Turn Your Reps into Detectives

We all want our reps to know exactly what's going on in the customer organization. Often, this means honing reps' discovery and questioning skills through periodic skills training. That said, despite clocking a number of training hours, reps continue to remain clueless on what matters most to customers.

Want to know why?

It's because it's not about reps' ability, but rather reps' willingness, to ask the right questions.

In today's world of complex solutions selling and the existence of multiple customer stakeholders in the purchase process, reps find it difficult to close deals. They fear that if they ask too many questions, they might end up derailing the already complex purchase decision. As a result, reps tend to rush through the initial stages of the sales process and end up spending considerable time in negotiations while closing the deal. Failing to ask the right questions and uncovering obstacles early in the deal also means that managers don't have the right information in time to help reps find possible solutions.

So, how do you change a rep's mindset from "always be closing" to "explore and ask questions"?

Oakwood, a temporary housing provider, faced this exact situation. To overcome reps' hesitancy to ask questions, Oakwood designed an innovative program—"Detective Workshops" that simulate murder mysteries in order to build an investigative mindset in the sales force.

These detective workshops place reps in a non-sales scenario that emphasize a questioning mindset. The workshop also helps reps internalize the importance of gathering all relevant information before drawing conclusions. In addition, regular "sales huddles" with senior leadership and cross-functional stakeholders reinforce the new questioning mindset and culture in the field.

We recently spoke with Ken Revenaugh, former Vice President of Sales Operations at Oakwood, about how to build reps' questioning mindset and reinforce it in reps' everyday workflow.

SEC Members, see excerpts from our conversation with Ken Revenaugh as well as his implementation tips for launching detective workshops in your organization.