Do customers know too much?

"Our customers know so much now... they don't want to see our product"

Orange Hat Thinking – Sales Director Dilemmas #8

Its true many customers will try to self-diagnose as there is more information around than ever

Sadly they may not see the value of talking to salespeople if they behave like walking websites and don't bring anything else to the table

🔶 Reposition salespeople as 'sense makers' who help the customer to think 🔶

This is core to a collaborative selling approach

It involves a mindset shift and needs subtle tweaks to traditional sales skills

🔶 Questioning
- Use.questions to encourage reflection not complete your checklist
- Be careful creating extra 'pain'
- Try to coach rather than catch out

🔶 Value selling
- The customer defines value and you can help by providing insights that bring a new perspectives
- Develop a point of view and share it
- Think emotional as well as logical pressures

🔶 Closing
- Work on 'meeting the customer where they are at' and providing information required at that stage
- Gain commitment to move to the next logical step
- Use tools like Mutual Action Plans to share how they can achieve their desired outcomes

Good selling is rooted in applying many of the traditional skills with a slight modern twist

The skills are essentially the same but need an 'upgrade' to be fit for purpose today

If you can support your salespeople in this they can then support your customers and the conversations will increase in both quality and quantity

You might well find that discussions become less product focused and you have more success as a result

Make shifts > make sense > make sales

Why 'Orange Hat'

The Six Thinking Hats is a method used to amplify creativity by making sure that a broad variety of viewpoints and thinking styles are represented.
It was developed by Dr. Edward de Bono

The six hats are:

⚪ White: the objective hat, which focuses on facts and logic

🔴 Red: the intuitive hat, focusing on emotion and instinct

⚫ Black: the cautious hat, used to predict negative outcomes

💛 Yellow: the optimistic hat, used to look for positive outcomes

🍏Green: the creative hat, where ideas are abundant and criticism spare

🔵 Blue: the hat of control, used for managing the process

I've taken the liberty of addling a new one

🔶 Orange: the hat of applied sales thinking, used to address real life challenges and drive results today.