When I was a broker at Merrill Lynch in the late ’70s and early ’80s, I was trained to sell stocks using classic cold-calling techniques. My colleagues and clients were tough and fast-moving and wanted only answers. Quickly. I had to know my product and have my sales skills down pat. Smile and dial. Come in with a great opening. Wow them with sexy stocks and great numbers. Be clever and charming, and let the buyer think he was calling the shots. My opening line was “Hi, Mr. Jones. I’m Sharon Drew Morgen with Merrill Lynch, and I’m a broker. I’d like to take three and a half minutes of your time to tell you about a stock that’s going to go up in the next week. Do you want to make some money?”
I was very successful. But times have changed, and this classic sales method is no longer efficient. Today, thanks to technology, prospects can get product and service information at any time — from anywhere in the world. That means they’re not dependent on salespeople for their intelligence.
Quite by accident, I stumbled across a new sales methodology that supports our changing times. I call it Buying Facilitation, and, in a nutshell, it’s based not on “making a sale,” in the traditional sense, but on helping the prospect to buy — and as you’ll see, there’s a big difference.
The concept sprang to life, still unformed, in 1984. I was living in Europe at the time, working in sales management for an international computer-services company. My husband, Ben, was in a highly technical field job at the same company. Rather quickly I discovered that the position I’d taken was wrong for me. I offered to resign, but the company encouraged me to create my own job rather than have me leave and take their new technical guru (Ben) with me.
The idea for the new position came from Ben. He had been complaining regularly that there was a growing need for training in something called fourth-generation languages (4GL). Sounds exotic, I know, but it was essentially a new capability for users to create their own reports from their data. Wherever there is a need, there is money to be made. I resolved to generate sales in this area, but if the truth be told, I didn’t fully understand the intricacies of the very technical service I’d be offering. Try as he might, Ben — with his overdeveloped left brain — couldn’t make me grasp the concept fully. That meant I would be hamstrung, unable to pitch product, probe for needs, or close using the closing techniques I’d been taught.
All I could do was support the prospect in discovering his own needs.
And that was how I made my breakthrough.
My first cold call was to Jim, a tech-division head at a major financial-services company. After introducing myself and confirming that he had time to talk, I said, “I’m starting up a computer-support-services unit working with fourth-generation languages. Do you deal with that in your job?”
“I try to,” he responded.
Obviously, there was no way I could come across as an expert. So I didn’t even try: “You’re my first call, actually. I’m putting together a group of services that will support you in the 4GL environment.” (I wasn’t really saying anything here. Maybe he would understand this vague description.) “Would you mind if I asked you some questions to see whether we’re in the same arena?”
I was hoping to get an understanding of what a 4GL environment looked like, maybe get a sense of what might be missing, and maybe get clever and come up with something to sell him.
“I’d be glad if you did,” he said.
I have to admit I felt seriously stupid. Through most of the subsequent conversation I had to struggle to keep up, using the information he was giving me as we went along to formulate the next questions. But that turned into an advantage. Instead of “selling” Jim, I was forced to come up with questions that led him through a decision-making process. He — not I — was attempting to discover what was missing in relation to what he had in place. During my questioning I noticed he became really thoughtful at certain points and seemed to be looking at his culture through new eyes, playing with possibilities he hadn’t thought of before, perceiving unsolved problems along the way.
As we continued to talk, he realized he could use some additional technical support. I questioned him further, hoping to have him discover that he could get the support in-house, since I didn’t understand my product well enough to make a definitive pitch. By the end of the conversation he had decided that he probably didn’t need me just yet. He could solve his problem with in-house help.
I hung up in shock. No, I hadn’t made a sale. But by taking Jim through a process that helped him find his own answers, those that worked best for him, I had made an ally. And the first thing my new ally did for me was give me more names to call.
As I called more prospects, I used the same method of questioning, and I began picking up clients. Business began to grow. Even Jim eventually placed a $150,000 order when the solution he had sought in-house turned out to be unavailable; he came to me, remembering the questioning process I’d led him through.
As I became busier, I got smarter. I began to know what people wanted. I wasn’t “stupid” anymore, and I began to revert to the old sales techniques of years past. “Oh, I could do that for you,” I’d say. Or, “Here’s what you need.” Or, “Don’t you think you should be looking at this type of solution?”
An interesting thing happened. Business started falling off. I couldn’t imagine why. I finally knew my product, know how to position it, and knew how to control the conversation so that I could convince my prospect that what I had and what he needed matched.
After some serious soul-searching, I went back to being stupid, to asking questions that helped prospective buyers have their needs met. Within four years, business had grown to $5 million in revenue.
As time went on, I refined the technique. What I’ve discovered is that buyers require that three things happen before they decide to make a purchase: they need information; they need to navigate their own, unique decision-making process; and they need to discover a solution based on their values. Unlike sales as we’ve known it, this method is based on the tenets that (1) the buyer has the answers, while the seller has the questions; (2) people buy using only their unique buying patterns, not a seller’s; and (3) people buy only when they cannot find their own solution.
Each sales method has been the right one for its time in history. We are in a new age, and it’s time for a change — to add what I call “pull” to the equation. Buying Facilitation: lets the seller lead prospects through a questioning process that supports them in finding solutions and making decisions in line with their values, instead of launching into a fact-filled pitch about a product or service. When we become true partners with the customers, supporting them in using their own buying patterns as distinct from our need to sell, they’ll recognize the time, budget, staffing, and political issues they need to address in order to buy. This shortens the selling cycle dramatically and saves us time and effort in trying to make a sale. We bring them to us, rather than the other way around.
By assuming that customers already have their own answers and supporting them in making the best decision possible — using their criteria, not yours — you’ll gain not only new business but a loyal client base over time. And, best of all, you’ll never have to “sell” anything again. All you’ll have to do is find buyers.
* Originally published in Success magazine, Op Ed, Sales Issue, October 1998
Click here to sign up for FREE B2B newsletters from Murdok!
Should you wish to learn more about this, go to www.buyingfacilitation.com and purchase my ebook Buying Facilitation: the new way to sell that expands and influences decisions
