What's New

Without clear objectives that guide us to craft a plan or structure to our interview, it can easily become a wasted opportunity.
 
Our first objective in Discovery is Getting Selection Right
We need to commit to interviewing the client with the intent of understanding “what are they trying to achieve?” instead of just “what they're asking for?”. Not just “what are they asking about?” but “why are they asking about it?”. Be sure that we understand before moving forward to presenting a solution.
• What motivated them to ask for this now?

Many branches or individuals head into RSP season late and with no plan. They decide that they will get after it in late January when most of their clients start asking about RSP's and retirement planning. The successful individuals really start to prepare much sooner than that.

3 Things to Think About and Plan:

Establish goals.
We don't just mean result goals; also consider developing activity, or effort based goals. The clearer you are on what you have to accomplish, by when, the more likely it is to happen.

It seems that some questions are difficult to ask. They must be because we see people taking forever to develop that habit of asking their clients more detailed problem questions.
 
What are we trying to do?
Selling is not complicated. There are logical steps that we go through when we buy things:
 
1. We decide were not happy with our current state. Whatever it is we have, or do not have currently, we decide we are not satisfied with it. That dissatisfaction creates a “need”. 
 

order taking [awr-der tey-king]: to take an order; to do whatever the client tells you to do.  

If there was one thing that would make sales managers more successful it would be this: Sacrifice complexity for consistency; Adopt a "less is more" attitude and approach.

Results will be more evident when managers quit making sales coaching a "mile wide and an inch deep".

Do you agree with the statement that “people love to buy, but hate to be sold”?