Why marketing and selling is like interviewing for a job

Do you help people solve their problems? If you’re in business, that exactly what you do.

Perhaps the software that runs a company’s ordering system needs upgrading. Possibly, a power tool manufacturer wonders if there’s a better way to connect their brand to consumers. Or, someone just needs a new pen.

Why?

One thing is for sure and always the same; the way to get to the bottom of what’s the best solution is to ask questions. It’s the only way to zero in on the buyer's actual needs.

It’s part of the discovery phase of marketing and selling. It can take a few minutes in a retail environment or many months for business-to-business offerings. The prospective customer wants to know why you’re the best person, company, product or service.

Why you’re unique, different than your competition. Why your value exceeds your cost. Why they’re better off doing business with you than doing nothing.

Likewise you want to know something about the person that’s standing in front of you, surfing your website, or perhaps watching your videos. So, somewhere along the line you must interact with people and have a two-way conversation.

It’s like a job interview. A good interviewer asks great questions and a bad one just rattles off a bunch of reasons their business is a great one to work for. A good job candidate also asks great questions and a bad interviewee just answers what’s asked and not much more.

Let’s get back to selling that pen. It seems that a favorite interview questions is for the interrogator to pick up a pen from their desk and say, “Sell me this pen.” You might have seen this in the movie The Wolf of Wall Street, although hiring mangers have used a variant of that for eons.

The main character, Jordan Belfort, is with his gang of misfits and hangers-on when he holds up his pen and asks that question. One takes the pen from Belfort and asks him to write his name on that napkin, to which Belfort says he doesn’t have a pen anymore. The reply, “Exactly. Supply and demand, my friend.”

This is cute, and not the way to market and sell anything.

The three dimensions of discovery. Ideally, your company has done its homework and you’ll know the questions that prospects have on their minds -- BEFORE the marketing and selling begins; this is the first dimension of discovery. Then, the buyer starts a conversation with you, online or offline, and their inner-voice says, “Sell me this” -- and they ask questions, just not the ones they should; this is the second dimension. You also ask questions, BEFORE you even try to sell your solution -- in the case of online marketing you’re incorporating the answers from the first dimension of discovery into what you write or say in a video. In other words, react to a question that you imagine they are asking themselves as you speak.

The best approach to asking questions starts with a roadmap. Successfully identifying a prospect’s needs is the single most important aspect of marketing and selling. Great questions encourage prospects to open up and identify their needs and desires. Otherwise, just talking about all the wonderful features of your product or service is a big waste of time -- until a need is acknowledged. The problem is there are literally thousands of potential questions that you can ask. So, start by asking yourself what outcome you’d like from the phone call, video post, email, or your landing page on your website. Many times that means zeroing in on how your prospect feels about their status quo -- “tell me about your current situation.” and “What are the biggest issues you’re facing right now?” and then “How will those challenges affect your ability to reach your goals?” Identifying goals (yours and the buyer’s) and then developing the plan to achieve it is most often the best way to get to the outcome you want.

It’s not about the pen. Sales are made between people that share mutual benefit from a transaction to satisfy a need. Just like a job interview should be a two-way conversation, so too is any interaction with a customer; the prospective employer/buyer is interviewing the applicant/vendor, and the applicant/vendor is also interviewing the employer/buyer. No feature-dumps please; just questions, raising key points and sharing information, and answers. This keeps the conversation going and builds relationships that lead to a sale.

Asking questions, lots of questions, gets people to tell you what’s really on their mind. Ultimately you are helping people take an objective view of their needs through a discovery process.

Hopefully you don’t need to interview for a job any time soon. If you do though, then you’ll know that at the end of the day they’ll “buy” what you have because of what you can do for them.

Ron Stein is President of FastPath Marketing (www.marketing-strategies-guide.com) and the author of the Rapid Impact Marketing & Selling Playbook. As a speaker, coach, and consultant he works with small business owners helping them to accelerate the path between their vision and the actions needed to reach, win, and keep customers. Ron is the creator of the FastPath to More Customers Now! 7-step marketing system based on more than twenty years as a successful business owner, corporate CEO, business development executive, and salesman. He is also a mentor at two nationally recognized business accelerators. Ron offers one-on-one and small group mentoring, conducts seminars, and consults. He can be reached at 727-398-1855 or Ron@FastPathMarketing.com.