When was the last time you used Google to self-diagnose a medical issue? The dangers of self-diagnosis are numerous. When you self-diagnose, you assume that you can fully understand what is going on in your body, but most people cannot. By doing this, people may miss a larger diagnosis, deeming a single symptom as the full diagnosis.
For example, you are having discomfort in your throat and general fatigue and self-diagnose that you’re going through a temporary cold or sore throat. You block out a few rest days, drink tea, and assume this all will pass. Unfortunately, mono may masquerade as only these two symptoms. You may have mono, and need to take different course of action.
When you forfeit the doctor completely, or go to the doctor saying, “I have a sore throat,” rather than describing all of your symptoms, you undermine the role of the doctor and don’t take advantage of the doctor’s expertise. A lot of us choose to self-diagnose anyway.
Like doctors, sales people deal with a similar self-diagnosis roadblock. Prospects self-diagnose their problems and come in with an idea of how the salesperson’s product can help them. Like the physician, sales people must ask themselves if the prospect has identified their real problem and the proper solution or if they are describing only one symptom, missing the real problem altogether.
Before agreeing with the prospect’s diagnosis and solution, an effective sales person digs deeper. Effective sales people get at the root of the prospect’s problem and bring to light the deepest issue. By adapting a sales enablement platform, this will increase your chances of finding a solution. In the end, this will support the prospect’s goal better.
Of course, salespeople ought to hear out each prospect. Then, they must dig for clarity through questions. But, perhaps the prospect is embarrassed to tell a salesperson exactly what they need, or they do not fully understand their issue. That’s when engagement analytics can become a game-changer.
By enabling an advanced sales enablement platform, salespeople can find out what customers are looking at, who they are talking to, and determine what they are actually interested in. They can use it as a supplementary diagnostic tool to help meet the prospect’s true needs, not just the perceived ones.
Are your salespeople mind readers?
