Show notes
It's not always easy to get information from clients. If you're in a situation where you have good relationships with your clients, but you're struggling to get the information you need from them, there are very specific things that you can do that will help you to accomplish that a lot faster and a lot more organically. It'll just feel better when you're doing it right, and they'll be a lot more likely to help you with it.
David: Hi, and welcome back. In today's episode, co-host Kevin Rosenquist, and I will be discussing getting information out of clients. Welcome back, Kevin.
Kevin: Hey, welcome back to you too. I'm really excited to talk about this because let's be honest, like we're all very conscious of the fact that everyone wants our information, so it's a bit of a struggle sometimes.
David: Yeah, it really is. And when we're looking at trying to extract information from clients, sometimes it's like trying to pull teeth. Or trying to get the information that we need to either advance the sale or to be able to get an order completed and that sort of thing. And it can definitely be challenging.
Kevin: Yeah, no doubt. How much of it do you think is how people ask for the information? Instead of saying like, give me this. Is it better to kind of think about it in more of a storytelling narrative kind of way to pull things out?
David: That's a great question. I think a lot of it depends on your personality and the way that you communicate with people.
Many salespeople, many of the best salespeople, I think are natural storytellers. You ask them what time it is and it starts with a story. Right? So...
Kevin: Well, it all started back when I was eight.
David: Let's talk about time, shall we?
Kevin: Yeah.
David: Yeah, so I think it can take that form. I think there are also situations, a lot of times, where we know what we need to get from them, and sometimes if we're just going for it all the time, that can come across as a little too pushy in some ways.
So I think there's a natural give and take that needs to happen, so that people can feel engaged with us.
If they feel engaged in the conversation, if they feel that we're listening to them, paying attention to what they need, and that's woven in with getting the next piece of information that I need without coming across like an interrogator.
Like I'm going to shine a light on you. It's like the third degree in the cop movies. Right? If it feels like that, they're gone.
But when you're able to just engage them and let them know that you care about getting them a result, then they're a lot more likely to be free with the information.
Kevin: Obviously at the front end of a sales cycle, it's more basic information and it keeps going, getting more detailed as things go on. Should people change their approach as they go on from first contacting someone to maybe having a warm or even hot lead?
David: Definitely, and I think you raised exactly the right point there, which is that it does generally start out more general and then it gets more and more specific as you're getting down to it.
Sometimes salespeople will lead with things like, what's your budget? Right? Which is kind of intrusive, right?
Kevin: Yeah. That's the one, right?
David: You don't need to ask me about my budget if I'm not buying anything from you, right?
Kevin: Yeah, yeah. What's your budget? What's your timeline? Right? Isn't that what everybody always says first?
David: Yeah. And that's not the kind of thing that generally needs to come first.
Initially, what needs to happen is they need to feel some sort of connection. They need to have a clear idea of what you do, how you can help them, and all that sort of thing.
So I think a lot of times, in the early stages of a relationship when we're first meeting a prospect, it is information gathering from us, but it's about trying to find out what they need, what they're looking for, where they have issues, where they have problems that we can potentially help.
And some of that can feel intrusive if we're not doing it well, if we're not doing it correctly. But when we're doing it right, it feels very natural.
If they understand that we are really there to provide them with a result that they're looking for --and if we can provide it, we will, and if we can't provide it, we'll tell them that.
If they feel like the relationship is open enough in the early stages to accomplish that, they'll be a lot more likely to have those conversations
Kevin: I think a lot of times any salesperson will want to focus on customer pain points. Obviously that's an important thing. What's a good approach for that?
Instead of going like, Hey, what's your pain points? What is a better approach to kind of pulling out that information naturally?
David: I think a lot of it is just about trying to figure out, again, going from more general to more specific, trying to identify whether or not there is any sort of need on the client's behalf.
Because if there's not, if they don't need what we're selling, then we don't have to drill down too much. We can very often find that out earlier on in the conversation, and we can disqualify them.
In the last podcast, we were talking about different levels of qualification, so I think a lot of that should happen at that point.
If we're able to disqualify someone very quickly. Let's say you meet somebody at a networking function. You're having a conversation and you're talking about what they do and how they do it. And during that conversation you recognize that this is probably not a prospect for me, this is not the person in the organization who buys what I'm selling or whatever.
So at that point, you can switch gears and say, Hey, listen, who in your organization does this or that? And then you can get referred to that person. You can take that over there and say, all right, maybe I can have a more of a qualification conversation with that person. And then get down into the nitty gritty with them.
I think a lot of problems that salespeople run into come from the fact that they dive into sales presentations before they ever qualify or disqualify the client.
Kevin: Yeah.
David: I've had so many conversations with salespeople who talked about the fact that they couldn't get an appointment with a person before they even knew whether or not that person was worthy of an appointment. Before they even knew whether or not they were qualified to do business with them.
Very often, you can find something like that out in a phone conversation or via email in a matter of minutes, rather than wasting a lot of time, setting up an appointment, going out, meeting the person, and then finding out that they're not qualified.
I learned that one pretty early on in my sales career because I thought the goal was to get the appointment.
So I would try to get appointments with people, and then when I got those appointments, I'd be in front of them and find out, wow, I should not have wasted my time driving to this person's place and meeting them.
I think a lot of it, is about that. It's about qualifying quickly and correctly upfront so that we can spend the most time with the people who are actually qualified to do business with us.
Kevin: Is that just because we feel that if we can get in front of somebody that we're more likely to close a deal? Like because face-to-face has so much value?
David: I think a lot of it has to do with that, and I think a lot of it is training. A lot of people have just been trained that this is what you need to do, go for the appointment.
Again, that's what I did in the early stages, because that's what I was taught to do.
Kevin: Yeah, I've done it, too. Yeah.
David: But when you recognize that time spent with a qualified prospect is worth 10 times or a hundred times more than it is with an unqualified prospect, you quickly realize that you can create 10 x the results, 20 x the results, 50 x the results when you are able to disqualify.
I use the analogy, it's like the old game we used to play in kindergarten, musical chairs, right?
So you got all the kids and you got all the chairs, and there's one less chair than there are kids. And the music starts and everybody's walking around in a circle and then the music stops, and then everybody has to scramble to find a seat.
Kevin: That's when you put elbows out and you get that chair, right?
David: Yeah, that's right. And whoever doesn't get a seat, they're out. It's a cruel game for kids.
Kevin: It kind of is, really.
David: But in sales, man, it's almost worse when you are the salesperson, because a lot of times prospects like to do that with salespeople.They like to elbow you out, but...
Kevin: Right.
David: The way that I like to approach it is to say I'm far better off if I'm going to be approaching 10 people, I'd like to be able to eliminate six, seven, or eight of them so I can spend the time with the other two or three, and actually make the sale.
I sort of flipped the script on that and say, all right, how can I disqualify the poor quality prospects as quickly as possible, so that we can then interact with those who are willing to share the information we need to be able to get that sale going.
Kevin: A lot of salespeople like to talk. I've known a lot of them in my day, and a lot of them just, they love to dominate the conversation. But obviously you need to listen, like a lot, when you're talking to a prospect.
How do you help people or how do you talk to people about balancing, being informative, but sitting back and letting the client talk.
David: I think a lot of salespeople have to recognize that if you're doing most of the talking, you're probably not going to be selling as much as you can sell.
Kevin: Right.
David: Especially in the early stages,