Making Assumptions in Sales Is a Good Thing. Here’s Why.
Shawn Casemore
Keynote Speaker, Sales Kickoff Speaker, Sales Training, Sales Coaching. ?? Enabling B2B Sales Leaders and Sales Teams to Achieve Unstoppable Sales?. ??Author of The Unstoppable Sales Machine.??
When my wife recently asked if I had booked our annual summer camping trip, I shook my head. Unfortunately, I had assumed she had already booked it. As a result, we lost our coveted camping spot.
The problem wasn’t so much that I assumed but rather the action that resulted from my assumption: in this case, not asking if we still needed to book.
Every day we make a series of assumptions, from whether we can pass a car without meeting another head-on, to being confident we’ll receive our coffee after we hand over our money at the local Starbucks.
In sales, we also make assumptions.
We often assume the buyer cares to know about the history of our company.
We assume they are avoiding our call, rather than just busy with other priorities.
We even assume the deal is lost when we’re faced with a series of objections.
In almost every situation, our assumptions are wrong.
There’s only one assumption in sales that we should make. It’s that our buyer is interested in what we are selling if they’ve agreed to invest their precious time with us.
Just ask yourself, is there anyone you know who will meet with a salesperson just to have a chat?
My guess is not likely.
So armed with this idea, we can frame how we approach each meeting with our buyer.
If they are interested, then we need to figure out why they are interested.
What has made them set aside time to meet with us?
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There is a simple three-step approach I share with all of the sales teams I work with for uncovering why our buyer has agreed to meet.
Step 1: In our first meeting we ask, “I’m curious, why did you agree to meet with me today?”
Step 2:?We address their "why" within the first 15 minutes of our presentation or discussion.
Step 3:We circle back at the end of the meeting to ask “Did we address your questions today? If so, what would be our logical next step?”
Assuming the buyer isn’t interested or is too busy is a death wish in sales.
Instead, we need to assume they are interested and make it our goal to uncover why.
There’s an old saying that suggests when you assume, it makes an “a$$ of u and me.”
I don’t think that’s the case at all unless we’re missing the opportunity to learn why they’re investing time with us.
Best, Shawn
Shawn Casemore is an expert in sales, driven by a passion to help business owners, executives and sales leaders accelerate their sales results.
As the author of The Unstoppable Sales Machine (June 2022), and The Unstoppable Organization (2017), Shawn is a recognized authority in accelerating sales growth. His insights can frequently be found online in publications such as Fast Company, Chief Executive, Rain Today and INC magazine.?
To contact Shawn,?click?here.