I have a strong dislike for prospecting. I’ve never enjoyed it, but there was a time in my career when my job depended on me cold calling. For a young man raised in a pacifist community, I felt like an invasive intruder making uninvited calls to people who could be less than excited to receive my interruption. That was until I asked myself the critical question: do I really believe my service can help the person I’m reaching out to in a meaningful way?
I learned that if my answer to that question was an authentic “yes,” I could make the call. Cold calling was no longer about getting past the gatekeepers to the “target” decision-maker. It was about the desire to truly help the person with whom I was looking to connect. If I wasn’t convinced I could be an invaluable helper, I didn’t make the call. This removed a ton of pressure. Seeking to help people meant I owed it to them to make the call. If they didn’t see the value, I felt disappointment for them but respected their response.
Sales Success Is Effective Matchmaking
I discovered that sales success comes from effective matchmaking. It’s my job to find the right clients whose needs, wants, and desires match with what I can provide. When this connection is made, the sales transaction becomes a natural component of the symbiotic relationship that has the potential to remain and grow for years to come. So how does the matchmaking approach to sales really work?
It comes from taking the time to truly see, hear, and understand the person across from me. When a salesperson jumps into their pitch within the first few minutes of connecting with someone, it’s assumptive at best and insulting at worst because they don’t know the person before them. If I take the time to ask empathetic questions about who they are, what they want, and what they’re looking to gain or avoid, they’ll see that I’m in it for them and they’ll begin to grant me their trust.
Understanding Needs, Wants, and Desires
For a prospect to feel seen, heard, and understood, I must take the time to uncover their needs, wants, and desires. Here’s a quick summary of each:
- Needs: The rational requirements that need to be met, including the right product or service, in the right way, at the right price, at the right time, and at the right place.
- Wants: The emotion, meaning, attachment, and values that the person holds alongside their need.
- Desires: The deeply held, ego-centric, and often hidden personal objectives the prospect attaches to the need and want.
As an example, here’s how a person might articulate their need, want, and desire around purchasing a new car:
- Need: “I need a car to commute to work.”
- Want: “My spouse and I would have a lot of fun with a little sports car.”
- Desire: “I promised myself that when I earned my success, I’d drive a Porsche. It’s time.”
In this example, we understand that the prospect needs access to transportation to get to and from their job. So why not take public transit? When we dig a little deeper, we see that they want to have fun and build into their relationship with their significant other. Clearly, transit won’t meet the expectations here. And when we really take the time to understand where the prospect is coming from personally, we discover that the car they desire represents their personal achievement, the celebration of “making it,” and even their identity.
Questions That Lead to Better Sales Conversations
So how does matchmaking come into all of this? It’s all about courting the client. It starts with stating our intention to learn how we can best help them and may even include a commitment to politely bow out if it turns out we’re not a good match. Then we move into asking open-ended questions to find their needs, wants, and desires. Our questions should be based on the responses of the client, but they typically follow this type of framework:
- What do you need?
- When do you need it?
- Who will this impact?
- Why is this important to them and you?
- Where do you have concerns?
- How will you know we’ve been successful?
This question model briefly summarizes the three phases of what we call “earning the right” to present a solution through engagement, qualification, and discovery.
When we court our prospect(s) effectively, having their best interest in mind, we’ll confidently determine with whom we have a natural connection and who we’re best to politely release to a better-fit provider. In doing so, we’ll find our most profitable partnerships and avoid the potentially costly mismatches. This is the art of matchmaking.
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