SKILL


Focus on Customer Performance, Not Product LEN D’INNOCENZO AND JACK CULLEN


Selling today often involves complex technical solutions that turn many salespeople into features-focused product experts rather than customer-focused sales professionals.


Simply stated, customer-focused sell- ing means first finding out what the customer wants and then providing the solution for that specific situation. It also requires that the customer do most of the talking.


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But how does the customer do most of the talking if he or she doesn’t understand the products or the technology? The customer may not even understand what his needs are. The salesperson must probe with


the right questions in the right se- quence to determine the customer’s business needs. A probe is a request for informa-


tion. Probes start with an action verb: • Tell me about… • Talk a little about… • Describe, if you will… • Give me a little background on… Questions require the listener to choose or to provide more specific information. Two types of ques- tions – open- and closed-ended – are necessary to find out the


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