At some time in a sales person’s life, she will have the following experience. You walk into a meeting with a “controller” type executive, who asks you “OK, what have you got for me?” He immediately asks this question, after greeting you and sometimes doesn’t even take the time to say, “Hello.”
No matter how you attempt to give a good direct answer to this question, you’re doomed to hear something like, “I don’t need that. What else do you have?” And you’ll be out of there in a few minutes wondering what happened?
A better way to answer his question is to segue into a question of your own. For example, a good response utilizes what I call “Say It/Ask it.” You respond with a general answer like “As I told you during our phone call we have advanced solutions to (give a general benefit of your subject) and to save us both some time, is it OK if I ask you a few quick questions?”
The idea is, you answer the other person’s question and then add a question of your own. Simply put, you say something then you ask something.
By using this response you’re back in control. Remember the person who asks the last question controls the conversation, not the person who does all the talking.
Some controllers get very annoyed by hearing your questions, so you may need to answer a few of his questions in a row, before asking one back to regain control of the conversation.
But If you answer directly,”What have you got for me?” you’ll find your meeting is very brief.
If you like this post, and would like to learn a lot more, you can read the first 16 pages FREE of my book, “Empathy Persuasion.”