Do You Really Understand?

In sales, is there a more basic principle than listening to the client? And, yet, time, money and effort are wasted by ignoring the entire message and moving straight to the sales rep's agenda.

Which is a shame, because prospects usually know what they are looking for. Give them a chance and they will tell you.

Especially in B2B sales, the politics between evaluator and decision-maker are sensitive and must be accounted for. In the following example, Primary Intelligence interviewed a prospect to find out what happened in the deal. In this case, the sales rep didn't understand the deal:

Respondent: “Rapier Software was more interested, in my way of thinking, in selling a product than they were my needs. They were very elusive about a cost and then they wanted to meet with the city manager… So in order to sell us, they wanted to sell the payroll management, something for our risk management director and all sorts of things. It was really a total turn off. I was surprised the city manager didn’t get up and walk out. He was very glad that was the end our business with them.”

Primary Intelligence: “You rated Rapier a four (on a 1-10 scale) as far as understanding your business needs. What did they need to do to earn a higher rating or to show you their ability to understand your business needs?”

Respondent: “Well, I think it’s all the same thing. If they’re interested in my business needs, they need to focus on that and not the other departments. If they want my business, they need to give me what I need.”

You have been here before. What would you take away from this feedback? Was this the fault of the sales rep, or was this customer a poor fit from the start?

Let me know what you think.