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Hi, I'm Jim Lattin, Professor
of Marketing at the Stanford
Graduate School of Business.
>> And I'm Barry Rhein,
a lecturer at the GSB.
We teach a course called The
Fundamentals of Effective Selling.
Here are five key takeaways from
our course.
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>> Effective sales is about
discovery.
We need to learn what is important
to a customer.
We need to learn about the negative
consequences of the customer's
current situation.
And understand the customer's
thinking about what might
constitute an ideal solution.
With this information, we can drive
a wedge, that is, create a stark
contrast between the customer's
current situation and their ideal.
And then map our product onto
the customer's ideal solution.
It turns out that many people
are reluctant to ask questions, or
they just haven't been trained to
ask effective questions.
Instead of being curious,
they make assumptions without
exploring the points of view
expressed by the customer.
Learning to be authentically
curious is critical for
effective selling.
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>> Now you don't get good at sales
by reading a book.
I have over 35 years of experience
as a sales trainer and consultant.
And I am firmly convinced that
effective selling comes from
skills that can be learned, but
there must be practice.
While MBA students are accustomed
to learning by reading books and
analyzing case studies,
my approach leans much more heavily
on small group exercises and
lots of role plays.
For example, we have students
create a value-based prospecting
script that they will use when cold
calling prospects.
The students learn by presenting to
each other and
discussing what is effective.
But in the end,
they come away with ideas of how
they would do things differently.
Our goal is to help the students
develop the confidence they need to
apply all selling skills.
A lot of sales comes down to
getting the answer to
these two questions,
is there a real deal here?
And can we get a deal done?
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>> The process used in sales to get
the answers to these two questions
is called qualification.
We can use questions such as, where
does this project fall on your list
of key business priorities?
In order to get some insight into
whether the customer is serious
about a deal.
But when it comes to understanding
how to get a deal done,
it is absolutely essential to
understand a customer's
decision-making process.
Effective salespeople know
that each customer has a unique
set of steps they go through
in deciding on a course of action.
It's like the hurdles in track and
field in which a runner
has to clear a number of obstacles
in order to reach the finish line.
It's the job of sales to use
curiosity to identify each hurdle
and discover what it will take to
clear each obstacle successfully
and move on to the next stage.
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>> Now students might get
nervous about
the prospect of closing a deal.
Because they may fear rejection or
because they're just unsure how to
close a sale.
We know closing is just
being curious about how to get
a deal done.
Now to help them get more
comfortable, we put them through
a series of role-play exercises in
which one student, the sales rep,
tries to close the deal and
another student, the customer,
raises objections.
Instead of thinking of an objection
as an obstacle that needs to
be overcome or beaten down,
we encourage the students to think
of an objection really as a gift.
It's an opportunity to understand
the customer's thinking and
discover what might stand in
the way of getting a deal done.
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>> Most of our students say that
they don't intend to go
into a traditional sales role.
And yet they take our class because
they're convinced that the process
and the skill set will be useful in
all types of selling contexts.
>> For example, aspiring
entrepreneurs are essentially
selling their ideas to investors.
We've heard many success stories
from students who
have used a curiosity-based
approach to fundraising.
And students looking for
an employment opportunity
are essentially selling themselves.
They can use a curiosity-based
process to learn about a company,
discover an executive's priorities,
and really create
the ideal job where none existed.
Learning and
practicing curiosity-based selling
can help anyone further their
vision and accomplish their goals.
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>> Barry and I are so
complementary.
>> You like to fish?
Well, you don't, but you're going
to like a lot more fishing.
>> I think Barry could get me out
fishing.
I look forward to that.
>> What about motorcycle riding or
ATVing?
>> [LAUGH]
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