If I was to ask any crowd at any trade exhibition: “Would you consider yourself to be open-minded?”, few would answer in the negative.
Why is this so important when selling?
Well, if you can get your prospect to agree to the concept of being open-minded (and who wouldn’t?) you can use it in your discussions, paving the way for a psychological agreement to whatever it is you are selling.
Here are some examples:
“How open-minded would you be to discussing options for your sales team?”
“Would you be open-minded to finding out how your production levels could be improved?”
“Would you be open-minded to creating further options for your process improvements?”
“How open-minded would your teams be to examining improvement opportunities?”
“How open-minded are you to the concept of new inventory management strategies?”
Do you see what this allows for? The prospect now is comparing their value system that tells them they are an open-minded person, and they are seeing the opportunity to prove this to themselves – and to you – by saying ‘yes’ to your question about that very state.
Subliminally, the prospect is being asked a question that would cause discord and disharmony in their mind if they were to answer it in the negative.
So, asking how open-minded a person would be to try out an option or think in a different way can hasten decision-making as the prospect wants to be in control, and being open-minded to ideas and new perspectives is always a better way to consider future benefits.
Happy selling!
Sean McPheat is Managing Director of MTD Training.
For information call 0800 849 6732 or visit www.mtdsalestraining.com.