What's The Best Opening for a B2B Opportunity?
SCENARIO: You're selling inventory control software to manufacturing companies. You're in a face-to-face meeting with a director responsible for the smooth running of a large facility. You want to begin a productive conversation to discover whether this is an actual sales opportunity. Here are your choices:
- OPENING #1: "It's my understanding that your industry, in general, has challenges connected with the weak economy and difficulties in controlling inventory. However, I'd like to know how you view the situation and to what extent that influences what's going on in your own manufacturing facilities."
- OPENING #2: "Our inventory control product has helped facilities in other manufacturing facilities save millions of dollars over several years. I can show you multiple analyst studies showing how our product is vastly superior to our competition. Would you like me to demonstrate it for you?"
- OPENING #3: "My research reveals that your firm is probably losing money because of poor inventory control. Since your industry is currently under stress due to the weak economy, you may need our product to help you fix this problem. That's why I'm here to talk with you today."
CLICK for the correct answer »
The correct answer is OPENING #1: "It's my understanding..."
To understand why, let's look at the other two answers.
- OPENING #2: "Our inventory control product..." is just the a feature-function pitch. You're setting yourself up for a "spray and pray" demonstration that's only going to resonate with the customer if you're very lucky. Furthermore, you're coming off like a traditional sales rep, so the barriers are already up. Likely result: you'll be politely shown the door.
- OPENING #3: My research reveals..." is simply an opening for you to lecture the customer, in the hopes that the customer will be impressed with that you did your research. While it's obviously a good thing to do your research, this approach makes you sound like you think you're a know-it-all genius who's going to tell the customer how to run his business.
- OPENING #1: "It's my understanding..." shows that you did the appropriate research, but the request to hear about the situation "from the horse's mouth" shows the customer that you don't assume you knows more about the situation than the customer himself. What's more, it's going to open an actual conversation, rather than an opportunity for you to give lecture.
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