Imagine you walk into a room meeting a salesperson…
The salesperson asks you a few questions. Use tools to diagnose your problems.
Then give you a solution. You’ve no objections and make payment.
You did not ask for any discount. Nor negotiate for a better deal.
You just pay and leave.
Is that even possible?
Yes! It happened many times before. And guess who are the best salespeople in the world?
Doctors!
Think about it…. Have you ever negotiated a better deal with a doctor? Or ask for a discount? You just pay and you leave. So why is that happening?
This is simply because you’re in pain, the doctor diagnoses before prescribing a solution. You made payment for the medicine and the doctor now made a new sale.
The inconvenient truth is… Most salespeople are only focused on selling features, and benefits and creating promotions. Selling a product or a service t someone you’re not entirely sure needs it. And it’s no wonder prospects say, “I’ll think about it.”
So, how can you move from product-selling to consultative selling?
1) Stop Being A Problem Solver And Start Being A Problem Finder
Your role as a salesperson should move from being a problem solver to becoming a problem finder. That’s why doctors are using different tools to diagnose where the problem is. Whether it’s B2C or B2B, customer pain points are important. And your job in the sales meeting is to ask the right questions to find the most crucial problems.
2) 4 Types of Pain Points
Customer pain points are as diverse as any other problems; while they are often unique to the prospect – they usually fall into these 4 categories:
- Process – this indicates issues with systems and processes for better productivity and performance.
- Productivity – this indicates issues dealing with comfort and convenience.
- Support – this indicates issues with dealing with customer support after the sale is done.
- Financial – this indicates issues with the price.
At the end of the day, customers do not care how much you know until they know how much you care. The reason it seems that price is all your customers care about is that you haven’t given them anything else to care about.
In the medical world, I’ve learned one phrase that I’ve used in sales and helped me and my team to generate lots of sales: Prescription before the diagnosis is malpractice.
Hope this short post helps you to sell like a doctor!
Jonathan Quek