What Salespeople Can Learn from Ethnographers: Sergiu Trocin

What I’m about to say is nothing new. Salespeople have been around for centuries, all the way back to the Phoenicians and beyond. “Sales” is about following leads, failing, iterating, and seeking opportunities and better deals.

Did Columbus find his India? No, but he discovered a new world.

Let me explain.

Sales is a numbers game. The numbers vary depending on the industry, the quality of leads, prospecting tools, the product itself, and the sales cycle.

You notice patterns faster in shorter cycles. You’ll rarely convert more than 30 leads out of 100. Even fewer will become customers.?

This goes without saying: salespeople are among the most optimistic people I’ve ever met. We must be optimistic — our level of daily rejection is enough to break the morale of a non-salesperson.

What do we do with the ones we “failed” with?

Listen.

Sales isn’t merely a campaign of endless calls, emails, and ads — it’s a dialogue, an interaction between human beings, and an exchange of information. In short, an opportunity to see what we — the company — are missing.

Good listening starts with talking well. How we speak to potential customers is critical.

We cannot interfere with their truth. Ethnographers take great pains to interview different cultural groups in the hope of recording their traditions. The ethnographer is a stranger. They cannot contaminate their truth.

The same applies to salespeople, who are rarely effective when bulldozing their way into the customer’s loyalty. Salespeople are strangers. You must first ask questions and listen to their problems, their needs, and their truth.

A good salesperson guides the conversation but lets the human on the other end of the line do the rest of the talking.

Salespeople are infamously pushy. Pushy dialogues inevitably turn into monologues.

So instead of pushing, try pulling. Simple questions work best.

“Are you happy with your current provider?”

“Have?you?experienced any difficulties lately with your current provider?” Drop in a few typical examples experienced in your industry. Gently touch their pain points.

Now, listen.

This doesn’t just show genuine interest in their problems. You’ll learn a lot when you let a person speak and don’t contaminate their truth with your own pushing. You’ll understand what customers like and don’t like. Any potential issues with the product or the way you’re marketing it? Moreover, you’ll receive a whole market analysis in one call — from pricing to services to competition.

If they’re sick of their current provider, you offer the medicine and ideally the missing pieces of the puzzle.

So don’t dismiss 80% of lost leads. Lift the fog.

We may not find our India, but we’ll maybe find a New World.