company that sells consumer packaged goods probably knows more about
how and why consumers buy groceries than most
of the retailers they sell
to.
Wherever the insight comes from, you’ll know if you’ve actually
reframed your customer’s thinking based on their reaction. And this is
where some reps really fall into a trap. Ironically, if your customer reacts to
your sales pitch with something like, “Yes, I totally agree! That’s
exactly
what’s keeping me up at night!” well, then you’ve actually failed. That may
feel counterintuitive, but it’s true nonetheless. Sure, you’ve
found an issue
or insight that
resonates
, but it doesn’t
reframe
. You haven’t actually taught
them anything. This is exactly where we see Relationship Builders struggle
all the time. They return from a sales call excited about the “connection”
they established with a customer because they “nailed the issue match.” “It
was like I was reading his mind! Everything I put on the table was
something he was focused on!” But then they’re surprised when that
customer hasn’t returned their calls two weeks later. They assume that their
successful diagnosis of the customer’s needs
was sufficient to win the
business. But that’s not the case. Rapport and reframe are not the same
thing. Just because you “get” the customer’s business doesn’t mean you
automatically
get
the customer’s business. Not by a long shot.
Challenger reps, on the other hand, are looking for a different customer
reaction altogether. Rather than, “Yes, I totally agree!” they know they’re
on the right track when they hear their customer say, “Huh,
I never thought
of it that way before.” The best indicator of a successful reframe, in other
words, isn’t excited agreement but thoughtful reflection. You’ve just shown
your customer a different way to think about their business—perhaps a land
mine they’d overlooked, a trend they underappreciated,
or an alternative
they’d prematurely dismissed—and now you’ve got them curious. They’re
wondering, “What exactly does this mean for my business?” or even better,
“What
else
don’t I know?”
This is the pivot point of any effective Commercial Teaching
conversation. When your customer says, “Huh, I never thought about it that
way before,” they’re clearly telling you they’re engaged, maybe even a little
unsettled. And as customers themselves have told us, that’s exactly what
they were hoping for when they sat down with you in the first place. That’s
when the conversation itself becomes something worth paying for.
Still, just because we’ve
helped them
see
things differently doesn’t
mean we’ve necessarily persuaded them to
do
things differently. That’s next
—and it’s just as important.
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