The $8 Haircut

The $8 Haircut was posted by JD on LinkedIn today.  It is shown below.

JD challenged you "When you visit your next prospect what will you do differently?"

There were over 50 comments on the post and I love the ones who encourage us to listen more.  When we talk with our members about being different, we start with listening.  Trust me, if you listen to your clients and prospects you'll be different to almost all your competitors.

We talk about earning the right to sell.  And telling is not selling. 

Do you really understand your customers?  How much time do you spend understanding what your prospective customer is trying to fix with your product? 

If I could guarantee you 10 hours with your next prospect at the start of the sales cycle:

1. In which hour would you do a product demo?
2. How many of those hours would be talking about you, your company and your product?
3. How long would you take to understand your client, asking critical questions, allowing you and your team to really understand your prospect? 

If you rush in on 1, spend too much time on 2 and not enough time on 3, how can you possibly understand value as perceived by your prospect?

The truth is you only have a limited amount of time with your client.  Use your time wisely.  Learn before you earn.