Hey, Scott from The Sales Mastermind here.
Today’s edition can be read in 4 minutes.
Success often comes down to what is not said, rather than what is.
Yet, our childhood programming convinces us to jump in too early.
Next time a seller asks for guidance remember PA-UA
Taking a beat, Pause. Ask questions. Deeply Understanding the problem. Only then Answering.
Pausing is Powerful
At one point I was on the board of a charity with some serious big wigs:
- A billionaire
- A state parliamentarian, who later because the opposition leader
- A future federal parliamentarian from the other party
- Etc
I was 19.
How was I in the room with these people? Before board meetings I would hyperventilate.
It was during these board meetings that I first learnt the power of pausing.
I noticed whoever was silent for a few minutes, or so, the next time they spoke everyone would stop to listen.
This was also true with my friendship group. If I paused for a few minutes, the next thing I said the whole group would stop talking to listen.
But when I spoke, talking over others or trying to keep the right to talk, it is can be a fight as others want to jump in.
No matter who you are, when you are silent for a while, the next time you speak you WILL be listened to. (So make it good).
Fight Your Childhood Programming
In sales you are fighting against the lessons you learnt from your parents or in school.
In this case, children learn to jump in as soon as they have something to say.
School teachers will ask the class a question and encourage students to be the first to call out an answer. You are rewarded for being right first. Second is too slow.
In sales, jumping in too early results in devaluing your speech.
Instead, pause before speaking, wait for others be silent. Buyers will listen.
Don’t Jump In
A rep I coach has a nasty habit of interrupting buyers with filler words.
By jumping in, without all the facts, they often answer the wrong question or go down a less valuable path.
A recent example went like this:
Buyer: Who should own rebooking the first appointment if a buyer cancels, sales or marketing?
Rep: (Interrupting) Yeah, booking calls is 100% a sales problem. As soon as someone is a qualified lead it should be owned by sales.
Buyer: (slight pause) Ok. But our internal approach has always been, they are not a qualified lead until the first meeting is held.
Rep: Yeah, oh. Um… Well in that case, I take back what I said. Based on your lead ownership the first meeting should be rebooked by the marketing team.
Ask Follow Up Questions
By jumping in, with a wrong answer, our example rep lowered his standing in the eyes of the buyer.
The next time the rep will Pause. Ask questions. Deeply Understand. Then provide an Answer.
PA-UA
(I remember it by thinking of the band AC DC)
By following the above you can ensure you answer the right question and build trust with buyers.
A better talk track
Using the example above:
Buyer: Who should own rebooking the first appointment, sales or marketing?
Rep: (Pause) You know that’s a good question.
(Ask) Before I answer, help me understand, what is the current cut off between sales and marketing?
Buyer: Right now, the marketing team owns the lead until the first meeting takes place.
Rep: (Keep asking) Ok, so if the buyer cancels the first booking who would reach out to get it rebooked?
Buyer: That’s a bit messy. Both teams expect the other should be doing it. So it never gets done.
Rep: That doesn’t sound good. How many appointments are you losing because no one is reaching out?
Buyer: About 11% of all inbound leads.
Rep: (Understand) Ouch, that’s a lot of revenue going missing. I assume if sales owned rebooking they would be expected to call and email. If marketing owned rebooking the process would be automated, right?
Buyer: Right.
Rep: (Answer) Well, based on our discussion, you probably want the sales team to own rebooking so they can give the personalised touch.
TLDR Wrap Up
- PA-UA: Pause, Ask, Understand, Answer
- Pausing is powerful
- Fight Your Childhood Programming
- Don’t jump in
- Ask follow up questions
- Only answer when you have all the information
Linkedin Post of the Week (new section)
There is so much amazing stuff on Linkedin.
Most of it isn’t worthy of a full newsletter. So here are two top posts, one from me, one from someone else.
First day of a new month, what should you do?
From Me
The difference between inbound and outbound prospects
From Chris Ritson
Until next time,
Scott Cowley
And that’s a wrap…. Let me know what you think! it to a friend
PS I help founders who sell, but aren't "sales"people. Typically this is two groups:
Early stage businesses when the founder has made a few sales, but are before having product-market-fit. Together we'll speed up the learning, make you more money, faster and hire a performing sales team. - Is this you? Reply "Early"
Or Established agencies that have recently lost a major client and realised they need to learn how to sell to keep their current team employed (let alone grow the agency). - Is this you? Reply "Agency"