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BUYER RESISTANCEResearch shows that people buy when the pain of making a changeis less than the pain of staying the same.12 In other words, buyersneed to see the problem as being big enough to justify their goingthrough the hassle of solving it. 
A  buyer  may  not  be  ready  to  acknowledge  a  problem.  Whatseems to you to be a serious problem may not be perceived as seri-ous by the buyer. A good example from outside the sales arena is themarried couple whose marital problems appear to the outside worldto  be  serious  enough  to  make  the  couple  a  likely  candidate  fordivorce. Yet they do not get divorced because the hassle, risk, andfinancial cost of divorce as they perceive them are not offset by thesize of the problems in their marriage. In other words, people dif-fer in how they will adjust to, adapt to, and live with their problems. It is helpful for salespeople to separate customer problems intotwo categories: problems that the customer is willing to live with andproblems  that  the  customer  wants  to  solve.  Customers  are  morereceptive to the solutions you offer when they perceive their prob-lems as serious enough to solve.
Returning to the initial scenario with Bev and Joe, a buyer mayagree that a problem exists, but not think it’s serious enough to solve,especially if there is a substantial risk associated with the solution. Abuyer also may not see that a problem exists, even though one does.The solution here is to either probe the buyer for problems or con-duct your due diligence efforts with other people who may be morefamiliar with the problems than the buyer. A buyer may also see thata problem exists, want to solve it, and already be looking around forpotential solutions. Let’s revisit the scenario with Bev and Joe andconsider two of these situations. 
EXAMPLE 1. THE CUSTOMER DOESN’T PERCEIVE A PROBLEM, BUT ONE EXISTS
Joe: Are you confident that you are projecting the right image?
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Bev: (She doesn’t see that a problem exists.) I think so, Joe.
Joe: (He  recognizes  that  Bev  may  not  realize  that  she  has  aproblem.) Are you comfortable that your current image willstill be attractive to your targeted customers three to five yearsfrom now?
Bev: What do you mean?
Joe: Buying  patterns  of  customers  are  continually  changing.You may want to have the image of your company stay abreastof these changes, such as lower prices and purchasing conve-nience. It often takes a company two or three years to changeits image. That’s why I was wondering if that could be a poten-tial problem.
Bev: Well, put that way, Joe, it might be. Tell me more.
Joe: Before I can explain much more, I need to ask you a fewquestions  about  your  current  image,  your  current  targetedcustomers, and what changes you anticipate in your companyand your customers three to five years from now. Would thatbe okay?
Bev: Yes.
Joe: For instance, how would you describe the image that youwant your customers to have of Optimist?
Bev: Excellent question. Let’s see, . . . 
EXAMPLE 2: THE CUSTOMER RECOGNIZES THE PROBLEM ANDWANTS TO FIX IT In this scenario, the customer recognizes that he or she has a prob-lem and wants to solve it. Here, the exchange between Bev and Joemight look like this.
Bev: Thanks for coming, Joe. We need to change ad agenciesbecause  we  are  just  not  happy  with  the  sales  results  our  ad
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campaigns  are  generating.  We  also  aren’t  satisfied  with  theimage  that  we  are  projecting  to  the  marketplace.  So,  wethought we would explore some alternatives to our current adagency.  That’s  where  you  come  in.  How  do  you  think  youcould help us?
Joe: I hope we can. But I’m going to need to ask you severalquestions to find out just how we might be able to offer thebest solutions to your sales performance and image issues. Isthat OK? 
Bev: Of course. Fire away.
Joe: You  said  your  ad  campaigns  were  unsatisfactory  when  itcame  to  sales  results.  Why  do  you  think  this  was  the  case?This will help us not to make the same mistake.  
Bev: Well, our biggest problem in that area was that we didn’tappeal to the right market segment, i.e., the 21- to 35-year-olds.
Joe: I see. So you basically want us to put together a mock adcampaign on how we would go about capturing that business,is that right?
Bev: Basically.
Joe: Okay, we will do that, but before we do, let me ask you afew  more  questions  about  the  characteristics  of  the  peoplewithin that age group that you wish to target, if you don’t mind?
Bev: Go right ahead, Joe.
Joe: Well, my first question focuses on what the characteristicsare of the people who are currently buying.
What advances the sale is showing buyers the solutions to theirproblems when their pain is great enough to warrant a change orgetting them to see their problems as big enough to solve with solu-tions that only you can provide. If you can’t do that, you may do a
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lot of talking, but you won’t get very far toward sustaining a busi-ness relationship.
FINDING OUT IF THE BUYER WANTS TO SOLVE THE PROBLEMAs we’ve seen, it’s much easier to get customers to buy your solu-tion when the problem is one that they themselves want to solve. Tofigure out whether the buyer wants to solve the problem, salespeo-ple should consider the following questions: Does the customer viewthe problem as big enough to solve? And what does the customersee as the value of solving this problem?
DOES THE CUSTOMER VIEW THE PROBLEM AS BIG ENOUGH TO SOLVE? Here are exam-ples of questions you could ask: 
∆ Is this an issue that you feel you need to address? 
∆ It sounds like that is a pretty sizable problem. Would youlike to explore some possible solutions, or is it perhaps notserious enough to solve just yet? 
WHAT DOES THE CUSTOMER SEE AS THE VALUE OF SOLVING THIS PROBLEM? Here aresome sample questions: 
∆ How would it help you if you were able to fix this problem? 
∆ What do you see as the benefits of addressing this issue? 
∆ Are there any other benefits or value to you in solving the
problem? 
∆ Do you see other ways in which solving this problem might
help you? 
DON’T OFFER SOLUTIONS TO EVERY CUSTOMER PROBLEMIt’s important to wait until the customer perceives the problem asserious enough to solve. Psychologically, a solution has less impact
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on the customer when he or she is not ready to solve the problemthan when he or she is ready to solve it. Therefore, top perform-ers, since they are putting the customer first, will invariably with-hold their solutions until they feel that these solutions will have thegreatest customer impact—that is, until the customer perceives theproblem as sizable enough to solve. Unless the customer tells thesalesperson that he or she wants to solve the problem, the only waythe salesperson is going to know for sure whether the customer seesthe problem as sizable enough to solve is to ask the customer. JimPreston, former president of Norwood Industries, located in Austin,Texas,  said  it  best:  “If  a  salesperson  wants  to  aggravate  someone,just let them try to solve a problem that the customer isn’t ready tosolve yet.” 
When you identify and try to develop the client’s needs, you’rein a better position to know whether the client sees the problem asbig enough to warrant buying the service or product being offered.While prospects may admit that a problem exists, if they don’t thinkthe problem is serious enough—especially if there’s a lot of risk asso-ciated  with  the  solution—they  won’t  buy.  Once  again,  people  aremost receptive to solutions when the pain of making a change is lessthan the pain of staying the same. 
Why would you ever want to offer a solution unless you were cer-tain (either because you were told by the customer or because youasked the customer) that the customer was ready for one? Well, theanswer is simple: You wouldn’t. Prescribing surgery (the solution)without proper diagnosis (the probing/investigating) is malpractice(not a good thing).
ACTION POINTS➔ Leave some issues on the table. Don’t try to solve all the customer’sproblems. Don’t try to answer every objection. The more rea-sons you give to support your argument, the weaker your argu-ment becomes.13
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➔ Show  courtesy  and  respect. Always  display  concern  for  the  cus-tomer’s problems  and  respect  for  the  customer’s  perception  ofthese problems.
➔ Listen,  test  understanding,  and  clarify  what  the  speaker  says.Occasionally ask the speaker if this is what he or she means. AsNeil Rackham points out, use the customer’s actual words, not aparaphrase. That way you can more easily come back to clarify orexplore points. For example, “You said that your existing equip-ment suffers from, as you put it, ‘fundamental design inefficiency.’Could you say more about that?”
➔ Separate problems to be solved and problems to be left alone. Separatecustomer problems into two categories: those that the customerwants to solve and those that the customer is willing to live with.
➔ Don’t offer unwelcome solutions. Offer solutions only to those prob-
lems that the client is interested in solving. 
SALES  TRUTH  3:  Offer  solutions  to  problemsthe prospect wants to solve.
2PRINCIPLE
get themost outof yourbest people
A  TOP  sales  organization  is  able  to  get  the  mostout of the best people. This starts with recruiting andhiring  the  best.  Top  sales  organizations  have  highlyeffective processes for attracting and recruiting top-notch sales reps. Not only do these companies inter-view  at  top  business  schools,  but  they  also  activelyparticipate in business school and other campus func-tions  in  order  to  get  their  name  and  reputation  infront of the best students. They network within theirown organizations to find the best new recruits andnever lose sight of the need to develop their employ-ees. They realize that top-notch selling isn’t a natural
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talent. Successful companies use all available resources to improvethe  skills  of  their  sales  team—including  academic  classes.  As  onemight expect, the interview process (both internal and external) inthese organizations is grueling.
For example, Andersen Consulting actively participates in infor-mation  sessions  that  offer  it  the  opportunity  to  explain  the  careeropportunities  within  the  organization  to  groups  of  students  at  theKelley School of Business at Indiana University. These sessions helpstudents learn not only what it takes to be successful in the businessworld, but also what it takes to be successful at that particular com-pany. Besides Andersen Consulting, the 200-plus companies that par-ticipate include Procter & Gamble, Motorola, ExxonMobil, Ernst &Young,  Bank  of  America,  E  &  J  Gallo,  Johnson  &  Johnson,  3M,PricewaterhouseCoopers, Eli Lilly, and CDW, to name just a few.1Some  of  these  companies  select  recruiters  with  personal  ties  toIndiana University (or whatever university they are recruiting at) inthe  hope  that  these  recruiters  will  relate  better  to  students,  thusenhancing the company’s chances of attracting the best candidates. One way in which some top sales companies recruit top-notchcandidates for sales positions is through Baylor University’s Centerfor Professional Selling. Under the direction of Terry Loe, Ph.D.,Baylor’s  Center  for  Professional  Selling  conducts  an  “AcademicWorld Series” of Professional Selling that is open to qualifying stu-dents  from  colleges  and  universities  around  the  country.  In  role-plays,  the  students  who  qualify  get  to  conduct  “real  life”  salesinterviews with “professional buyers.” These role-plays help the par-ticipating  students  to  develop  their  selling  skills.  Recruiters  fromwell-known  companies  like  EDS,  Wilsonart  International,  andXerox observe these sales role-plays. This puts them in a position topreview the “sales stars” of the future and get a head start on theirrecruiting efforts.2
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DEVELOPING PEOPLERecruitment is one way in which companies can get the best peo-ple. Top sales companies also network within their own organiza-tions to find the best people, as well as never losing sight of the needto develop their own salespeople. One Fortune 50 corporation tookthe development of its people to a higher level when it transferreda manager with ten years’ experience in its service organization tothe sales division to conduct the training of new hires. The premisefor this type of cross-divisional or cross-department training is thatthe more business perspectives people have, the better they will beable to serve the customer.3
There are several sales traps that, if not avoided, can cause tal-ented recruits to be less than successful once they begin to sell pro-fessionally. For example, some recruits believe that they are a failureif customers reject them or believe that academic classes don’t helpin the real world. They believe that the evidence supports the the-ory that you either have it or you don’t. However, these three mis-taken beliefs are traps not only for the salesperson, but also for thecompany that stubbornly believes that stars are born, not made. 
*  *  *
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sales trap 4:Rejection Is Failure
When  I  was  manager  of  training  and  development  at  the  XeroxInternational Training Center, I was asked to work with Ellen, a newsales rep who had a territory in the rural area of a Midwestern state.Unfortunately, she was struggling to achieve her sales quota. Here’swhat happened: 
Ellen  wanted  to  become  a  top  sales  performer.  Thiswas  not  surprising,  since  she  had  always  excelled  insports, school activities, and academics. During one ofmy visits, her manager asked if I would meet with her,tag along on her field sales calls, and give her any nec-essary feedback and advice. 
The next day I traveled with her on her sales calls. I satback,  observed,  and  kept  my  mouth  shut.  Ellen  wascharming, charismatic, and dynamic. She appeared tobe an excellent hire. She was strong on interpersonalskills. All her customers and prospects liked her. Afterthe fourth sales call, however, I began to see an emerg-ing pattern of sales-skill inefficiency. Ellen shied awayfrom asking customers about their problems, difficul-ties, or dissatisfactions. 
Later,  I  suggested  to  her  that  she  begin  to  ask  moreproblem-focused questions, questions directed at dis-covering problems, difficulties, or dissatisfactions. Shesaid  that  she  didn’t  mind  gathering  situational  andbackground information from the customers, but shewas hesitant about delving into their problems. Sincethe company training program at the time was basedupon a probing model, it was easy to give her specificsuggestions for improvement.
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At  first,  she  was  excited  about  trying  something  newand “simple.” But, of course, nothing is as simple as itfirst  appears  to  be.  In  applying  the  probing  model,Ellen  quickly  became  discouraged.  Her  performancegot worse instead of better. Customers were becomingannoyed  with  her.  Some  even  asked  her  to  leave  theoffice.  Ellen  couldn’t  stand  the  rejection.  She  hatedthose  problem  questions.  “They  only  annoy  my  cus-tomers,” she complained.  
This charming and likable person seemed to be losingher interpersonal skills. And then there was the prob-lem of her deteriorating performance. “My customersthink I’m prying too much,” she said. “I’m a failure.”
Ellen,  an  outstanding  hire,  was  about  to  give  up  because  she
thought she was about to fail. 
GIVING UP IS FAILUREFortunately, Ellen didn’t fail. As you’ll see, we found a way to getthe most out of her, to redirect her so that she could succeed for her-self and for the company. 
Rejection is not failure. The only way people fail in sales is by giv-ing up. In the videotape Do Right, former Notre Dame football coachLou Holtz says that we all face adversity in life, some of us more thanothers. According to Holtz, the people who win are the people whohandle adversity best. They’re the ones who don’t give up.
As it turned out, Ellen ended up handling her adversity like awinner.  She  didn’t  give  up.  She  identified  one  specific  area  ofweakness in her skill of asking focused questions. Before her salescalls, she and I “wordsmithed” examples of problem questions thatshe expected to ask in upcoming sales interviews. She began anewand worked hard to effect a behavioral change in her selling. This
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story  has  a  wonderful  ending.  Her  vibrant  personality,  coupledwith  her  increasingly  effective  probing  skills,  enabled  her  tobecome the top salesperson in her division in the central UnitedStates for Xerox. 
The  trait  of  never  giving  up  and  always  coming  back  to  fightanother round is lodged deeply in the outlook of successful peopleand is a trait that recruiters cherish in a candidate. As former Xeroxrecruiter John Cuny stated, “Show me someone who won’t give upat the first sign of adversity and I’ll show you a person who will bea winner someday.”
REJECTIONIt’s  pretty  easy  to  believe  that  rejection  means  failure.  It’s  humannature to feel bad about rejection, to take it personally. But this justisn’t true in sales. In sales, although “yes” means success, “no” doesn’tnecessarily mean failure. When customers say “no,” they’re just say-ing that they don’t want to buy right now. And that’s okay. They’renot saying that the salesperson is a failure. Salespeople who believethis fallacy aren’t looking at the big picture. They don’t see that a“no” is just a rock to be hurdled on the uphill road to top sales per-formance. They see rejection as failure and see themselves as vic-tims. Managers who let salespeople believe this won’t get the mostfrom the best.
SALES CALL RELUCTANCEThe consequences of falling into this sales trap are serious. If youbelieve that rejection is failure, the chances are good that pretty soonyou won’t want to make sales calls. You’ll want to sit on the bench.Sales  call  reluctance—the  fear  of  making  sales  calls—may  comewhen a salesperson:
∆ Feels inadequately prepared or trained to make the call
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∆ Lacks the drive and motivation to make the call
∆ Believes  that,  because  of  his  or  her  workload,  he  or  shedoesn’t have enough time to make new business sales calls
∆ Doesn’t like the job and so doesn’t make the effort
∆ Doesn’t believe that new business calls are as crucial to his
or her success as retaining current customers
∆ Fears rejection by the customer on the call 
Although several of these reasons may keep a salesperson frommaking  sales  calls,  in  my  experience  it’s  the  last  one—fear  of  thebuyer’s rejection—that’s at the top of most people’s list. Ask your-self  this  question:  Are  you  generally  more  excited  about  visitingsomeone who wants to see you or someone who may or may not wantto see you?
The belief that rejection is failure is simply the wrong inferenceto make from the facts. In sales, everyone faces rejection every day,and no one likes it—not even top performers. 
SUCCESSFUL FAILURETop performers don’t give up. They’ve embraced the concept of suc-cessful failure. Successful failure is learning from your mistakes sothat you don’t make the same mistake again. Thomas Edison expe-rienced  10,000  failures  before  he  hit  on  success  and  invented  thelight bulb. Edison counted all these failures as part of his success andsaid, “Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain wayto succeed is to always try just one more time.” 
Successful failure incorporates the idea that if you accept failureand learn from it, you’re more likely to be successful in the future.Babe  Ruth  had  714  home  runs—but  also  1,330  strikeouts.  HankAaron, who beat Babe Ruth’s record, had 755 home runs and 1,383
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strikeouts. Mickey Mantle had 536 home runs and 1,710 strikeouts.It’s pretty easy to see the similarity between the home runs (makingthe sale) and the strikeouts (making the call). 
LEARNING FROM MISTAKESSuccessful failure consists of two components: 
1. Double-loop  learning. Top  performers  use  a  learning  tech-nique called “double-loop” learning.4 They stand back fromthe failure and mentally review the situation. They analyzewhat they thought they were doing versus what they actu-ally did, ask for and accept feedback, and then practice andredefine what they want to do the next time. They learn byrelearning. In particular, top performers often ask others forhelp,  input,  and  feedback  about  why  they  failed.  Double-loop  learning  helps  you  improve  by  teaching  you  not  torepeat mistakes. 
Top  performers  spend  considerable  time  reviewing  anddebriefing their sales calls in order not to repeat their mis-takes. However, the time the consultant spends in review-ing  and  debriefing  calls  isn’t  the  deciding  factor  betweensuccess  and  failure.  The  deciding  factor  tends  to  be  thequality  of  feedback  from  the  manager,  coupled  with  theconsultant’s desire not to make the same error again.5
2. Not giving up. There is no substitute for field sales experi-ence.  You  can’t  learn  how  to  sell  by  watching  videos  ofinspirational sales leaders. How does a salesperson get expe-rience and at the same time increase his or her chances forsuccess? The answer is simple in theory, but hard in prac-tice: You must simply get out and make the sales calls. Youhave to be up at bat. 
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KNOWING YOUR NUMBERSWhen salespeople “get over it” and adopt the more positive philos-ophy that not all sales calls will be successful, they need to have anumber in mind, a success percentage of calls that result in specific,agreed-upon actions between salesperson and client that they willneed to achieve in order to meet or exceed their quotas. For exam-ple, what percentage of your sales calls do you target to result in anaction step such as a proposal, a demonstration, an introduction ofyour boss, a study, and so forth? 
Many Fortune 500 companies set activity targets for their sales-people.  They  expect  their  salespeople  to  make  x number  of  salescalls per day or per week, to deliver y number of proposals, and soforth. These targets result from the belief that the more sales callsthat someone makes, the more likely it is that a customer will “stickan order” in the salesperson’s pocket. This is probably true for trans-actional sales, but it isn’t true for the consultative type of sales. 
Only masochists like rejection. But top consultants recognize thatit comes with the territory and that not everyone needs their prod-ucts or services. They may even recommend someone who has bet-ter solutions. 
ACTION POINTS➔ Keep learning and improving. Top salespeople never stop learning.And they pay special attention when things go wrong. The bestlearning experiences come from successful failure.
➔ Set  sales  activity  standards  for  the  transactional  sale. With  transac-tional sales, results are about making a lot of sales calls, i.e., quan-tity. In other words, work hard.
➔ Develop  sales  strategies  for  the  consultative  sale. Unlike  the  transac-tional or small sale, where sales activities drive performance results,in the more complex consultative sale, the driving factor tends to
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be the development and execution of the correct sales strategies—i.e., quality before quantity. For example, if the customer is in theevaluation of options phase of the decision process, your strategymight be to identify how the customer ranks the decision criteriaon a scale from crucial to incidental. Probing effectively for thisranking would be the way to execute this strategy.
SALES TRUTH 4: Giving up is failure.
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sales trap 5:Academic Studies Aren’t Helpful in Real-World Sales
Here’s  the  mistaken  belief:  Academic  studies  aren’t  helpful  in  thereal world of sales. (“Academic studies” here refers to both formalcollege  sales  classes  and  academically  validated  research.)  Practi-tioners  will  often  say,  “What  do  academics  know  about  selling?Many of them haven’t ever sold.” 
But this prejudice is wrong and usually comes from lack of famil-iarity with what’s going on in academic institutions today and withthe published sales research. Academic studies (with some caveats)can help in getting the most out of the best.
THE DIFFICULTY OF STUDYING SALES
Over  lunch  one  day,  Jim,  a  first-line  sales  managerwho was recruiting at the Kelley School of Business,asked me, “Do you believe that college sales courseshelp students sell better once we hire them? And,” hewent on, “do you think that the students who do bestin your sales classes will be the ones who will do thebest in the field?”
Since I was a teacher, it was hard for me not to just say,“Yes, of course,” to both of Jim’s questions. But I didn’t. 
The  Institute  for  Global  Sales  Studies  at  Indiana  University,where I work, had not set up any metrics or research methodologyto effectively measure the impact of college sales courses on real-lifesales.  Nor  did  I  know  of  any  other  academic  institution  that  hadresearched this. 
Even if we wanted to measure the success of students who didtake college sales classes against the success of those who didn’t,
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there would be worrisome questions. First of all, how would wedefine “success?” Do we define it in terms of sales revenues, andif so, how do we factor in the different prices of products and ser-vices across different industries? And once we defined success insales, it wouldn’t be easy to draw a direct cause-and-effect rela-tionship between sales classes in college and sales performance inthe business world. How would we take into account such factorsas raw talent and the issue of recruiting top people who are rightoff the bat more likely to succeed than others? How would we fac-tor  in  questions  relating  to  the  student’s  industry,  the  student’sterritory, and the success of the product being sold relative to themarketplace  competition?  And  what  about  the  student’s  knowl-edge  of  the  product,  attitude,  passion  for  the  job,  manager,  on-the-job training, competition from other sales reps on staff, andso forth? These troublesome questions could have a serious impacton the “truth.” 
DO SALES COURSES HELP?Formal studies at the college level do help in sales. It is just difficultto know whether they help a little or a lot. Such studies may or maynot be high on the list of attributes that help a student succeed—attributes such as a methodical thought process, creative thinking,capacity to listen, degree of curiosity, and the desire to understandand  make  a  contribution.  These  other  attributes  may  be  moreimportant than studying sales formally in college. 
REDUCED RISK IN HIRING STUDENTS WHO STUDIED SALESCollege recruits who have studied sales may be less risky as newhires because they have chosen sales. They are more likely to be wellsuited to sales as a career and to stay in it long enough for theiremployers to see the return on the company’s investment in train-ing them. R. R. Donnelley & Sons, for example, is narrowing its
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salesperson  recruiting  effort  to  schools  that  offer  sales  courses.This  way,  the  company  can  be  more  certain  that  it  hires  peoplewho actually want to sell.6
Bridget  Momcilovich,  a  senior  manager  with  the  XeroxCorporation,  agrees.  “Students  who  have  taken  sales  courses  at  acollege level may not be more equipped to do the job better here atXerox  than  students  who  have  not  taken  sales  classes,  but  at  leastthey have a better idea of what they are getting themselves into. Inmy opinion, this helps us reduce our hiring risks.” 
SALES COURSES AS A SCRE