Knowing the difference can help you optimize the future sale of your company
Ask yourself this question about your sales team – when they are speaking with existing and potential customers, are they being interesting or interested? A sales rep trying to be interesting is in sales mode, jumping into conveying what your company has to offer its customer. A sales rep trying to be interested is in listening mode as they ask questions to first understand the customer wants and desires. The most successful sales reps start by being interested and then know when to move to being interesting.
As we help clients prepare for their future euphoric exit event, a common step we take is to help build the capability of the sales team. Doing so very often increases profitable revenues which in turn helps build the long-term net worth of the business. It’s common for us to find that sales personnel are in a comfort zone, almost robotic in explaining what their company does and even how their company is different before ever first looking to listen to understand the true customer needs. The bridge they are missing is first understanding what the customer is looking for in effective detail and then bridging their need to how the company can best meet that need.
Meet with your sales leader and ask the following questions:
- What questions do our salespeople ask when meeting with an existing customer to determine if the customer needs or wants are changing? Don’t assume a customer need or want never changes.
- When meeting with a potential customer, what questions are our salespeople asking to ensure we truly understand their needs and wants? How are we determining if this potential customer could be a good fit with our business? Don’t assume all customers are good customers.
- Are our salespeople asking open-ended questions so we can listen to first understand their needs or are we asking close-ended questions that only elicit a yes or no answer so we don’t learn very much?
- Have we given our salespeople the profile of the type of customer we want to do business with….and those we do not?
- Once our salespeople are interested and learn truly what a customer is looking for, what is the sales pitch they then give to be interesting? Is the pitch conveying why your company is unique or is it a sales pitch any competitor could also be giving?
The bottom line here is understanding the difference between your sales team being interested versus interesting can be meaningful to your long-term profitable sales growth. Don’t assume, meet with your sales leader and members of your sales team and assess whether they are striking the right balance of interested and interesting. If too much interesting and too little interested, with some subtle changes you could meaningfully stimulate the growth trajectory of your company and enable your future euphoric exit.
