Aside from the very helpful questions and approaches outlined in the Triage Call mini-series, there’s another, even more pointy question that you can ask, right at the start of your very first meeting with a new buyer.
"Why me, and why now?"
Doing so doesn’t only display leadership, it also creates an eminently helpful frame for the conversation, one where you and your buyer focus on what actually matters most:
Why they might want to hire you instead of someone else, and why now is the right moment to get help solving a problem.
Attentive readers will have noticed that the first part – why you and not someone else – relates directly to your USP, and the compelling differentiators that make your solution and help more desirable than anything else on the market, and:
"Why now" is of course the lens you need to look through in order to figure out whether or not engaging with this buyer even makes sense at all.
Because if you think that this company has a now-problem, but they’re just exploring some options for the future, you’re just going to end up trying to win a deal that for the moment isn’t winnable at all.
And that will surface very quickly, if you ask "Why now?" – which is great because then you can pivot the conversation to one where you future-pace your buyer, and explore with them when will be the right time, what needs to happen for ‘someday’ to become ‘now’, and when would be the right time to continue the conversation. Which is a lot more fun than pushing a rope, trying to get a deal done that won’t happen.
And where it comes to that ‘Why me?’ question, that’s quite useful, because it asks your buyer to sell themselves on why they might want to work with you.
Which is a lot nicer – and a lot more effective – than you trying to sell them.
And while it might seem a little awkward to ask the "Why me, why now?" question at the start, careful phrasing and positioning of the question makes it easier:
"Before we dive in, just so that I get an idea of what you’re trying to get out of this conversation, I have a question:
Why me, and why now?
Out of all the options out there, why did you decide to talk to me rather than somebody else?
And, this challenge you mentioned in your email, what makes that a now-problem rather than a someday-problem?"
Ask your buyer that, and watch while a terrifically helpful, focused, clarifying conversation unfolds.
And, when that conversation reveals that yes they are interested in your help and yes it is a now-problem to solve, you can simply ask them if they’re open to an actual sales conversation:
"I have some ideas on how I could help. Would you like to talk about some options, and what a programme and its cost would look like?"
Selling doesn’t have to be that hard or that awkward. You just need to make sure you ask the right questions.