Why

Hey, Scott from The Sales Mastermind here. Today’s edition only takes 2 minutes.

If the seller doesn't understand "why", they'll never close.

Story Time

In early 2018, I was fired from my job.

I was fired because for over 9 months, I never came close to closing a deal.

Most mornings, I would walk into the Tottenham Court Road office in London thinking;

"How do I still not get it? Why would anyone pay 50,000 pounds for this software?"

If we unpack that statement, there are two giant red flags:

1. Despite investing months working five days a week, 9 am-6 pm, I legitimately did not understand why anyone would buy the product.
2. My self-belief was shot.

The company sold a relatively unknown piece of enterprise software with excellent customer logos (think the biggest listed companies and government agencies throughout Europe and North America). But completely lacked a coherent marketing message.

Despite this, and churning through sales reps (while I worked there, over 40% of the team turned over), they've subsequently sold a chunk of the business for a 9-figure sum.

So I assume someone knew what they were selling; it simply wasn't me.

Why Matters

One of the biggest learnings from the above job was that "why" matters a lot more than "what" in a sales context:

• What the product does
• What makes it able to do that
• What the users/customers do to interact with the product
• What happens during onboarding/implementation

These are all important.

However, when it comes to selling to new customers, "What" is logical.

And customers don't buy with logic. They buy with emotion, and then justify their emotions with logic.

Why is where buying happens:

• "Why would I buy this thing?"
• "Why is that feature important to me?"
• "Why should we care?"

"Why" targets your buyers' emotions before "What" helps them explain their decision.

Osmosis isn't a Strategy

Now that we have established "Why" comes before "What", it's essential to focus our marketing and sales messages on "Why."

A persistent mistake I have seen from junior and experienced sellers alike is that they know the "Why" but never explicitly communicate it with the buyer. Unfortunately, some sellers believe that somehow the buyer will work it out, the "Why" by osmosis.

And if the buyer "gets it," osmosis might be enough.

But if the buyer simply "gets it", they probably already own your product.

So elite sellers always start by assuming their buyers need to be supported to understand the "Why".

Find Their Motivation

To explain the "Why", start with your buyer's motivation. For example:

• Engineers are motivated by making fewer mistakes
• Marketers are motivated by generating interest
• Sellers are motivated by closing deals.

Once you understand your buyer, link your product's "Why" to their motivation.

Remember that the "Why" will be subtly different for each stakeholder and type of buyer. So you'll need 5-10+ "Whys" in your arsenal.

A measure of a good salesperson is their ability to translate the buyer's initial feedback into an emotional "Why". Then explore how their service solves that "Why. Ultimately, pivoting the emotional "Why" to a logical "What" so the buyer can securely justify their decision to colleagues, peers, and themselves.

It all starts with Why.

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