Jeffrey Gitomer – Taking it One Step Further

You probably know Jeffrey Gitomer, author of the Little Red Book of Selling and a syndicated columnist in many business journals. In this week’s column, Gitomer presented five internal senses required for having a sense of selling.

He says that “you must interpret the customer’s words, questions, tone, mood and motives in order to determine both where your opportunity is, and when that opportunity has surfaced.”Generally good advice.  But what would happen if we took it one step further?

Would it have been even better to say that you must listen closely to the customer’s words, questions and tone and then, (use the Infield Why Rule in Baseline Selling), simply ask one of those ‘why?’ questions? Taking it one step further, would it have been better to write that you should observe their mood and ask why? And when it comes to motives, can we take it one step further and suggest that you should ask your prospect what their motives are – their compelling reasons to buy?  Interpreting, or assuming, can get you in trouble.  When you assume there’s a good chance you’ll be wrong so you must get your prospect to actually say what they’re thinking. There is much more power in their words than yours and when you attempt to interpret their words, the interpretation is based on your experience, not theirs.

Gitomer is usually spot on but this week I think he accidentally provided incomplete advice with a single misplaced word.

You can learn much more about the Infield Why Rule beginning on page 103 of Baseline Selling.