Chapter 2 - What Can You Do For Me, Anyway?

The chapter opens with a dialog between a salesman who is telling him what his service can do for the client, and a client who really isn't interested in hearing from him. The main problem is that the salesman is dominating the conversation, talking to the prospect rather than listening to them, making assumptions rather than asking questions.

In particular, people look to purchase products to solve their problems - they do not look to someone to tell them what their problems are. If you get them talking, you can eventually steer the conversation to where they are telling you their problems. Then, and only then, can you begin offering a solution.

One common maxim in sales training is that the salesman should control the conversation - but controlling conversation means directing the flow toward the sale, not preventing the other party from speaking.

Another common problem among salesmen is assuming they know more about their prospects' needs than the prospects themselves. While an experienced salesmen has helped many clients to solve their problems, he has only a vague and general notion of what their typical needs are, which may not coincide with an individual prospect's needs.

Salesmen tend to avoid asking the client about their problems, figuring that the client will likely pour out a world of issues for which the salesman has no product to sell. Alternately, there are clients who seem to expect a silver bullet - a quick fix to a major issue that is likely unrealistic. A discussion that starts and ends in this manner is not productive - but many discussions that end in a sale start at a higher level, and the conversation progresses from abstract to concrete, philosophy to practice, general to specific, etc.