The Sales Question Your Prospects Will Never Ask

There’s one sales question that your prospects will never ask you. And, the fact that you’ll never be asked this question, should cause you to stop and think about the type of salesperson you need to be, or the type of salespeople that you need on your team.A few years ago I was experiencing episodes of irregular heartbeats, so I decided to consult a physician. The question was should I go see my family doctor or a cardiologist?The decision was a no-brainer. I respected my regular family doctor but I consulted with a cardiologist because he had treated hundreds, if not thousands, of patients with a problem similar to mine. He had the experience to hone in on the discovery questions that enabled him to quickly and accurately diagnose and treat my condition.Now let’s look at the choice of a specialist vs. generalist in the context of selling. Which type of sales person is best suited to help your prospects quickly gather the information they need to make informed purchase decisions with the least investment of their own resources? Or, which qualities in a sales person do you believe can better help your prospects address their pain points? A specialist or generalist?Research shows that customers increasingly want to make faster purchase decisions.In some cases up to 40% faster. Companies are coming to the realization that the capability to make good decisions quickly provides a competitive advantage for them. If they can spend less time evaluating their options in making a purchase decision and realize the value from the decision they made more quickly (reduce time to market for new products, increase sales productivity, boost profitability and so on) then they can gain an edge in the market over their competitors.Gartner Group published a study in 2013 that showed IT buyers preferred dealing with people with specialized knowledge vs. salespeople by more than a 2 to 1 margin. The respondents wanted to quickly gather the information to make sound decisions and their experience was that salespeople were less likely to be able help them achieve that goal.Increasingly, customers need salespeople with specialized knowledge, experience and expertise who can help them move from “Interest" to “Decision" as fast as possible. Customers are making the judgment that salespeople without specialized knowledge are roadblocks and not resources that can help them succeed.What type of salesperson does your prospect need you to be?Your prospects need you to be a curious, analytical, problem-solver with developed expertise and experience in your product or their industry.But as I look at the job descriptions for open sales positions at clients and on job boards the qualifications that are listed still tend to be these increasingly valueless “heroic" qualities: hunter, closer, extrovert, aggressive. None of these supposed sales virtues speak to the needs of the customer to be able to gather the information they need to make informed purchase decisions faster and at a low cost.When I work with companies to help them develop the processes to hire the right salespeople who can help them to consistently accelerate their sales, I invariably get push-back from the CEO, CSO or VP of Sales who are adamant that curious, analytical, problem-solvers don’t have the "sales personality" or the “sales DNA” to win orders from customers. In short, they believe that specialists are just not “salesy” enough.The one question you'll never be askedWhich brings us back to the one sales question a prospect will never ask you.If you're a salesperson, a prospect will never ask you "Could you be more "salesy?" We need you to be more salesy to help us make our decision about your product."Or, if you're a manager, a prospect will never call you and ask: “Could you please assign a salesperson to my account who is more “salesy?” Your current rep, John, just isn't salesy enough to help us quickly gather the information we need to make the decision to purchase your product."I guarantee you that is one question you will never be asked.Your prospects need your assistance to help them make good decisions faster. Now would be a very good time to assess the knowledge and expertise you need to learn to stay relevant to your buyers.