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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Mahan Khalsa
Read between
July 6 - August 12, 2019
The irony is that we wait to establish rapport before asking the hard question, yet asking the hard question can help us establish rapport.
Often we wait for rapport before asking the hard question when often asking the hard question (in a soft way) creates rapport.
If you can’t quantify (and even if you can), qualify importance on a scale of 1-10.
To summarize: If the issue is hard, ask the Five Golden Questions. If the issue is soft, peel the onion until you can ask the Five Golden Questions. If you cannot quantify, strongly qualify on a scale of one to ten.
So even if the person we talk to does not need the evidence, someone else might.
When the impact is big, ask for the constraints. When the impact is small, take away the solution and see what happens.
You can’t lose something you never had. You were likely to lose the business anyway; you just would have made your loss more expensive. If they are willing to let it go, you should be too.
“If you say it, it’s sold; if they say it, it’s gold.” People love to buy; they hate to be sold.
Calculating impact is important in helping buyers make good business decisions. As we explore context, we may broaden and deepen our evaluation of the impact.
Organizational context: How does this initiative fit into the big picture?
The more we think systemically, the more likely it is we will have a solution that truly works for the whole and is sustainable over time.
Operational context: Who or what else is affected?
Exploring context might also reveal the existence of key influencers and decision makers whose input is important, and whose names might not otherwise appear.
When we explore issues, evidence, impact, and context with the client, and mutually conclude that the impact is substantial, a fair question arises: What has stopped the client organization from resolving these issues on its own? What has been tried before and what stopped it from working? If something has stopped the client in the past, it is likely to do so again. We will both be better off discovering and removing the constraints.
What has stopped the organization from resolving these issues before now?
The impact is big. 2. They cannot or will not fix it themselves. ❖ Good constraints: things clients can’t do that we can do for them.
“What is different this time?” If nothing is different, it is likely nothing will be different.
Bad constraints: things that have stopped success in the past, which if uncorrected, will stop it again this time.
You often gain more business by identifying and removing constraints than by pushing harder on the reasons to buy.
When you invite clients to move off the solution, either they will move or they won’t. If they won’t move, it is probably for a reason.
Slow down, rather than speed up.
You will not know what to propose if you do not accurately understand what needs to be solved.
It is not a real opportunity.
You have been ineffective in your communication.
The solution is required by law or regulation.
you may need to structure the conversation around criteria for meeting the requirement rather than business issues.
“predetermined solution.” The client, rightly or wrongly, has decided there is an opportunity and has determined what solution the company is going to buy.
When trying to elicit clients’ criteria for making a decision, we can structure a conversation around two topics: 1. Their criteria for the ideal implementation. 2. Their criteria for the ideal solution provider.
“What will be most important to you, in terms of the people you work with?”
Issues: What problems or results is the client trying to address? In what priority? Evidence: How do we define the problem? How do we measure success? Impact: What are the financial and intangible costs and benefits? Context: Who or what else is affected by the issues and the solution? Constraints: What has stopped (or might stop) the organization from resolving these issues?
What are all of the issues the solution is intended to resolve? 2. What’s letting you know it’s a problem (problem evidence)? 3. What is the impact on the business (problem impact)? 4. How would you measure success (result evidence)? 5. What is the payoff if success is achieved (result impact)? 6. Who or what else is affected (operational context)? 7. What is the big picture (organizational context)? 8. What has stopped the organization from resolving this in the past (constraints)? 9. Did I get it right? Did I leave anything out (summarize)?
Even if there is a qualified Opportunity, you cannot help someone succeed who cannot or will not commit sufficient resources to manifest the opportunity. Three critical resources to examine are: time, people, and money.
❖ You cannot help someone succeed without sufficient time, people, and money.
The timing question is not hard to ask—you just have to ask it.
❖ When do they want to have the results in place? When were they hoping to get started?
Yellow lights on timing include: 1. The timing is too soon. 2. The timing is too far into the future. 3. The timing is undefined.
Yellow lights in timing are usually at the extremes (too soon or too far off),
Who does what? Which people are critical for success?
potential concern is that the client may not give us access to the key people we need to be successful.
clients want to do critical parts of the initiative themselves, we may be concerned that they will not commit the necessary time, quality, or expertise.
Anybody who is not putting in the time or producing the quality we expect can be taken off the project and replaced with someone more capable—either from their company or ours.
Resources, we are talking only about value justification. We are not going to give clients our fees or price, and we are not asking them for the specific dollars they have in a budget. We are trying to understand if there is congruence between what they think it is worth to get the desired results (the return), and what we think is necessary to produce those results (the investment).
(price negotiation)
(value justification);
How much are they willing to invest to get their desired results?
After Opportunity: after we have quantified the impact. • Before Exact Solution/Enabling Decisions: before we present our solution with its price to the client. • At the Right Place in Decisions: with the person(s) most appropriate in the decision process.
1. “Have you thought about what level of investment is appropriate for the results we’ve discussed?” 2. “Have you established a budget for this project?” (Or “for this purchase.”)
Part 1: “I don’t know how much this will cost you. Every client situation is unique. Part 2: However, other companies in similar situations, successfully achieving the results we’ve been talking about, tend to invest between X and Y. Part 3: Can you see yourself falling somewhere in that range?”
We just want to find out if our ranges overlap. If the client falls out of the chair, turns white, or starts screaming or crying, we may have a problem.
we will go back and work with our team a bit; we can then get a sense for where the proposal might head economically, and call the client back for guidance.
