Thresholds, and Blind Spots, and Sales, Oh My…
by David J.  Parnell
www.davidjparnell.com

At times it can be quite a challenge helping a client or prospect make the decision to move forward with a project.

You have the advantage… or more accurately the gift of not being in their emotionally charged shoes. Often time making a decision can be made more difficult when as the sales person you supply less than comprehensive information.

Well, you might be thinking, “How could that happen? I answered every one of their questions…”  Well, therein lies the rub…

More often than not, clients or customers will only have a surface knowledge of what they want. Although consciously they have a notion as to what they are looking to accomplish, there are usually subconsciously-held issues that remain unapparent to the client unless directly tapped into.
 
In order to help yourself get the “full story” for them you should elicit what are known as “Threshold values” and “Blind Spot values”.   Here’s what I mean by these important values that could prevent you from getting the sale…

Threshold values represent the values of overriding importance compared to their consciously available interests.

Blind Spot values represent the areas of the sale that the customer or client may not know even exist.  Until uncovered, they are an invisible and highly effective sales blocker…

I’ll give an example to illustrate both types…

Lets say you are a car salesman and you’ve had a lengthy conversation with the client about what they want… and of course the car needs to be fast and red and needs to get good gas mileage.

So, to elicit their Threshold values the question you would ask them is “If I am able to get you a car that is fast and red and gets good gas mileage, what could prevent you from buying it?”

This open ended question forces them to perform a mental search outside of the box per se and draws their mind to factors outside of the vehicle, for instance they may respond “well, I can’t spend over $30K” or “I wouldn’t buy a foreign car”.

You can see where this is going… Thats pretty important to know.
In following along with the above example, to elucidate their Blind Spot values you will ask closed ended questions that represent specific aspects of the car that they have not already addressed. For instance, let’s say you have settled on a fast, red American car that is under $30K.

Now you need to run down your “checklist” to make sure they haven’t missed anything. For example, did you talk about passenger side airbags? How about the oil change plan?

In assuring yourself that you’ve uncovered as much information as possible you will go a long way toward preventing any hiccups at the time of close and you will prevent wasted time by thoroughly filtering your prospects.

Whether you are a sales person, an executive or a significant other effective communication is paramount to your success, functionality and well being. For more information please visit me at www.davidjparnell.com  to learn more.