Comment and Question
Tom, per our recent phone conversation, we’ve worked hard for six months to fill our pipeline with new customers and nothing is coming out. Objections are no money in the budget and happy with their current supplier. My people are giving up. Your thoughts and will Counselor Selling help?
J. T.
Answer
J. T. Filling a pipeline is a “strategy.” Getting results is a “skill.” The objections are the clue that the “clogged pipe” is full of No-Trust. Yes, Counselor Selling is specifically designed to teach sales people how to open new accounts. We also teach what many call “farming skills” – we call them Care Reviews – but the main focus is on new business development. We also spend time developing the “skills” of overcoming the objections you mention.
To give you an example, what follows is a very condensed comment from a recent graduate who immediately put the Counselor skills to work in developing new accounts:
Hi Tom, Hope you are well. Things are in full swing over here and I am doing my best to implement the counselor selling approach. I wanted you to see my first discovery letter with a new contact at a large company we just met with two days ago. This one is challenging because it’s a design where they really don’t have a current situation vs. desired situation, more of a blank sheet of paper where we would need to help them create a design concept to meet their desired situation/needs. Without the discovery letter I would have put it in the pipeline for follow-up in three to six months but my discovery agreement caused him to invite me back today. It was the reference to owning experience engineering in my letter that sparked his interest. Also, just yesterday I went to a meeting with another new account and just happened to get face time with the VP of IT. The Ben Duffy skill opened him up and I left the meeting with the opportunity to create an entire design concept and quote all the equipment. That role play we did in class with talk about economics when dealing with a C level executive was ringing in my ears through the meeting and I think I was successful in trying to be his “A” level partner. I know that was a mouthful but I wanted to share some of my immediate Counselor experiences with you. T. M.
New business development is a very difficult “skill” for even the most experienced sales people. We teach a very formalized and very workable approach in Counselor Selling.