Talk to your customers

Don’t talk about your customers, talk to your customers.

Don’t guess at their preferences, find out what they actually like and dislike.

Don’t ponder their decision criteria, get them to explain it to you.

There’s a gaping blind-spot in the B2B sales industry that I see everyday. This idea that we need to know, guess or assume information, rather than simply validating it with the people who actually have the answers … our customers and prospects.

My advice to sales professionals and sales leaders is to do the following:

• Take your customers down off the pedestal you’ve put them on
• Absolutely value their time, but value their intellect also
• Ask better questions and you’ll get better answers
• Bring them inside the tent more often, they may surprise you by how willing they are to share and how glad they are to be asked.

If enterprise sales is like a jigsaw puzzle, then a lot of sales professionals are trying to complete it upside down. Our customers and prospects can help us turn over the pieces, because guess what … they’re working on the same jigsaw too and we all want to see what the final picture looks like!

Cian McLoughlin is the Amazon #1 bestselling author of Rebirth of the Salesman, a regular keynote speaker at sales kick-off’s around the world and one of the Top 50 Sales bloggers in the world for the past 2 years. He is a passionate proponent of an ethical, honest and authentic approach to sales. His company, Trinity Perspectives, is committed to helping sales organizations unlock the latent potential of their customers’ insights with their Win Loss Analysis and Sales Transformation services. To read more of Cian’s sales articles visit www.trinityperspectives.com.au/blog