Sales Conversations

When a client comes to you for help, you must diagnose before you prescribe.

A bad doctor will treat the symptoms.

A great doctor will take a holistic approach and identify and treat the underlying condition.

This is easy to understand in a client/vendor relationship.

But your clients are not just outside your business. You should treat every feature request internally as if it came from a client and have the why conversation.

Why this?

Why should we do anything at all? Why not leave things as they are?

Why now?

Why should we act now? Why not leave it as is for six months? This was a problem for a long time; what changed that increased the urgency?

Why me?

Why not buy something off the shelf? Why handle this internally? Why not outsource it?

The thing is …

The request initially came attached with an expected solution that you should implement.

But the “solution” your “client” came up with is probably not optimal.

They need your expertise to find a better one. But you can only do that if you’ve done your homework and discovered the real problem (and the desired outcome).

P.S. The why conversation is a framework from Jonathan Stark of ditching hourly.

Best regards,

Taj