Last night, I was watching a Simpson's episode with my wonderful son, Matthew.
The image to your left came up, and it got me thinking.
The Status Quo is pretty powerful. So powerful that you will not sell to your client if the status quo is working.
For example, I saw an awesome looking brand new Cadillac the other day. I loved it. It has everything that I want in a car. The only problem is that I have a 3 year old Cadillac in my driveway. it runs, it looks nice and more importantly it costs me less money than a new one. Sure, I want the new one, but the status quo is going to win every time.
Let's say that my car starts to wear down. The tires need replacing, it doesn't run as well as it used to, and I see a rust spot forming near the drivers door.
The status quo is now looking less advantageous.
Many times, I go out to a prospect's office and discuss their needs. We seemingly come up with many reasons why their current process isn't working well enough. I dig deep into their pain points in order to figure out what is broken and what I can do to fix it. Many times, we as salespeople fall short. We just don't probe deep enough.
We don't dig and stir enough to get to the things that aren't working at all. We miss the point that the only thing that is going to drag your prospect away from the status quo is pain.
Which brings me back to this blog post
To make the sale, you must battle the status quo, you must find those rust spots...you must find a reason for your prospect to need to make that switch
The image to your left came up, and it got me thinking.
The Status Quo is pretty powerful. So powerful that you will not sell to your client if the status quo is working.
For example, I saw an awesome looking brand new Cadillac the other day. I loved it. It has everything that I want in a car. The only problem is that I have a 3 year old Cadillac in my driveway. it runs, it looks nice and more importantly it costs me less money than a new one. Sure, I want the new one, but the status quo is going to win every time.
Let's say that my car starts to wear down. The tires need replacing, it doesn't run as well as it used to, and I see a rust spot forming near the drivers door.
The status quo is now looking less advantageous.
Many times, I go out to a prospect's office and discuss their needs. We seemingly come up with many reasons why their current process isn't working well enough. I dig deep into their pain points in order to figure out what is broken and what I can do to fix it. Many times, we as salespeople fall short. We just don't probe deep enough.
We don't dig and stir enough to get to the things that aren't working at all. We miss the point that the only thing that is going to drag your prospect away from the status quo is pain.
Which brings me back to this blog post
To make the sale, you must battle the status quo, you must find those rust spots...you must find a reason for your prospect to need to make that switch
- Open Ended Questions: You must ask these questions n order to get to your prospect's pain
- You must also ask probing questions. Questions like "So if you continue to spend 45% of your time researching the market, what kind of effect will that have on your bottom line?"
- Don't try to close the deal until you have dug deep enough to unseat the status quo.
- I once heard some crazy statistic that you must be 150% better than the status quo to get someone to change. Not sure where this number came from, and I am sure that it is made up...But the point remains that you must be a whole heck of a lot better solution than the one you are trying to unseat in order to win.
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