How Should Sales People Be Challenging Customers?
September 5, 2012
The concept of challenging customers is a hot topic in sales, but how should sales people really be going about it?
According to sales expert Dave Brock, President and CEO of Partners in EXCELLENCE, challenging customers isn’t so much about pushing them in a particular direction as it is engaging them in new conversations. Today’s customers are looking for insight, Brock explains. It’s the sales person’s responsibility to bring the customer new ideas, help them think of things differently, and see opportunities they may not have recognized before.
While the word “challenge” tends to have a negative connotation to it, Brock suggests there is a polite way to go about it — not by setting out to prove the customer wrong, but to establish a dialog and express a new idea that the customer can embrace and run with.