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Other than talking about your technology, how can you truly differentiate yourself in the eyes of your prospects?

It turns out you can gain way more credibility through the questions you ask than the stories you tell.

Customers and prospects are so used to hearing glowing testimonials and reference stories in vendor presentations; they rarely make an impact anymore.

So how can you differentiate yourself?

It’s not your feeds and speeds, despite what your product marketing team tells you.

Start your next presentation by asking your prospect these four Simple questions.

Focus on Business Outcomes

• Ask your prospect what Business Outcomes they’re expecting from your solution.
• And before you start pitching again, ask them how much pain they’re experiencing by not achieving those business outcomes.
• Then, ask if they can articulate their pain in financial terms.
• Then finally, ask… if your product could deliver the Business Outcomes they’re expecting, is the financial impact significant enough to go ahead and spend money on solving the problem?

I know that’s a mouthful, but…

Compelling events created by financial impact and pain are way more likely to get customers to buy than time-stamped pricing offers or expiring maintenance and leasing renewals.

Customers have all sorts of problems in their businesses… They only spend money on solving problems that have a material impact!

How do you get customers to talk about the Business Outcomes they’re expecting?

Try asking them!

And then ask them again.

You’ll gain way more credibility by asking your customer about the Business Outcomes they’re trying to achieve than you will by telling another reference story about someone else’s business.

Customers don’t care what you know unless they know that you care!

A great way to show you care about your prospect’s business is to stop pitching feeds and speeds and instead focus on the Business Outcomes your customer or prospect is trying to achieve.

Try it

And see if you don’t get a completely different reaction from your prospect. One that truly differentiates you from the competition and helps you stand out!

• See you next week when I ask: In a complex sales campaign you’re currently running… Who is the primary competitor, and what is their strategy to beat you? 

See you next Saturday.

Great Selling – Jeff@SalesLeadersOnly.com­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­