Than The Stories You Tell

I'm sure you'll agree that establishing credibility is one of the most critical elements in securing a new client. The client must see you as a credible and trustworthy resource.

Often, when I ask people to describe the elements of credibility, I hear things such as:

• A proven track record
• A list of satisfied clients
• Number of years in business
• Financial strength
• Business size

And the list goes on. My next question to these people is: "How do you establish that credibility or convey that credibility to a prospective client?" Invariably, the response is, "We tell them."

Now for the sobering question, "How different are your two best competitors' credibility stories from your own company's credibility story?" Unfortunately, other than a few minor elements, they are likely to sound quite similar. Thus, telling the credibility story suggests you and your competitors are more equal than you are different.

This type of credibility is what we refer to as "expected credibility." In other words, people expect you wouldn't be in business if you couldn't provide the above credibility story. They really see it as table stakes.

To truly set you and your company apart, you need to develop "exceptional credibility" with your prospect. Expected credibility is what you know about your business and your solution. Exceptional credibility is what you know about your prospect, their individual job responsibilities, their business objectives, performance and challenges.

The best way to develop this exceptional credibility is through diligent preparation and by asking thought-provoking questions. Unfortunately, most business developers prepare very little, ask too few questions, and seldom reach the level of asking thought-provoking questions required to create exceptional credibility.

What’s Wrong With Needs Analysis

Let's look at the traditional approach in which most business developers start, the needs analysis. It's a fine concept. The trouble is that most of the questions are rarely taken beyond the most superficial level.

Consider this example of a sales training firm using the needs analysis process:

• Qualification: "Do you currently use in-house business developers to bring in and close new business for your firm?" If yes, they are qualified, go on to Needs Analysis.
• Needs Analysis: "Are your business developers performing at the level in which is necessary to support the growth goals of your firm?"  If no, they have a need, go on to Presentation.
• Presentation: "Let me show you the advanced sales training process we have developed and how it will increase the productivity of your business developers and make them more effective in selling." If customer seems interested, go on to the Close.
• Close: "Let's set a date for the training to kick-off."

While this example is exaggerated, the emphasis on presenting the solution as fast as possible leaves little time to understand the unique nature of the client’s situation. In fact, the standard approach assumes the customer has completed some sort of self-diagnosis and therefore they will be able to connect your solution to their problem.

Asking The Right Level Of Questions

We all ask questions during the sales process. But, what type of questions are you asking? Are you asking insightful questions to help the client better understand the problem and how your solution can help them? Are you establishing exceptional credibility?

To better understand how to use questions to establish exceptional credibility, consider these three levels of questions.

1. Level one questions consist of the personal questions about the demographics of the client. Often business developers ask questions to discover personal facts about clients, and use those facts to tell stories and "relate." Nothing is wrong with level one questions, unless that's as far as the conversation goes and the engagement doesn't proceed.

2. Level two questions are "opinion" type questions. These questions are designed to collect information from the client about their problem and the solution they are looking for.

These questions include:

1.      What are your concerns regarding...? 

2.      What's keeping you awake at night?

3.      How would you like to measure the solution success?

These are the standard questions to gather the client's view and opinion about their problem, what they think the solution should be, how and when they will be making their decision and, of course, how much money they are planning to invest.

These are questions that the client already knows the answer to and do not expand the client’s knowledge of their problem, their view of the solution, or your credibility.

These are good questions, far better than level one, but very limiting if you stop here and even more limiting if you assume the client’s opinions represent a complete understanding of their own situation and the optimum solution.

3. Level three questions expand the customer's understanding of the problem and the optimal way to solve it. These questions are will allow you to build exceptional credibility. Consider this example:

Anyone with a healthy net worth knows that it is foolish to write his or her own will. While you may be able to enumerate the goals you want to reach, you would be doing yourself a great disservice to dictate every clause of the will to a lawyer.

Rather, you retain an expert in estate law, let him know your objectives and financial situation, and trust that this professional will ask additional important questions you haven't considered and the end result will be a well crafted and well thought out plan. You would be comfortable that you are being served by a highly credible resource.

Show your expertise and industry knowledge during the sales process by asking questions that help the client better understand the problem and how it affects their business. You already know what these questions are. Often, they are the questions you engage with your clients during the client engagement kick-off (or "getting started meeting").

Get to these questions in the sales conversation. They will demonstrate that you know a think or two about their business and the industry they are in and it will help you stand out from the crowd who is left asking level one and two questions.

Getting To Level Three Questions

All too often, we get stuck in levels one and two questioning, and we not only let customers diagnose their own problems, we actually encourage them to do it by asking them to report it through these "opinion level" questions.

To move the diagnostic process toward revealing and clarifying the problem, you need to drill deeper with third level questions, questions about observations. These questions will require a bit more research on the business developers part to understand what is going on in the industry and how that is affecting the client, they will also require more listening on the business developers part to ask observational questions as they relate to the conversation at hand.

While the opinion question generates an answer that more often than not provides a "we're satisfied" type answer, the observation question allows you, the professional, to access the facts that are relevant to a complete diagnosis. And you'll notice that these questions will not only take the conversation in a totally different direction they will help you differentiate yourself and be not so similar to those competitors who are stuck in level one and two questioning.

The goal is to let your questions help you establish exceptional credibility and become a problem solver for your clients (isn’t this what you do when you deliver your services anyway?). This level of engagement guides clients through making quality business decisions and, as a result, you will win more sales!