On a recent overseas trip with my family, we were walking through the shops at the historic Medina district in Marrakech, Morocco. “Jemaa el-Fna, Souk Semmarine is Morocco's most expansive market. It's a visually compelling labyrinth where traders have been hawking their services and peddling their wares for well over a thousand years.” Today, it remains a bustling market where shoppers from all over the world come to shop for the area’s goods. Don’t worry, there’s a point to all this history.
As we were walking past a leather goods shop, I was drawn to some travel bags and decided to take the opportunity to point out to my son how you recognize good quality leather. After a few minutes, the shopkeeper approached us and after negotiating which language we would engage in, we settled on English. Our engagement went something like this: “What price is this bag?” His response, “What is your budget? What do you want to spend my friend?” …….What????
Two things smacked me in the face in that moment. First, with his limited English, he had managed to learn the word “budget”, the context around it and how to use it. This meant that he understood the importance of this word in his sales system. And if he learned it in English, I wondered in how many other languages he had taken the time learn it…. Forgive me, but this is the way I think. : )
The second thing that hit me in that moment was that this dude had a sales system and in his process of qualifying me had just thrown a reversal at me! I had approached him and asked him to present information about his product that I had not yet earned. Instead of giving up the information and lowering his business stature, he decided to hold onto his information and establish equal business stature with me first… and he did it with by returning my question with a question. I was so thoroughly impressed that I had to disengage, excuse myself and walk off with my son to share my lesson with him. After all, I really wasn’t a qualified buyer. My intent had been to gather information and walk away smarter. I wasn’t worth his time and he knew it. A little later, I overheard a young American man walk up to a different shop that had watches for sale and ask, “How much for a watch?” I watched the same type of response. It wasn't a fluke but a technique that these fellows had learned. His response was, “Which watch? Do you want to buy all of them?” And then he smiled and made the young man smile. Perfect technique and timing. He built instant rapport with his question and tossed the ball back in the prospect’s court to answer the open question…"Which watch?”... all without needlessly giving up information to an unqualified prospect. Brilliant execution!!
At one of the oldest markets in the world, these savvy salespeople were practicing sales techniques that were passed down to them through generations of salespeople before them. As professional salespersons, they had vetted, practiced and fully implemented these techniques in their sales process. They didn't wing it. They had a system and they relied on it because their livelihood depended on it. They practiced the techniques and perfected their execution.
You never know where you are going to find a lesson. For me, on this day, it was at a market from the ancient world with the lesson provided by merchants practicing knowledge developed over a millennium.
As a professional salesperson, how often do we give up information before fully qualifying our prospect? Isn’t it time we established a sound system we can rely on for every sales interaction?
