The title of this blog is one of the most profound statements I’ve ever heard in relation to winning business.
It came from a speaker at a procurement conference I attended recently. A senior procurement executive told the audience of would-be suppliers that he and his fellow procurement professionals knew all the sales tactics that suppliers use on them. “These days,” he said, “it’s all about ‘understanding the customer’. You use various questioning techniques to get insight into our real needs and wants.” What he said next really made me think:
“As buyers, you need to know that we choose who we allow to understand us.”
Buyers can see through sales ‘techniques’
In conversation after the conference he elaborated on his comments. He explained that he and his fellow buyers know 
that the better sales people are taught to show interest and get to understand the customer. It is always obvious to them when this isn’t genuine interest, just a technique used to get a sale.
He could see through salespeople who only asked questions to uncover the ‘hot buttons’ which they then pounced on to sell their solution. Just like Tigger pouncing on an unsuspecting Winnie the Pooh in the cartoon, these sellers showed interest in the customer until they have enough information to do what I refer to as ‘the sales pounce‘.
Going through the motions won’t work
The dynamics of modern business development meetings are complex. It’s not enough anymore to go through the motions and only show interest long enough to find the buying signals.
“We can all tell when someone else isn’t really listening to us; we can tell when someone is on their own agenda, not ours. We feel misled.”
Unless buyers see genuine interest they will withhold vital information. When buyers feel misled they keep back the insights that would make it easier to motivate them to buy and easier to propose exactly the right solution. Remember, we choose who we allow to understand us.
You didn’t lose that sale on price
The most frequent reason I hear for a sale being lost is ‘price’. When I ask the same people how they won their best customers I get a long list of reasons which includes things like ‘the chemistry being right’, ‘getting a total understanding’ and ‘arriving at a fantastic solution at a price that both parties were happy with’.
All too often price gets blamed for the loss of a sale when in fact it was poor business development/sales practice that meant the customer was less than motivated to reveal the full picture. They revealed the full picture to someone who genuinely cared. That person won the business.
Make sure you are the one who the customer allows to understand them.
David Tovey
David Tovey is a professional speaker, coach and author of 'Principled Selling' published by Kogan Page.
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Those who use robotic sales techniques tend to be quite obvious and often repeat things because they are following a process and forget where they are in the process. It is not necessarily the process that is flawed but the sales person focusing on the end result and not the relationship building process as part of the meeting, not helping the buyer to talk more and story tell to create the right buying signals that in turn the helps the sales person create conversation about the solution and thus create the right motivating behaviour to buy.
Thank you for your comment Raj. I agree with what you say about following a process and focusing too much on the end result. Sometimes a little care has to be taken about listening for ‘buying signals’ as there can be a risk that a sales person will pounce on what looks like an opportunity too early. When a conversation is created where the sales person asks the right questions AND listens fully to the answers then ,as you say, it creates the right motivating behaviours.
David
David, I really enjoyed reading this short article and, as a very experienced sales leader ( from rookie sales through to UK sales director), I absolutely concur with your views. The tigger cartoon resonates – I’ve seen far too many over enthusiastic sales folks ‘jump’ at the first sign of a ‘buying signal’, rather than take their time to really listen to what the person at the other end of the conversation is actually trying to share. Thanks for raising the issue – hopefully people will think more about quality listening!
Thank you – appreciate the positive comment. Sadly some jump at what looks like a buying signal and miss the real opportunity.
Keep spreading the word!
Beste regards
David
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