Should You Answer This Question?
When you meet with a prospect for the first time and they ask you “What sets you apart from the rest?” right up front – should you answer that question or not?
In my opinion what you don’t want to do is to just show up and throw up all over your prospects by telling them how great you are because you’re guessing that what you’re telling them impresses them and that it helps them to make a buying decision.
Instead, you need to get information out of the prospect first and then use this in your answer.
So you really want to start off by looking like you’re going to answer that question and then you turn it around and ask them a question which will in turn help you to answer the question more fully.
If you do this correctly then the prospect will even forget about the question they asked to start all of this off as you take the lead in true consultative selling fashion.
I always recommend that you get some information from the prospect before you meet. i.e what their problems or challenges are so you can use this with them should they ask this question:
Like this:
PROSPECT:
“Jo, what makes your products so different to the rest?”
YOU:
“Well, one of the reasons that makes our ABC widgets so different is the way that they are manufactured. There is only a 1% return rate compared to an industry standard of 7%. You mentioned to me on the phone that this is an issue to you, how are your current widgets performing for you?”
You see, the average salesperson would just throw up all over the prospect:
“Our products do this…..”
“Our company has been in business for…..”
“We do this…..”
“We’ve worked with……”
Whereas the sales professional acts like a professional. They hardly ever go into a sales interaction blind without doing their homework upfront and that’s the difference!
Happy selling
Sean
Sean McPheat
MTD Sales Training
Telephone: 0800 849 6732
