Going with your Gut The best sales people I know are really good at reading customers. They seem to know just when to close, they know the right questions to ask, which buttons to press and when to cut their losses and move on.
When I ask them how they know what to do, they often cannot explain. "I just know" "It just felt right".
My guess is that these sales people have highly developed intuition, a sixth sense, a "gut" feeling, that is not bound by the laws of social science. Intuition is not rational, i.e. it cannot be explained by logic or common sense; it just appears and exists.
Example; You meeting with a prospect and all indications are that the meeting is going nowhere. The prospect´s body language is defensive; she is sharing very little information and asking few questions. Suddenly you get the sense that there is something very big going on in the company, something that the prospect is confused or worried about, or maybe not even aware of. The meeting progresses and the intuition gets stronger. So you ask her quite simply, "Is there something big going on here that I should know about?"
She answers, "Funny you should ask that. I´ve been picking up some weird vibes myself lately, but I don´t know what they are about".
Next day, the prospect´s company announces that a competitor is acquiring them.
Neither is intuition a feeling, though we very often refer to it as a "gut" feeling. Feelings can have a powerful effect on our perceptions and behavior. I might feel excited about a prospect because he said something positive about my product. The reality might be that he has no budget for it, and in any case is not the decision-maker. My positive feelings may be so strong that I waste an awful lot of time pursuing what is in fact an unqualified lead. At the same time, my intuition might be saying "Forget it" and my rational thoughts might be "You have to ask a lot more questions before you can conclude whether this guy is qualified."
And let´s dispel the stereotype that women have it and men don´t. I believe that we are all born with intuition, but perhaps our culture accepts it in women and is suspicious of it in men. As a sales trainer, naturally I´m intrigued by intuition and have tried to figure out how to develop it in learners. Personally, it developed slowly in me, and it is definitely not yet finished. The key is to trust it. In interactions with customers, or anyone else for that matter, I strive to become aware of my intuition about a customer. This not easy, because it goes against a very well developed rational brain that has had the upper hand for a very long time. I try to respect my intuition, sit with it, and talk about it with someone I trust. It is not an either/or situation; the challenge is to allow rational thought and intuition to co-exist, especially when they are contradictory and confusing. At a certain point, my intuition and the rational thoughts come together. I cannot hurry this process. If I allow it to take place at its own pace, the correct "read" and the right course of action becomes clear to me.
How to Read Customers - To learn more about this author, visit John Brennan's Website.
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John Brennan
(Visit John's Website)
John Brennan Ed.D.
Dr. Brennan is President of Interpersonal
Development, LLC, a training and
development firm. Interpersonal
Development has provided sales training
and coaching to more than 3,000 sales reps
from over 100 companies.
A native of Australia, Dr. Brennan
received his doctorate from the University
of Rochester. His dissertation researched
the effectiveness of Behavioral Modeling
Technology in training people in
interpersonal skills. While he has spent
most of his career designing or delivering
training, he was also a Vice-President of
Sales of a training and development
franchise with operations in 25 markets.
Dr. Brennan has designed and delivered
sales training in North America, Asia,
Europe, Australia and the Middle East. He
has been a guest speaker at numerous
national and regional professional
conferences.
When Microsoft wanted Best Practices
articles on sales for their web site, they
called Dr. Brennan. The results are at office.microsoft.com/e
n-us/FX011387391033.aspx
His firm’s clients have included Volvo,
The Prudential, Merrill Lynch, Eastman
Kodak, Gannett, Equifax Europe, the
Economist Group and countless small
businesses.
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