I was researching new objection handling methodologies last week for a program I am writing for a client when I discovered some great little nuggets. One of them was that an objection was nothing more than an unanswered question, the trick is to convert the objection to a question so that it can be answered appropriately. In my world, I had always felt that if I was getting an objection before the sale closed, I had missed something in the value discovery phase. (Communicate) I had a method for dealing with it but this little nugget happened to hit at a great time, when I was trading blog articles with my friend and colleague, David Cooke. SalesCooke.com David, a clear and brilliant thinker in the world of sales happened to post an article I disagreed with and I wrote about it here. We traded a few posts and I never understood why I couldn't understand Dave. Now I know. I never really understood the question.
David expressed his frustration with the lack of self confidence or temerity to take on a commission only position. One we converted this to the real question though, it turns out the question is the lack of risk tolerance to even listen to what the sales opportunity may be. It makes it far more difficult to find the one right person to fill that position who will be good at it, enjoy it and bring real value to the effort. I can understand that, I have had difficulty hiring the right folks too.
Years ago when managing technical education facilities, I discovered while working with a number of teachers, sales people and the owner of the company that the DNA between them all was remarkably similar with the primary difference the amount of "risk tolerance" each was willing or capable of accepting. Teachers, while happy to be in the public eye, serve their students and support growth, had little tolerance to work for a commission and little base pay. Sales people of course, are often happy to be sociable, serve their customers and support their customers. Sales people however do live on a lower base pay and not make up the difference but move into a very good living through commissions. Entrepreneurs on the other hand, live entirely on what they sell. No base pay. All risk.
Dave my friend, I think you are looking for an entrepreneur for this position. I hope you find him/her. I hope they have no other positions or personal projects they are working on and I really hope they listen to the whole opportunity before saying yes or no.
I think because you are recruiting for a position you do indeed have a sales job for the person you are looking to hire and you will need to help them overcome their own hurdles of trust and credibility to accept the position. They will have to understand the upside of taking this on and they will have to have enough money in the bank to live until the sales cycle starts paying them. If they are smart, they will negotiate an equity position in the company for their efforts and if the owner is smart, he will accept it with certain provisions.
If there is anyone in the world who can make this happen, Dave, it has to be you.
Respectfully submitted,
Michael D Goodman
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