About 42 years ago, I was being interviewed by the sales manager of a business machines company. He was a well-dressed man, about 40 years old, seated behind an impressively large desk. He had quickly reviewed my resume without much interest and pushed an ordinary #2 pencil across the desk towards me. “Sell me this pencil,” he said.
I picked up the pencil and turned it around in my fingers. There was nothing unusual about the pencil and I was taken aback by his request. I would learn later that this tack was not atypical among many “old school” managers. So I launched into some banal commentary about the quality of the lead and the eraser, its durability and handsome print output. He gave me a few positives for creativity but my discourse wasn’t what he was looking for and I didn’t get the job.
My first reaction was maybe he was looking for a salesman who could sell “ice cubes to eskimos” or “screen doors to submarine captains.” In other words, was he looking for someone whose personality was so powerful he could sell something that the other person didn’t want or need? I certainly wasn’t that kind of sales person and never aspired to being that kind. But that was my first reaction.
With experience, I have since learned that he was probably wanting me to ask some questions first like “What kinds of things do you use a pencil for?” or “What’s important to you about the pencil you use?” After I got answers to my questions, I would be in a better position to relate my particular pencil “solution” to his needs. This is why it’s so important to ask good questions.
It took a while but I learned to ask good questions, to probe well.
An entertaining example of this is illustrated by Hannibal the Magician.
Once you have asked all the good questions, you then have the background and relevant information you need to propose a solution which will help your prospect get what he needs that will help him. And that facilitates you making the sale.
I take this one step further. When you sell someone what he wants, you’re simply being an order-taker. He wants something. You have it. He buys it. When you sell someone what he needs, that is, when you help someone want what he needs, you’re being a professional sales person.
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