Tell me why why why why why
  • sales
  • Blog post

Tell me why why why why why

Here’s a true story from one of our Selling Essentials users. He’s a seasoned sales rep who’s always been good at his job. Over the past several months, however, he’s been doing exceptionally well – so well, in fact, that his sales manager recently called him into his office for a chat.

“So what’s your secret?” his boss asked.

“Why do you ask?” our rep replied.

The boss seemed confused. “I’ve seen your numbers recently and I’m just curious about what you’ve been doing differently.”

“I see. And why do you want to know what I’ve been doing differently?”

The boss was even more confused. “Well, so I can teach it to the other reps.”

“Why do you want to teach it to other reps?”

“So they can improve their numbers, too.”

“And why’s that important to you?”

“So we can increase our overall sales, of course.”

At that point the rep came clean. “That’s what I’ve been doing differently,” he said. “I keep asking why.” He went on to explain how he uses the “Five Whys” technique to dig deeper with customers and find out what matters most to them – the same technique he’d just used on his boss.

Now, that exchange might seem a little unnatural to you. Of course the sales manager wants to increase sales. But consider what happened next.

Because our rep had gotten his boss to articulate exactly what he was after, the conversation took on a new importance. The boss had started out with mild curiosity about what one of his reps was doing. By the fourth why, he was 100% focused on the deeper implications for his organization. And it suddenly became urgent for him to teach the Five Whys technique to all of his reps just as soon as possible.

Isn’t that how you want your buyers to feel about what you sell? Why it’s important, why it’s urgent, and why it’s worth buying?

You probably ask buyers why already. The Five Whys technique elevates your sales discovery to a new level.

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