She answered the question
A common experience everyone in sales has is walking into an appointment with a “controlling type” who immediately asks this question, after greeting you and sometimes not even greeting you. “OK, what have you got for me?” There is no good direct answer to this question. If you start to give him a presentation, he’ll likely say something like, “I don’t need that. What else do you have?” And you’ll be out of there in a few minutes wondering what happened? A much better response utilizes what I call “Say It/Ask it.” You respond with a general answer like “As I told you during our phone call we have advanced solutions to (give a general benefit of your subject) and to save us both some time, is it OK if I ask you a few quick questions?” Using this approach you’re back in control. Remember the person who asks the last question controls the conversation, not the person who does all the talking.
If you like this post, and would like to learn a lot more, you can read the first 16 pages FREE of my book,
“Empathy Persuasion.” email stan@stanleyfidel.com
2 Comments
David-Ray
June 12, 2018Hmmm, a salesman that can not will not answer my questions gets turned away. I do not often listen to sales pitches and when i do no sale is ever made, mostly because the salesman has already demonstrated that they are not listening to me and are therefore incapable of meeting my needs.
sleofidel
June 17, 2018Hello David,
That’s an interesting comment. There are some answers that will never be good enough, The question, “What have you got for me?” is usually asked by a controller type who is poised to dismiss whatever answer you give. I advise deferring the answer to that question and ask questions instead that lead to a meaningful conversation.
Thank you for your comment. I appreciate it.