TRUTH #4 – Understand customer needs first, before providing recommendations!

When I train “rookie” salespeople with the “deer in the headlights look,” I simplify this statement, “Listen first, talk second and you never go wrong!”  Why do salespeople continually violate this practice?  How can we make recommendations without doing a diagnosis first?  We’re no different than doctors today.  So as a “Doctor of Selling,” no more sales malpractice!  No more recommendations without doing an analysis first.  It’s our due diligence or rite of passage as a Sales Professional.  Leaders, please continue to coach and reinforce.