Frequently Asked Questions

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Question:
How does Sales Ready Messaging® relate to CustomerCentric Selling®?

Answer:
CustomerCentric Selling® is a sales process that teaches sales people what to do at each step in their sale cycles. CustomerCentric Selling® is designed for sales, sales management, executives, technical support, marketing and professional services to have a uniform company approach utilizing the same language and strategies throughout the selling process. This enables everybody in the organization to work as a team.

Part of the CustomerCentric Selling® sales methodology is Sales Ready Messaging®. Sales Ready Messaging® teaches sales people what to say at each step in the sales process. The foundation of any sales process is a meaningful dialog between a seller and a prospect about how the prospect can achieve a goal or solve a problem using the seller's offering. The conversation would follow guidelines, which are part of a defined sales process. It would be supported by Sales Ready Messaging®. The “messaging” is the content of the conversation, product usage positioning and delivery strategy. This enables the salesperson, regardless of their age or experience, to relate to the vertical market, job title and goals of the buyer.

For example, a twenty-something salesperson wants to have a meaningful dialogue with a 55-year-old enterprise executive who is considering spending hundreds of thousands—even millions—of dollars on technology that he or she doesn’t understand in order to solve a problem he or she has never solved. Sales Ready Messaging® allows the young salesperson to relate to this executive by job title and corresponding job responsibilities. The conversation would focus on the executive’s specific goals with respect to the seller’s offering.

Question:
Why do we have to do role plays in CustomerCentric Selling® training? What's the point?

Answer:
We all learn in different ways, so in a classroom setting, the most effective way to offer new skills is by a combination of seeing, hearing, and doing.

We first tell you about the skill. Then we model it. Then we ask you to practice it with your peers.We have observed that when people resist the script and lapse into their comfort zone, the common phrases and verbal tics that sound "salesy", i.e. the faux pas list, come leaping into the conversation, along with a tendency to make statements rather than ask questions.

Doing a role play is doing a skill practice. You wouldn't read a book by Tiger Woods and expect to shoot par, or watch a video of the Williams sisters and expect to win a championship. In the same way, just hearing or seeing the CustomerCentric Selling® tools is not enough for you to achieve the maximum benefit of the learning. The skills practice helps your brain hear your mouth practicing good technique: asking questions, staying in alignment with the customer, and identifying goals and the values the customer assigns to achieving those goals. The magic isn't the words on the page, but the process being followed. With each role play, we observe that salespeople sound more natural and more comfortable.

Practice makes perfect.

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