My topic today is something that I think anybody in business development, and frankly, anyone that's into communication, in a way they think they just got to get better at it, and they're tired of having conversations that might not be the real conversations they should have. So lets talk about a prop today. This is a trusty bottle of ibuprofen, you know, the stuff you take when you have that headache, or something else hurts, maybe a toothache, or your knees sore from working out, whatever it is, how many times do we go and grab the ibuprofen and say, give me four, I can't deal with this anymore? Look, I'm all in favor of knocking out pain, but I'm more in favor of not just dealing with the symptom, but really getting into the root cause of the pain.
A lot of people that have to have business development conversations, are talking about selling aspirin or ibuprofen to their prospects and customers. Ibuprofen, hey, someone's shipping takes too long. Sounds like a problem. What's your ibuprofen that you're dispensing? You might, maybe make it go away, but really, what's the root issue of the conversation? Why does it matter if it takes too long to get a product shipped in? Your price is too high, and remember, price is never the problem. Price means that I still have pain, even at a low price. So, what's the real issue that it would be worth it paying the ibuprofin of a higher price product with better value and better support by a salesperson.
My advice to you this week is don't jump to prescribe a remedy or a solution to something that's not the actual root cause of the problem. Stick in the sales process and the business development conversation long enough to find out. I know it hurts. Why do you think it hurts? How long has it been hurting? How is it impacting the way you operate your business? What happens if you don't get that pain eradicated? Quit being guilty of malpractice and prescribing before you fully diagnose the circumstance.Make your solution focused entirely on the root cause of the problem and not the easy, identifiable symptom of the real issue.
Do the whole job. Don't do what most people do. Hear a problem, jumped to fix it. Missed the target, lose the customer. Get out of ibuprofen and dig into the real issues.
Go make money. If you want some more information on how to get into the root cause, you know where to find me. Take care.
