Questions or insights?

10th September 2019 |   Journal Of Sales Transformation

Context is important in sales meetings. Successful approaches vary according to the level and function of the executive you are speaking to and how far along the buying journey they may be.

Writing in Harvard Business Review, Journal contributor Dr Frank Cespedes and Tracy DeCicco warn of the negative consequences of choosing the wrong sales approach for the circumstances, such as asking too many discovery questions of a senior-level executive who is in fact looking for strategic insights.

Research indicates that successful meetings with an SVP-level buyer or higher average around four questions while unsuccessful meetings average eight. For meetings at lower levels, however, successful sales calls average 11-14 questions.

The authors attribute this to lower-level managers being gatekeepers whose role is to vet vendors and their products. “Senior-level managers, on the other hand, focus on business issues, which makes them more receptive to insights,” the authors suggest.

Equally, in early-stage meetings with a senior buyer or influencer, it’s typically important to explain how your product relates to key market trends, opportunities and challenges. However, in later stages of the cycle, senior leaders may be seeking to understand how you can uniquely frame and implement a solution for their organisation.

Equally, in early-stage meetings with a senior buyer or influencer, it’s typically important to explain how your product relates to key market trends, opportunities and challenges. However, in later stages of the cycle, senior leaders may be seeking to understand how you can uniquely frame and implement a solution for their organisation.

At the same time, buyers are often keen to understand how a salesperson will follow through at the implementation stage of a project and will frequently judge that salesperson on their ability to marshal the vendor’s resources.

“Why ‘Tell Them Something They Don’t Know’ Is Bad Advice in B2B Sales”, Harvard Business Review, 19 August 2019.