Matt Ryder shows how to shift prospects from wanting a solution to needing one by asking questions that expose their own reasoning. When a prospect articulates why they need something, want becomes must. The trick is catching language patterns early enough to coach reps through them without jumping to conclusions.
When they say, "I want to do this," I want to turn that into "I must." What's the thought process behind the prospect wanting versus needing?
The whole reason why Dan's doing this is because he knows it. He's just not doing it because he's newish to sales. So that's why I'm asking him the questions in the way that I'm asking him because I want him to figure out that he actually knows what he's doing.
I want to understand what your thought process of taking someone through. What do you think the thought process is of someone wanting something versus needing something?
My favorite way of getting someone to figure out what they should be doing is to ask them about the thought process behind it. Because if you understand the thought process and you can articulate it, then you can start to do it. Want is just like blown up in the air. Need.
Is like, man, I need to make a change.
That makes sense. Okay. And so how would you convey that to somebody though who's like in the state of want? I can't shift that. You said you want to learn how to challenge people, but really what you want to learn how to do is how to show them like the logical consequence of their thought pattern, right?
Yeah.
So if you're looking for the right time, then it's about learning how to identify the language pattern early. But the problem is you can't identify it too early because you need to know whether or not it's a pattern or whether or not it's a one-off.
So could you give me an example of how you transition?
Dan just kind of keeps asking me, how do you do this? How do you do this? The why is so much more important than the how. You're overcomplicating a very simple issue. All you need to do is identify it. Go, oh, okay. Do you need it or do you want it? You answered your own question. You just didn't realize that you answered it. If you're thinking of the mechanics of a sales call while you're in the sales call, chances are you're gonna petrify yourself into not doing something or overthinking something, which slows down all your decision-making processes. I get young sales reps all the time trying to make it more complicated than what it has to be because they're looking for a reason for it to be really, really difficult. Because if something's really difficult, then you have an excuse to not be good at it. You gotta try and simplify things.
