Most of us do. Keep up the fight!

Ford Harding

It also reinforces the related success habit I keep trying to improve on, which is to get the prospect to do as much of the talking as possible. Personally, I struggle with this.

Thanks for your openness. We have all made mistakes like the one you mention. Sales skill requires going back to the basics again and again.

In answer to your question, I am not comfortable with “slyly,” because it implies a possible deception. The exchange between buyer and seller can help advance the buyer’s understanding of his own problem. That’s a high-value exchange. But if he really wants someone with foundry experience and feels he has a compelling reason for doing so, either I’ve got it or I don’t. If not, either I team with someone who does, or I stop wasting the buyer’s time and my own and go pursue something else that better matches my quals.

Just don’t assume that this is a go-no go issue before exploring it with the buyer.

Ford Harding

Great post, I have a pitch this week and will keep your vignette in mind.

I find myself sometimes answering too long/voluteering too much information. I believe its rooted in a desire to be helpful, and perhaps a bad habit from early retail sales.

Worst I ever stepped in it: an owner once asked me (after we’d worked together for a couple of years) what I thought of a centralized system in one of his facilities. I could have said “I don’t know, tell me more about it” but instead commented on the failure rates I’d heard of with other installations and that I thought they were problematic - of course, the system was his idea and pet, and he let me know it; it was embarrassing, and would have been catastrophic if we didn’t have a good relationship (and if he didn’t take such delight in making me squirm!).

Can one be an enthusiastic expert witness, answering short, not volunteering info, but slyly leading the questioneer?

I think your point a good one. We all have slightly different images of the client asking the question based on our experiences. Depending on the client’s tone of voice, posture and other communication not captured in my description, different responses are appropriate. “Is that important to you?” works for me, depending on that context. If the client says it is, I need to know this and would follow up with, “Tell me more, please.”

I can say “Is that important to you?” with great earnestness or lightness and communicate different things, as you can do with your suggested wording. I learned long ago that words that work well for one person don’t always work for another. But we can find words that will accomplish the same end.

In short, I generally agree with your argument not to assume anything. We agree on ends and principals; our means differ slightly.

Thanks for the comment.

Ford Harding

Then, use strong listening skills to give them time to formulate the answer that will get you closer to what they are looking for.

You can always ask second and third level questions, when necessary, to get the detail to answer this very important, in or out, question.

Your question, in my opinion, is also assumptive.

Also, the prospective client may answer your question with a yes. What do you do, then? You’re right back where you started.

Q: Have you worked in a foundry? Maybe he wants someone who was actually an employee in a foundry.

Again, don’t assume anything.