LOGJAMMED LOGIC
There is a fundamental error in the rationale offered by most schools
of selling. Figure 21.1 illustrates the common logic that sales professionals
learn.
Sales presenters typically go into the following logic pattern.•A = Aska few questions to get to know the client.
•B = Talk about why people buytheir product(s).
•C = Begin to make closingstatements.
•D = Ask for a decision.After the first two steps of asking a couple of cursory questions and
offering reasons to buy, a strange psychological phenomenon begins tak-
ing place. The customer begins to raise a wall of objections. Why would a
potential customer be objecting? Possibly because you have not yet un-
covered or addressed their emotional reasons for needing or wanting your
product.
There is a chance that they do not need or want your product, and you
are just assuming they do. Whatever the case may be, this wall of objections
is emotional in nature and cannot be circumvented with closing logic. The
error is in not doing more discovery work up front to discover their emo-
tional motives for the purchase. We have failed to dig below the surface.
The client’s emotional agenda is theissue. It does not matter how brilliant
your company or your product features might be, because if you are not
meeting their emotional agenda, you are wasting your breath. It is foolish
to present a single fact without the assurance that you understand their
emotional agenda regarding your product or service.
Resist the temptation to promote your product, until you have asked
enough questions to understand the emotional agenda that will lead to a
decision. As illustrated in the case with the two insurance agents, the one
Emotional Archeology / Mastering the Art of the Irresistible Question 187FIGURE 21.1Linear Sales Process
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A B C D