|
Hello
At a conference I attended last week, I sat through a sales presentation by a pretty reputable company delivered by a seemingly seasoned sales professional. After viewing a brief video overview of the company and its products, the sales guy asked me this question: 'What keeps you up at night?'.
Now, I know that this question is one that many of us have been taught to ask as a means of learning enough about a prospect to connect product benefits to pain points. But, in truth, this question has always been a pet peeve of mine.
As I see it, there are three ways to respond to that question:
- I could actually tell the truth about what kinds of things keep me up at night. But unless the person asking is credentialed to prescribe Xanax, it would be quickly obvious that the asker is way out of his or her element.
- I could respond with the obvious and rather scripted answer, which would include generic things like: Revenue, continued relevance, good health, etc. ...All of which will reveal nothing of any real value to the asker, but will keep the sales pitch going.
- I could use this as a coaching moment to help this person 'up their game'.
Last week, I chose Number 3 by responding this way:
"You're asking the wrong question. What you should want to know from me is
'what gets me out of bed in the morning?'.
If I tell you what keeps me up at night, you'll gain insight into my fears, my worries, and my regrets. I will be exposing my areas of vulnerability and I'm not ready to do that until I trust you.
If I tell you what gets me out of bed in the morning, you'll get to know what really drives me...where my passions lie. If you ask me about that, you're tapping into my sources of strength and optimism. You are allowing me to share my vision of the future which I enjoy talking about and will readily share.
Do you hear the subtle , yet profound, shift in that simple change to the question? Can you feel how much more 'possibility' oriented the right question can be?
Think about what becomes possible for your relationships if you found out the answer to that question from your most valued stakeholders... it could be game changing.
Try this: Ask yourself the question and see how revealing the answer is about what's really going on inside of you. Be honest and allow the answer to open up some insight into what is driving you right now.
Of course, be mindful that the question could be biased today since delivery of The Second Cup might likely have been one of the motivating factors in getting out of bed today for you.
Greetings!
Mike
ph: 215-341-9740
email: mmalinchok@verizon.net Follow the conversation with me on twitter @s2kconsulting
| 
