The worst salespeople chase. When a buyer has no problems, they try to convince them that they do. That rarely works out. 

The best salespeople never chase sales. The best salespeople attract sales, instead. And you can do it, too.

Let me show you how.

When the Buyer Doesn’t have a Problem

“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” There’s no evidence Henry Ford ever actually said this quote that’s often attributed to him. In any case, it’s useful here so we’ll use it.

People didn’t have a problem with horses. But they did think something could be better, so they did have a problem.

A bad salesperson would do everything they could to convince the buyer that cars are better than the horses. It’ll take a lot of time and effort. And they might succeed, but it’s unlikely.

A great salesperson would do things a lot differently.

Great Salespeople Get to No — Or Get Buyers to Open Up

Instead of chasing sales and trying to change minds, great salespeople let the buyer choose the way forward.

They say things like, “Sounds like things are going amazingly well. If that’s the case, I’m not sure we can help you. Does that check out with you, or am I missing a piece to the puzzle?”

Then one of two things will happen:

1. The buyer agrees. 

“Yep, that’s the vibe I’m getting too.” Congrats. You just saved a lot of time, effort, and heartache.

—OR—

2. The buyer opens up.

“Actually, yes. You are missing something…”

Their defenses melt. Their sales resistance drops. They share what’s going on, and you have an opening

Game on.

Related Article – Focus on Their Problems, Not Your Product

Desperation Kills Deals.

The best salespeople sell from a place of strength. Sales is a game of social dynamics, and desperation kills deals.

Think about it this way: Who needs something? Does the buyer need to overcome a challenge? Or do you need to make a sale? 

You’re going to struggle if the dynamic of the conversation is the latter.

If you need help getting there, I’ve put together a list of 39 questions that sell, so you can sell from a place of strength (not desperation).

What About Product-Market Fit?

I bet some of you are thinking, “But Chris, what about product-market fit? Won’t some good salespeople be forced to chase deals to hit their numbers?”

Whether they’re a good salesperson or not, without product-market fit, they are very unlikely to be successful chasing deals.

If I personally found myself in that situation, I’d do one of two things:

Push very hard internally for changes to the product to get closer to PMF. If you’re struggling to find PMF, that tells me the org is small. So, you probably have a voice.

If that’s not an option, leave. Life is too short to sell a bad product.

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About Chris Orlob

Chris Orlob is co-founder of pclub.io and QuotaSignal, and he is a former director of sales at Gong.io. He helped grow Gong.io from $200k to $200M in ARR and a $7.2B valuation. He built and led one of the top producing sales segments, generating a record-breaking number of President’s Club winners through his internal sales training programs. As CEO of pclub.io, Chris works with top sales earners and leaders to create highly rated online courses that help sellers grow their sales skills to life-altering levels.