Have you ever found, when doing Discovery with a prospect,
that the problem they face may not be best addressed by your offering – that
another organization’s product would be better choice for them? Do you go ahead and propose your offering
anyway or do you suggest a solution from another company? (Note – I’m not talking about direct
competitors’ products, but other non-direct competitor alternatives…)
A few thoughts:
First, the quest for rapid revenue may not be the right
choice, particularly if the main problem faced by the customer requires
capabilities that you don’t offer. An
example? A customer called me asking for
demo skills training for his team. In
our Discovery conversation, I realized that his team had a bigger need for behavioral
presentation skills training than for demo skills. I could
have gone ahead with delivering demo skills training, but felt he’d be
better served by training his team to get more comfortable in front of
audiences (body position, word pace, tone, etc.) I suggested he talk with the folks at Mandel
Communications (who do a delightful job teaching people how to present). He did and put his team through their
training. Some months later, he called
me again and said his team was ready for demo skills training (and they were)
and we did a series of very successful Great Demo! Workshops.
Interestingly, making a recommendation that is NOT your
offering can pay delightful dividends, in terms of dramatically increased earned
credibility and trust. Your prospect
will likely come back to you, the
next time they are looking for solution to a problem, rather than your
competition. This is exactly what
happened in this case – my customer told me, after our first Workshop, that he
preferentially chose Great Demo! because of my initial recommendation for
behavioral presentation skills training.
You’ve become a trusted advisor – as opposed to simply
pushing a product.
