Features, Benefits and Motivation

0:04 Thank you for joining us on the Winning and Selling Podcast on Professor Scott Plum of the Minnesota Sales Institute and with Ms. Bill Hellkamp of Rich Development Systems and together we founded Franchise Sales Pro with a commitment to work with franchise owners and franchisees to develop sales and boost revenue. In sales there's a common pattern that many professionals follow with the best intentions. They ask questions, they probe, they dig into the mechanics of this prospect situation.

0:32 What system are they using? How much are they spending? What's not working? Next they tie the pertinent features into benefits for the prospect. But sell them to they get into the crucial questions of motivation. Why? You must be motivated to tune in. So listen up, the Scott and I probe, features, benefits and motivation and other appealing appetizers on episode 679 of the Winning and Selling Podcasts. Well Bill we've got a packed episode today but before we get into the book that we're

1:06 doing Mitch Larson's The Power of Purpose we're going to be doing it together. Yeah it's going to be good. It's one and two. I like the debrief workshop or summit that we were at, we were at the Fagory Franchise Summit in Minneapolis a couple weeks ago and met some of the leading franchise owners in the country and what fascinating conversations to be able to learn about the systems that these franchise have built, the franchise systems and how receptive our focus and here's a common theme in the industry term unit level economics.

1:40 How are the franchisees doing when it comes to their sales skills and bringing in revenue into their particular franchise and then building up the network and the net worth of all of the franchises when one does better and it's just fascinating to see that being implemented. Well I think what we found was the assumption is that people who buy these franchises already know how to sell and I think sometimes the people who buy the franchise assume if I open my doors and put out my shingle the people are going to be flocking to me and all I have to do is quote them and send it out.

2:13 So there's some conflict there that has to be overcome and I think that's a challenge in purchasing and selling franchises is that communication about what really has to be done in order to make this successful. I mean the leading question that we offer to survey to the franchise owners to look at, the first question is what selling skills do you look for when awarding a franchise and you know cue the crickets. I don't think they ever really thought of that is this person is driven they've got the capital they've got some experience they seem to show them how the book work you know how you do the books and what the economics of this are.

2:53 So what are the selling skills that these franchisees have when they end up getting awarded a unit and that was really fascinating and as Bill and I have talked to more people we've heard nobody's doing this. This is a unique area and Bill and I together we've got 50, 55 years of experience and we're really committed to be able to share that with the franchise industry. So that was really fun look forward to doing it again next year.

3:17 Well we got another little event on Thursday this week. Yeah exactly we're sticking involved. So our book The Power of Purpose is the first episode that we're doing on the book was great to have Mitch on the show last week. That's right. You know set a nice foundation for the book kind of really told us about some of the things that we're going to be learning and boy he put us to work. I thought you know chapter one was pretty easy and I go well if this chapter two is the same it'll be the same.

3:43 It wasn't chapter two was a lot more work. The first chapter he really talks about self-focus people being selfish and then chapter two he talks about other focus people being focused on others and he said some nice great content they noticed that a lot of the stuff in chapter one was what he shared on the show last episode. So I'm not going to do that. A lot of stories. Yeah. Yeah so listen to the previous episode when we had a chance to talk with Mitch but one of the questions that he starts off with and this is a workbook so you got to go through the exercise is think about people whose lives you do not want to emulate.

4:18 What types of characteristics do they possess? What are their habits or lifestyle choices and then write your answers below. And I came up with three that are I think pretty simple just not really dwelling on it but one is when people put money above value I just really have a tough time with that when people are collecting money and not delivering the value based on the prospects definition. I'll take my money and I'll run.

4:44 Right. Yeah. You're not happy well don't buy from me again. People that do it's easy but they're not helpful. They're not interested in doing any more work. Some people stop looking for work as soon as they get a job but you get to the you work with these people that do the easy road but it's not helpful and then third is that they never reciprocate. They never initiate they never go first on anything and and those are three things that I don't like.

5:09 You know when I come to you with three things I found. Which was a wasted life and so my father was was in the military and he was able to retire at 52. Wow. 75% of his salary and all of his benefits and he had an opportunity really to start a whole new life. He lived in 90. So he had 38 years he had more time retired than he did it working and he diddled it away on little projects and you know cleaning the basement and making a shelf and and volunteering at the you know a local thrift store but he never you know I thought he should have written a book he was a very smart man.

5:56 I really hate to see a wasted life and he really wasted in my opinion 38 years as much as I love him it was a good thing to not emulate. The second one is kind of similar to your money above value and that's selfish and grabbing. You know you go to the buffet and you know you see somebody taking like a whole pizza for themselves right. It's just they're all they're thinking about is yourself we had a situation with a young kid friend of ours a friend of our sons and we knew their family and he came to eat at our house and we're having spaghetti and meatballs and he took every meatball.

6:34 Wow. Every meatball out of the pot for himself and left you know nothing but about three meatballs in the beginning and I said what are you doing. Oh you want me to put something back? No not now I want you to think about other people in the house. So selfish and grab you. Number three inconsequential and that means they never did they just you talked about easy but not helpful. You take a job and you just kind of do the job so you don't get fired.

7:05 Right. You're never really contributing you're never really bringing ideas to it you're just getting the job done and I see that as you just a cog in the wheel you're never a person of consequence. So those are my three. Wow. Not that we go things you admire so what do you what do you. Yeah the question was now think about the people that you admire what about their lives inspires you. Well they contribute equally and this is where I love the foundation I know people get sick of hearing it and maybe they're reminded about my belief is you know stop helping people start working with them.

7:38 When we start collaborating and we contribute equally it's a fair exchange. Number two is they always follow through on a promise if they say they're going to do it I don't have to remind them I don't have to worry about it I don't have to be able to have a plan B I know they're going to follow through them because they told me they were going to do that. And number three is they express appreciation constantly for the smallest things they have a heart of gratitude and they're always expressing their appreciation and their gratitude.

8:07 Yeah. Oh those are excellent ones. They seem to be kind of the opposite of your negative ones which I probably did the same thing myself. The first one is accomplishment and productivity. You know productivity is where the rubber meets the road for me. Yeah. But a lot and do something get something done accomplish something. We have a big life ahead of us and if you're spending it binge watching 17 shows you know a night you're kind of wasting your life away.

8:36 The second one is lifting people up to help them hit their potential. I've always thought that's what I try to do in the training that I do is to lift people up to encourage to tell them they could do it. You know there's so many negatives I think we talked with Mitch about this that you know Samson slew a thousand with the job bones of an ass and many good ideas have been destroyed the same way. You know are you bringing people up or you encouraging or you saying well that you can't do that that won't work you can't because you failed in life.

9:09 And then the third one I have is they're involved and I mean involved in other people's lives. I've been giving a lot of thought to my retirement. I'm you know three four years away from from kind of really cutting back a lot but I don't think I'll retire totally because I want to stay involved in other people's lives. So how can I stay involved because I do see again my father's you know he just he just kind of did his own thing and we start to live the older we get the more selfish we have we tend to get.

9:38 Wow I've started to notice that too. Yeah so we need to really be careful that and so that's those are my three. All right moving on to chapter two is where it becomes more others focus. So we go through a few steps here we'll go through them quickly is identify your interest. So what do you love doing as a child and how might that connect with your passion today. And my three were I love working on my grandparents farm in southern Minnesota.

10:04 And it was a variety activities and you know my grandma would ship me into town and drop me off at the corner where they picked up all the migrant workers at 6 o'clock in the morning and I was one of them and I went out and walked beans and worked in the fields and then come to a new time they'd come in drop us off and grandma would be there to pick me up. Now she'd pick me up in the pickup because I rode in the Dodge Diplomat I got to sit in the front seat because I was clean she'd pick me up in the pickup and I rode in the back back in the car.

10:33 They got one the way home huh. You hose me back but I love driving the tractor when I was eight years old and and they had a couple of rifles a 22 and a 4 10 and I'd go out and I'd hunt rabbits because grandma always liked it when I killed the rabbits because they always ate her garden. So those were kind of fun things as a child. That's funny I've got theater I love being in theater and that I think helped me to be up in front of groups and then I love sports a very competitive and so I love to play games I don't like to work out I like to play and then I always wanted to become a business person.

11:07 I can remember I was thinking about this and again that's what the good of this book is it makes you ponder a little bit and I was thinking I loved I always wanted to have a shop I always wanted to have a store and even when I worked at Radio Shack in college one of my dreams was to have an independent Radio Shack store. Now I'm glad I didn't do that because they kind of you know cratered but I liked having people come in and we had conversations and I showed them what they needed and so I like that a lot.

11:37 I probably have a picture of me somewhere at five years old with a briefcase I'm sure yeah exactly getting out of the second question here but not the second step is what activities might you lose track of time because you enjoy them so much and I put down reading and writing sometimes when I can get entrenched in a topic and my brain just starts spinning I lose track of time and I do I love that feeling but I also worry about it once I start getting carried away.

12:06 I put pickleball which I love the sports I love to be competitive I love to play well and then presenting I love being up in front of a group I can I can do that for hours and man the time I'm exhausted because I really put a lot into it but the time flies. Well but you're filled with joy though afterwards aren't you Bill I mean it's just an energy that is untapped I mean it's just a sense of fulfillment maybe we'll talk about that another question here.

12:32 The next question number three with not not step two is what type of work or activity would you gladly do for free. You want to go first with your your yeah I just put presenting I again I just don't get the idea and when Scott says his because I can see him but customers don't get the idea that we will do him for free right that's true we can't we're not so we're not so we're not given this away but these are things we really we really enjoy putting the time into so presenting being up front of the group collab I mean having that conversation with the group interacting I just love that.

13:05 Yeah yeah mine is coaching people and collaborating with teams I love doing that and and being creative and contributing to new ideas and to a new new solution I love brainstorming where you get around a table and you get a whiteboard and you get people that are really committed and there's this inspired friction and this conflict and this creativity and from that you come up with something great now can you buddy one person be responsible for it no it's a collaboration within a group yeah and that that synergy and and I think you know both of us doing it for free and not getting paid for it means that we're really focused on delivering value and not just going you know how much am I going to get paid and is it worth it me

13:41 doing it I want to be able to really focus on changing people's lives and leaving an impact so cool now step two is identify your strengths now it starts to get a little bit more positive so what skills and talents come naturally to you and how do you feel when you use them. Great question for me I wrote down listening you know being curious and interested empathetic I want to be relatable with people and responsible I'm the oldest and I have a natural tendency to be responsible and when I'm responsible it gives me confidence.

14:17 Cool I'm would you like to tell us well I have a drive for excellence so I like things to be done right I put energy into things that I'm working on so it does tire me out but I put energy into it again presenting something that I think I'm good at and what I think I'm really good at especially in a client is integrating challenges and solutions so that's kind of similar to your to your to your you saw being creative and contributing new ideas right I think I'm very good at taking all the things that are going on in an organization and quickly coming up with a plan of action I can't tell my customers that as soon as I give up because I'll cheapen the solution but I'm having a good idea about where we're

14:58 going to go with this and I'm going to bring new ideas that they hadn't thought about. Yeah yeah that's beautiful. The second part is describe a time when you felt proud of something you accomplished what strengths and skills did you use. For me preparing for this podcast it's a little bit of anxiety it's a little bit of anticipation it's a little bit of excitement and by doing that I have a sense of commitment to it and any event where there is creation I feel like it's the solution is being relevant because it's being created now based on all of the experiences and everything I've read and taught and believe the creation of that is relevant because it's accumulation of life.

15:42 Yeah I took a little bit broader view I thought starting my own business was something I felt very proud of. I was told by a number of people you'll be back or it's not going to work for you that's really hard to do and I do think a lot of people could start their own business if they had enough courage so I think to do that at the step out was a big deal. I like overcoming challenges issues that customers have helping them move through those we run into a lot of challenges working together not because of each other but because the customer's needs and what we're trying to accomplish and everything has to be changed and I like creative problem solving I like bringing all these ideas together coming up with something

16:24 new. Very nice. Step three and there's five steps so step three is consider your dislikes dislikes acts as guideposts steering us away from distractions and helping us identify what truly matters. I highlighted that out of the book and I think that is such a powerful statement when it comes to dislikes. So the question that's in the workbook is what are some things that you dread doing? What about the task do you dislike is it the environment is it the people that entails or is it the task itself?

16:56 Bill we might overlap on this one do you want to go first on yours? Yeah I'll do mine I hate phone calls. I don't like working the phone I don't like being on the phone I don't like talking on the phone I got about a three minute level of interest when I'm on the phone that's why I dread calling friends or family because it's like oh it's gonna be a half hour and I'm gonna die. So I don't really like it so I have to overcome that one as a big part of selling so that's something I have to overcome and then I hate fixing computer problems.

17:29 I just hate it I just you know just work I don't want to I don't want to go into the setup and click on a box I don't care make it work and it should work on its own. And why do I have to click all these stupid boxes somewhere in the rear end of this stupid computer and I love my wife but when she's in her other room and she goes Bill I'll come here I know what it is it isn't hey I got I got a it's no cone for you. It's my computer problem that I want you to work on.

17:59 That's my toolbar. Yeah yeah. You find my most. Where's my most? Yeah my dad didn't understand the word icon and he called me I need that I said well what kind of icons are in the bottom? I don't even know what you're talking about. It's like okay. Okay. Alright you're just like hereditary. Mine is this is ironic is I am not good at accounting work right now and when I graduated high school I wanted to be an accountant I wanted to be a CPA.

18:26 The left brain I think has died for me. I am not interested in accounting at all I could hardly balance my own books. I'm five hundred and ten dollars off. I've been five hundred and ten dollars off for four years I can never find that five hundred and ten dollars and modern day technology frustrates the out of me. I used to do technical support for a software company get me to a C prompt and I can fix a problem. I do not like modern day technology it does not make it easier and it may be it's because I'm getting older though too.

18:56 Okay so. That poor. Assessed your values. Alright so I can't wait to hear this one from Bill. When you consider who you are what I did. Kindness. What I did. I was coming to mind. I didn't put kindness down. I put productive. Okay. Something done. Go on do something. Alright. I like to be generous it's hard for me about I like to be. I'm outgoing and I think I'm courageous because I the evidence shows me even if I don't believe it myself and when I feel.

19:27 See this is this is the weird things got. Quite often we don't feel these things. Right. Right. But if we compare ourselves to others. We see that we're doing some things that others aren't willing to do. Yeah and that's a tough spot is when you compare yourself with another person. Well I'm not saying I'm just saying use it as a way to say I'm doing some work. I'm not as weak as I feel. Mm hmm. Right. So you get what you've done and see that you've accomplished something that other people aren't willing to do.

20:03 Well there's some unique identifiers and that's part of this question and I think when we live with ourselves for so long we get bored with ourselves and we don't see ourselves as unique or being you know valuable or that our opinions matter because we just live with ourselves all the time. But the relevance and the context of who we are in the marketplace or society that that varies. I'm on my three and I emulated a little bit more of the format in the book from Mitch's.

20:29 I put down my Christian values. That carries the most weight of all of my actions and I'm so grateful that I have that as the foundation of my decisions and my belief system. I'm also the oldest. I come from a large family and I'm also single with no children. So when I think about my lifestyle as being single with no children and I get the business meetings and they want to learn about each other you know the first thing they talk about is family life and children.

20:57 That's not part of my reality and I'm happy to talk about it. I'm happy to ask questions etc. But it's a short story when it comes to me. It's not something who I am. Yeah I think that family thing can be such a big part both of the ones that you mentioned. I put down starting my own business. I think that was a big life changing thing. People told me it wouldn't work and I couldn't do it. The birth of my children I can remember my first son was born and I am sorry that you don't have this.

21:25 No reason to apologize. I don't feel like I'm missing anything. I really don't. Anyway I just when he was born I thought I never knew what love was until I had someone I was responsible for and it was repeated two more times. So that's good. And then my marriage I've got a great marriage 42 years 43, 48 I don't know something like that anyway long long term and we get along for the most part yeah we have our rouse because two people are going to but pretty sink in again with our value system so that and we've worked together and read the same books for 35 of those 42 years.

22:04 That's wonderful and you know that really helps you to create something together. Yeah yeah that is great story. Alright step five examine your experiences. So what are some significant moments in your life and why do they stand out? I got the first one that I have is a little bit negative and I think it is similar to when you started your business bill I think there are people that said it never would survive. I had people that said what a great idea and they were never there to really support me past that point.

22:34 Yeah yeah. It's just like you're on your own. They're willing to wear a ribbon. Those are the people that are a ribbon but don't do anything about it. So significant moments of my life why they stand out. I was 11 years old. I had a subscription to Flying Magazine. I always wanted to be a pilot and I would take out the center folds of the sessna's and the pipers and the beach crafts and I'd have them all over my room and my grandma came into my room one time and says wow you really like planes.

23:00 I said yeah I really want to be able to learn how to fly. I want to be a pilot and she says you'll never fly. Your eyes are too bad. And I'm granted I'm almost legally blind but she squashed that dream at 11 years old. She took that away from me. Job bombs in my ass. And never left my heart. It really didn't. I was grateful to be able to work for a guy who had a collection of 40 antique airplanes. I went to Oshkosh a couple of years.

23:26 But you had to overcome that now didn't you? I did. I did. But that is a fuel of what have I really committed to and who's going to take it away from me and what power and control am I going to give them. And how am I going to support other people that have an ambition when they share something so personal of a dream that they want to learn how to fly or they want to do this. I'm going to support them. I'm going to ask them questions.

23:47 I am not going to discourage them at all on a positive note. I feel significant moments of joy and stand out is when I create a continuing education event I teach continuing ed for real estate agents on negotiations and when I put a class together and it's 3.75 hours or it's seven and a half hours and it's approved by the Department of Commerce. I teach that class. What a sense of accomplishment. And then the last one is leading a class leading a seminar workshop and getting five star reviews.

24:19 I love that. That just warms my heart. I don't care how much I got paid. But when I get five star reviews when I deliver on the expectations it fulfills me and a sense of joy is overwhelming. Yeah. Mine is similar to that making a big sale and then conducting the class and having it go well. Because we do everything right. I mean so. So we take it from stem to stern. We create it. We have the conversation. We do the proposal.

24:47 We sell it. Then we deliver it. Then we follow up. And when those all go well and I got to tell you those have gone well more significantly since we started working together than they did when I was just working by myself. So that's my second one is that working with you has been a great accomplishment. So thank you. It is mutually rewarding and I do feel like we're able to offer more services and to be able to have a greater impact with our clients.

25:17 So the next question is think of a time when you felt truly fulfilled. Who were you with and what were you doing? And I think about a couple of things inviting guests on a podcast. For me I really love having guests on a podcast and getting into that conversation not knowing where it's going to go at all. Yeah I like the journey that we go out because it's unrehearsed unprepared for the most part. We've got some questions etc.

25:45 But we have no idea where it's going to go in most cases. And then like you said earlier the post workshop classes and doing what's most important is that reinforcement the application of the new introduced content. If we don't provide a safe environment sales people are not going to apply because they're not going to have a coaching and support that they need when it doesn't work. And when Bill and I do these reinforcement classes and people are able to talk about some of the things that are not working that we covered in theory and now they're putting it into practice they need to have a support and encouragement to be able to continue forward

26:19 in order to change their habits, their behaviors and their routines. I love doing that Bill. You do too. I do too. We're really long. Let's go ahead to our last purpose statement and finish this up. Okay. So finishing it up on step five is the purpose statement. Mine is I look for opportunities to apply my skills and gifts with others that believe they deserve a better life. And it was just refining all of these questions to get to that one statement.

26:44 And mine is I am courageous and successful businessman. Every day my priority is to creatively build my business. Wow. Wow. That was beautiful. And I'm sure that these will evolve as we continue to get into the book. So next week we're going to be covering chapter three. It's one chapter, chapter three. It's a long one though folks. So get started early and it's on developing your purpose. All right. Super. Thanks Scott for running through that.

27:08 And then that was probably a longer session, but I think it's fun. And we revealed a little bit of ourselves. And what I would tell you is go out and buy the book. Don't just try and follow along. You will not get anything out of this if you're not sitting down and writing down the questions. You just aren't going to get it's some good stories and the work. This is a workshop. Think of it as a workshop and you're not going to get anything out of it if you're not taking some notes.

27:33 So exactly. All right. Our topic is features and benefits and motivation as we teed up in the beginning. People are really good and Scott and I have discovered this in the last year and a half working together. But people seem to be really good at asking the what questions. How big is the area? What kind of machine do you want? How do you want to fix it? And what they forget to ask about is the motivation questions, the why questions.

28:03 And Scott, you have a theory about why that is because we didn't used to see that as much. What I've noticed and learned lately is during COVID, it was a supply chain issue. And you have it how much? And it's yes or no. There's no other thing that you're selling. It's a commodity because it's in demand or the supply is limited. So all we were doing was throwing quotes into the wind. Exactly. Another problem we've noticed, right?

28:27 It's not only we're not asking motivation questions, but we think we don't have to know anything about what's going on. We can just throw a quote at them and that's going to make the sale. So that's another topic we've covered before, quotes versus proposals. But this buyer motivation, I think, is what people are missing now when they get into that competitive sales atmosphere. And I think you're right. We're stuck in a non-competitive thought process.

28:52 I'm not really competing. All I'm doing is trying to come up with a price that they like and then we'll move on. And you've always said that people, what is it? They buy? They buy emotionally. They justify it intellectually. Buy emotionally and justify it intellectually. And I think that's right. But we don't have, we have to help them justify it, right? We have to help them come up with the reason. And if we don't talk about motivation, we're never going to get there.

29:20 Remember Jimmy Z said, people buy from people they like. And what you've always said, and I agree with it, people buy from people they trust. And respect. But may not like too. Well, I think liking is a part of it. I will not buy from somebody I don't like. Well, I'm not giving them my money, right? And so I don't think you can be, I had a guy that, that when I was working with a major lawn mowing company out of the Twin Cities, that might give you an idea.

29:53 And I was working with their parts department at their dealerships. And we had one guy, I'm just going to call him Zeke. And I remember what he told me early in the class, he said, what does it matter if I'm nice, if I'm right, if my answer is correct? Yeah. And I said, well, I said, people like a little bit of niceness. He goes, well, I'm going to give him the right answer, but I don't have to expect me to be nice. He was gone in two weeks.

30:16 Yeah. Yeah. Because you got to be, you got to be nice. And then if you're trustworthy and respectful, you're going to have a good combination. So anyway, so the features, those are the cogs of the conversation, but the motivation is really the electricity. It's really the energy that we bring. When we ask those motivation questions, then they start to reveal real things, don't they? Wow. Yeah. It's personal too. What are some of the questions we can ask?

30:50 Or what should we think about as we're forming these questions? So what's happening in the world that's making them consider something new? Right? Yeah. What are they hoping will be different? That's the magic wand question. Remember that? Did you ever use the magic wand question? Yeah. But a magic wand, I could change one thing. What would it be? Well, what would it be? And I would ask that about training. If we could wave a magic wand over your people and at the end of the training, what would you want them to be like?

31:17 And the purpose of that was to get them from before to thinking about what the results were. Great question. What pressures are they feeling from the marketplace or internally? Right. Right. This is why salespeople are so important. They're marketing bass and it's to leadership. Every meeting that a leader has, sales manager has with their salespeople is what do you want them to do when they leave the room today? Right now.

31:41 Think about that. What actions do you want them to take? I love these stuff. Yeah. Yeah. So, changing that behavior is what we're trying to do. Some cases for you, if you're selling a machine tools or something, you're not trying to change behavior, but you're trying to change productivity. There's something going on there that they said, yeah, I'm going to talk to you. Your job is to find out what that is. And it may be difficult to get to because that's that third level of motivation and that third level of understanding.

32:12 So let's talk about features, benefits and motivation. What are these three things that will move on to why is it difficult to do that? Features. That's the factual components. All right. So, I did a thing on a drill. It's got so many volts. It's got a built-in chuck. It's got rechargeable batteries. You know, it turns at this torque. Those are the features. Right? So Scott, why don't you explain what a benefit does when you relate it to these features from a drill?

32:45 Yeah, I love using the transitional statement of which means, so you list a feature which means you'll be able to have a drill to be able to do multiple activities. It's forward, it's backwards, it's changeable pit bits, et cetera, which means you're going to be able to get more work done in less time. There you go. And that's the benefit of it. I think what people don't understand is they think that the customer knows that.

33:10 Right. You say, here's a feature, here's a feature, here's a feature. You think, oh, the customer's saying, which means that, but they're not always saying that. So sometimes I think I like that transition is phrased to get that out. And then the final thing is motivation. And that's a whole different question. So you ask, why would you want to drill that's that portable? Why would you want to drill where the battery will last two hours of working time?

33:37 Well, man, there's nothing more frustrating than getting out and trying to do a job and pull in a cord around with me. Or I have to deal with this or that. I always lose the chuck key. So I don't want, I want something that has that built in chuck to it. So what is the frustration that not having that feature happens or causes in that person? That's why it's a question level deeper. And what kind of impact would having a faster drill be on your day?

34:14 What would be the outcome of that? That's right. Would you be able to get more work done or would you be able to knock off sooner or would you be able to have an easier job? Yeah. And that's what you want them thinking about, right? Yeah. Yeah, there's three different options there. Which ones do they want? We don't know. Well, you know, if I can save two hours, that's going to pay for the whole drill. Okay. Good. You're not familiar to get more work done.

34:36 That's right. But sometimes, oh, that drill is going to be $60 for that new drill. Well, listen, if you can get done an hour early, isn't that worth $60? Oh, yeah. I charge $100 an hour. So, you know, this is easier. All right. So, I want you to answer this because I think you know this better. What are some of the reasons salespeople don't ask these type of motivation questions? Well, I think it's emotional risking. I don't think they've done a very good enough job setting up that trust and rapport in the beginning where people feel confident, comfortable, prospects do, sharing information.

35:11 Yeah. We salespeople. And that's the key to negotiation and that's the key to sales is information. If you don't get to personal, I don't want to get to into the personal. Well, yeah. And they might get defensive. I might upset them. If they're upset with me, then they won't buy from me. No, sometimes if they're upset with you, it's because you're bringing a situation to the surface that they need to deal with that they don't want to.

35:30 Too many salespeople take on that burden. Mm-hmm. When a customer is upset. What they're probably upset is how stupid they've been for the last 10 years and not taking care of this. Well, the problem that fell in their lap, the customer, that they have to fix based on somebody else's error. And now they're being vulnerable that the problem has been exposed to the outside world and a salesperson is talking to me about fixing it.

35:52 Are you kidding me? A salesperson is going to help me? Right. And how are you going to play it as a salesperson? Right. Are you going to be trustworthy so they feel they can be vulnerable? I think they don't always know how to ask. They sit down and they write their questions on it. It doesn't even enter their mind. I know this happened when we were working with a drywall company and I actually had them come to my house and do this.

36:16 And later on I asked, why didn't you ask questions about why I wanted to have that ceiling redone? Mm-hmm. Oh, what does that matter? Oof. I mean, I'm just going to do this. You know why you want it done. I'm here to do it. Yeah. Wow. So, I'm going to talk to somebody who's going to talk to me at that level in a competitive sale, they're going to have a better chance of selling to me because they're going to talk to me about what's really important.

36:41 So I don't think they know how to ask. Any other ones that come to mind for you? No, I think those are all very relevant and I think our listeners should start with those and they can come with their own too. Yeah. Well, I think one other one you might want to consider is they want to just start telling. Right. Yeah. Right. We want to get to the pitch early because we've been told for so many years. Just tell them what you can do, right?

37:02 The Jimmy Z story. Yeah. Tell them all about your product and sometimes you'll make the sale. So exactly. All right. So let's just look at some motivation based questions. I think you're starting to get an idea of folks, what we're talking about here. Why is this important to you right now? Mm hmm. The why questions, right? You like to ask this one, which is the if it doesn't get changed. Right. So what will happen if you don't get this fixed?

37:28 Right. So it's going to occur. Yeah. What's the cost of not making a decision? Mm hmm. When you get them thinking about that, it's going to be, you know, have you ever had folks, a person who said, well, let me think about it. Right. Oh, yeah. You haven't increased the cost of no decision high enough for them to go forward. Exactly. Exactly. So what triggered the search for a solution? You know, whether you get called or whether they take your call and make an appointment with you, something is causing that to happen.

38:01 And you need to find out why. I've gotten into sales situations where I've gotten halfway through and I've looked at them and I said, Scott, why did you meet with me? Right. Yeah. Everything you're saying is rosy. So why did you bother to meet with me? I know it wasn't because of my great phone call. Right. And then they'll look down at their shoes and then some honesty is going to happen. Yeah. Exactly. So that's actually a contrast to questions because we've talked about what and we've talked about why.

38:29 So the first question you asked is why is this important right now? The third question you ask is what triggered the search for a solution? See one's an emotional trigger. The other one is an intellectual question. But they both have a very similar impact. So I just want our listeners to think about those two questions and how they feel when they hear that question. And is there a difference when they think about those two questions?

38:51 But please continue. And a lot of these questions are similar. But the next one, what's going on in business that made you look into that? That's very much similar to what triggered the search for a solution. Right. But it's just a different way to ask them. I like this one. How will solving this problem impact your role? What is that? Magic one question. Yeah. They come into the future. If this is fixed, what's going to happen to your role?

39:13 Yeah. Well, I think those are all good things to think about good types of questions to get that buyer thinking deeper about their decision. Those answers are back there. They are. I just don't always want to bring them up. Right. Right. All right. So the last part is attaching benefits, not to features, but to motivation. And that's what you said. If you buy this, then you can go, you'll get done with this project two hours early.

39:45 Right. And so now, but if we don't ever find out what those motivations, then we're just casting into the wind. So tie your benefits, not to features, but to their motivation. And I think that's going to be a lot better. So it's not about pushing a product. It's not about getting a quote done. It's about finding out what's really going on here. What's really going on beyond that I want this wall fixed. I'm having a party in two weeks.

40:19 That's why I want this wall fixed. Right. I'm cracking my wall when my priest comes over. Right. We work with a landscape company. One of the questions that they started asking, what event is going on that you want this landscaping done? And so many of them would say, oh, I've got a party coming up. I've got a graduation party. You know, Minnesota graduation parties are like the most important thing in the world. And people will spend thousands of dollars to fix up their yard and buy, you know, a turkey so that they can have a graduation party.

40:49 So we were talking about high school too, right, Bill? Yeah, we don't care about college in the state. Just high school graduation. Look at elementary school. First grade. Don't even talk to me about grade school graduations. Grandpa doesn't do that. I actually didn't get invited to a pre-kindergarten graduation because I told him grandpa doesn't do that. So if you can't get out of eighth grade on your own, no party. You can't go.

41:14 Productivity. We'll go back to that. All right. So next time you're preparing for a sales call, you get those feature benefit questions, but you also put on your list some why questions, get prepared for it. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, great advice. All right. So resources, power purpose by Mitch Larson. If you haven't found it, we'll have a link to it on the show page. You can go buy it from Amazon. Check it out. Our goal to nugget today is the product is not quality because it is hard to make and cost a lot of money.

41:47 Customers pay only for what they use and what gives them value. Nothing else constitutes quality. And that's by Peter Drucker, the quality manufacturing guru. Yeah, I like that. The customer decides what their value is. You don't get to decide that. Yeah. And the only questions are to lead you. Your questions are to lead you to discovering what they value so you can show them how they're going to get that. Very easy. Let's just, let's just, they'll show you feature benefits.

42:16 Yes. I'll, I'll barf all over you. Anyway, all right. All the information is at winning at selling.com. You may need to put the three W's in front of it. We're working on that. All of the information is going to be in the show notes. This is episode six, 79. Next week we're going to be talking about beliefs and execution. And if that topic gives you wonder, be sure to tune in our book club again, like we said earlier, power of purpose with Mitch Larson, chapter three.

42:42 So please submit and share this podcast with your colleagues on your social media networks. We'd be grateful for a five star review and a favorable comment. If not favorable, please tell us directly. Go out and get better one skill at a time. Joyful selling.