Contact Us

Fast Tip Friday: Happy Ears

May 6, 2022 7:00:00 AM

In this Fast Tip Friday video, Charlie Hauck talks about the importance of ditching your "happy ears" and to listen for the truth.  

For more information, please visit our website at www.growthdynamicsonline.com 

Hey, this is just a bonus blog that we're putting out this week. One of the things I love about my business about being able to spend time with sales people day in, day out week after week, year after year. And, look, it's over 30 years now that Growth Dynamics has been involved in this world of helping people sell more, sell more efficiently, sell more effectively, sell more profitably. And one of the things that I always find that needs refreshing, is getting people emotionally grounded so that they can hear the truth as opposed to developing happy ears and hearing what they want to hear to continue on a process.

We've been involved in a couple really nice sized projects, listen, clients recently, and one of them was a major multimillion dollar deal that I can tell you that the company that I'm working with wanted, it would have loved to have won that business. The problem was that the salesperson involved with it, heard what he or she wanted to hear, and didn't either a hear it correctly, or be take the time to dig into it to get the real truth out of the information that they heard. So the I'll go to the end of the story first. And the end of the story is that a lot of time, effort and money was spent to go and make a pitch to the prospect to win this multi million dollar opportunity. And it failed. We didn't get the opportunity. We weren't selected as the vendor.

And the truth was the vendor that was selected was the vendor that the salesperson had heard that they couldn't wait to get rid of, it couldn't have been too terrible, because that's who they're still working with.

So what happens, salespeople get happy ears, and in a way gives them permission to not do the things that you've got to do to be your best as a salesperson. And in this case, the person didn't ask enough questions, they heard enough to believe that a decision would be made, and a change would be made. And that before anyone else was considered, the company she was representing was the choice that they wanted to go with, not the way it turned out.

So today's reminder, don't let your emotions run away with your discipline of how to be the most efficient and effective salesperson that you can be. The cost of losing isn't just losing the opportunity. It's all the energy. It's all the frustration. It's all the resources on the backside that the company contributes to making the pitch and getting products and people in front of the prospect company.

The real issue though, not enough discovery, not enough opportunity to position ourselves as the best choice and I truly believe we were every bit as good is the people they decided to stick with. We just didn't put ourselves in the right position to prove it. So be very careful. I love hope. I just don't love it in sales, happy ears tend to grow a lot of hope. Thinking that it's all going to work out and we've got an inside track. I'd like you to be disciplined.

Remember the pendulum theory, when it sounds like it's at four o'clock. Take it back to nine o'clock and see what kind of response you get from the prospect. Do the full diagnostic interview, do that discovery interview. Why are you here? Why are you talking to us? What are the problems that you're having? What did you try to do about it? How long has it been going on? master that skill and stay out of the happy eaters world? It doesn't mean you're not going to get it doesn't mean you're walking away from opportunities, but it means you're going to sell with a lot more discipline. And in my mind, a lot more discipline turns into a lot more success.

Bag the happy ears, turn the emotion off, deal with the facts, get them emotional, and take the money. Thanks for listening. Have a great sales week. Bye