Rule # 4 Be Provocative

Rule #4

Be Provocative

A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver.

—Proverbs 25:11 (English Standard Version)

In their book The Challenger Sale (Penguin, 2011) (which I highly recommend),

Matt Dixon and Brent Adamson recommend that you

“teach, tailor, and take control.” I couldn’t agree more.

But many salespeople immediately assume that tailoring means customizing

your content for different decision-makers in the sales process. For

example, “I don’t say the same thing to the doctor that I say to the nurse;

I have a different talk track for each,” or, “I have a different message for

the plant manager than the one I use with the CEO or the foreman.”

It is absolutely true that you need to be mindful of what the person in front

of you at that moment is hoping to accomplish and how they define success

every day in their role. What I want to emphasize, however, is a

slightly different twist on the concept of tailoring. By tailoring your message,

I mean to grab somebody’s attention! Be provocative (not salacious) and

interesting and as uniquely styled as only a tailored suit could be.

I recently heard a sales manager confess that, when on sales calls with his

people, he was bored and struggled to stay engaged when his salespeople

presented to customers. And he has a dog in the fight!

Unfortunately, that is not uncommon. But your job is to figuratively grab

people by both ears, then lock eyes with energy and passion and a legitimately

provocative question or comment! Make it your goal to knock their

socks off! Get them excited about doing better!

Are you provocative? To paraphrase Dixon and Adamson in The Challenger

Sale, you must illicit the comment, “Hmm, I didn’t know that. Tell

me more” (p. 60). You don’t get that reaction from a customer who is

bored and unengaged.

Make a list of comments, topics, or questions that routinely strike your

prospective customers as novel, intriguing, and interesting, or something

they could claim they have never heard before:

1) _______________________________________________________

2) _______________________________________________________

3) _______________________________________________________

How hard was that exercise? How quickly and easily did you come up with

three unique points of view that intrigue your customers? Were they in the

form of a question that could facilitate a conversation? Do you really have

a unique perspective to offer? Do you really have counterintuitive ways of

looking at your business and industry?

Henry Ford is believed to have said that if he had asked his customers what

they wanted, they would have said, “A faster horse!” Ford had a very

unique perspective on the problem, the solution, and the future.

If you can’t think of three items to answer that last question, then you have

a problem. You might be boring. Boring is not fun. Boring is not going to

elicit deeper questions or a healthy discussion that would lead to an agreement

that things need to change—and that your product or service is the

solution. Remember my earlier comment that the great salespeople are

“always on”? Would your friends agree that you are always asking them

serious, challenging questions that spark conversation? Are you routinely

stirring up debates about difficult subjects?

Let me be more blunt: Do you hold your friends and family accountable?

You might say, “What does that have to do with anything?” Plenty! I told

you earlier that true salespeople never turn it off. They always live by

deeply held convictions, and they feel strongly that others need to get on

board. This flows into their personal lives and typically puts them in one

or both positions: either leadership and/or protagonist.

People with deeply held beliefs and convictions tend to intimidate those

without convictions. The result is either followers or offended people who

feel displaced and discombobulated in your wake. Many times it is

strangely both. This is especially true when the truth is hard to swallow,

the need is urgent, or the situation is very serious.

Great salespeople hold their customers accountable for performance:

“Agree with me and go my way, or admit that you are not committed to

excellence and suffer the consequences.”

Let’s try another way to test and see if you are an “always on” salesperson.

Write three topics about which you have stirred debate with your friends

or family in the last month:

1) _______________________________________________________

2) _______________________________________________________

3) _______________________________________________________

If you failed the test, it raises questions about your convictions. It may also

point to an issue with regard to your comfort level with tension. Maybe

you are just too shallow to care. You see we often fane politeness as an

excuse for not caring enough to engage on issues that matter. I don’t say

this to insult you. Remember: I am on your side! If this has your hackles

up, however, pause for a moment and assess yourself. Could this be an

underlying problem holding you back? If this is a blind spot, there is no

better time to acknowledge and address it.

My wife and I have purchased and sold many homes. During a recent purchase,

I was fortunate enough to meet an incredible real estate salesperson.

Andy began his career as a teacher. But in his attempts to generate more

income, he found his passion in real estate and has built a thriving enterprise.

I would argue that his success had a strong foundation in teaching,

because I believe people don’t want to be sold; they want to be taught.

Andy was responsive and in control of a tenuous sales process with a home

seller who was very emotionally unstable, causing the deal to come perilously

close to falling apart at several key moments. Andy came highly recommended

from trusted friends, but what got him the job was the

provocative way he framed up the whole concept of buying and selling

homes! In our initial discussion, he explained his philosophy: “Home selling

is basically a price war and a beauty contest.” That provocative focus

statement grabbed my attention and made me ask him several questions to

dig deeper and understand his proposal, his tactics, his strategy, and his

experience validating his philosophy.

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Does your philosophy about your solution grab people’s attention? Can

you craft a tagline to summarize your industries dilemma? How are you

packaging your strategy to help your customers buy your solution and reap

the benefits?

Andy shared with me that he likes to equate what he does for his clients

with coaching, which derives its meaning from the Old World term

“coach,” which used to mean a horse-drawn carriage that transported

someone from one place to another. I think that is a great analogy of what

we are attempting to accomplish with our customers!

Teach or die. Never bore people. Distinguish yourself as someone worth

listening to. Elite execution demands that you provide provocative and

intriguing insights because you make the effort to see the world from a

unique viewpoint.