Trigger Events – The Anatomy of Sales Wisdom

Consider whether this ever happens to you.

You’re listening to music when a song begins to play that was first popular when you were in high school, college, at a particular event, or with a certain person.  Immediately, you are in the time machine, back when that song had its first impact on your senses.  Am I the only one this happens to?  I refer to these moments as Trigger Events, when something or someone triggers your time machine and sends you down memory lane.

Trigger Events should happen during sales calls, sales processes, and sales meetings too.  When a prospect says or does something it should trigger the salesperson’s time machine, bringing him back to an important sales event where something like the current scenario took place before.  If the outcome from that memorable call was negative, it should cause the salesperson, in the present moment, to apply the lesson learned from the trip back to Sales Past.  If the outcome from that memorable call was positive, it should cause the salesperson, in the present moment, to consider whether the current scenario is identical, or merely similar.  Similar is the more likely comparison and should prevent the salesperson from getting excited, taking shortcuts and being less thorough.

Some may call what I am describing nothing more than experience, wisdom or intuition.  It doesn’t really matter what you call it, as long as your salespeople do it during every conversation.