Can you guess what the most common complaint about sales people is, from both customers and sales managers alike?
It’s this; sales people simply talk too much. And since many of us do indeed talk too much, what do you think the second most frequent complaint we hear about sales people would be? It’s this; we don’t listen. In light of the first, this second complaint seems logical, doesn’t it?
One simple way to combat both of these short comings is to integrate the Socratic Selling Method into our transactions. No, this isn’t some new, wiz-bang, 21st century revolution to the selling profession. As a matter of fact, we can trace its origins all the way back to 400 B.C.! That’s when Socrates, the soldier and famous philosopher from Athens, first introduced the art of collaborative debate or asking easily answered questions to help someone come to a logical conclusion. I like to call it the art of letting the other guy have your way.
Most of us learned early on in our selling careers that the person asking the questions has control. It’s just that most of us only take the time to learn questions that help us land the customer on a particular unit (one that is in stock, of course) and close the deal. These are questions that our customers perceive as only serving us, not them. With Socratic questioning, each question draws us and our customer closer. WE get a better understanding of how best to serve our customer. THEY get a feeling of being valued and understood. WE BOTH join our strengths in a collaborative effort to satisfy their transportation needs. The result is a less stressful, much less combative, and much shorter (time wise) transaction.
Here’s what’s involved;
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