leads to clarity, while biased listening leads the sales process astray. Wildly successful salespeople have developed the ability to listen to their prospects while reducing or eliminating their own personal bias.

3. Listen not only to what the prospect is saying, but also to what she is not saying. If you've just presented your prospect with your recommendation of which perennials should be included in her landscaping project, and you find that the prospect is staring at you in silence with a blank look on her face, you should conclude that the prospect may not be on board with your recommendation! Listening for what's missing helps open the clarity gateway. Low-performing salespeople often miss what's missing.

4. Check for mutual understanding. One of the most powerful tools of wildly successful salespeople is that they constantly check for clarity using closed questions (questions that can be answered with a yes or no, or multiple-choice questions). Here's an example: "You want your new closet to hold not only the clothes that are in here now, but also the clothes that are in your guest bedroom closet - do I have that right?" Successful salespeople are not surprised when new or contrary information presents itself when this sales technique is utilized, because they've learned that they often haven't had complete information in the past, which led to inaccurate conclusions.

5. Use a one-to-ten scale. Asking your prospect, "On a scale of one to ten, with ten being the highest, how well does this dining table match what you are looking for?" will help you achieve clarity about your prospect's point-of-view. If your prospect answers nine or ten, you are likely on the right track. If he answers anything less than nine, you should ask, "What would make this a ten?" and continue the needs and desires investigation.

6. Write it down. When a needs and desires discussion is complete, write down the needs that have been identified in order of importance. Ask the prospect to review the list. Then ask the prospect if she thinks the list is accurate and in the accurate order of importance. Finally, ask the prospect if he believes that anything should be added or removed from the list.

Clarity leads to increased sales performance and increased customer satisfaction.

Skip Anderson is a recognized expert on consumer selling. He is the founder of Selling to Consumers, a sales training and consulting firm in Minneapolis. Get the Selling to Consumers newsletter at www.SellingToConsumers.com.

This article here may be distributed or reproduced as long as an attribution to Selling to Consumers and Skip Anderson are included, along with either a link to this web page www.SellingtoConsumers .com (if in electronic form) or a statement including the web page URL (if in print).

► Subscribe to the free Selling to Consumers Sales Tips Newsletter.

◄ Back to Free Resources