Three Silos and Five Questions

For sales professionals, everywhere

Even though my soon to be trademarked sales process of “Sell it or Schedule it” has a 25-year history, it is also a dynamic process. I amend it regularly as I learn where salespeople struggle to understand or implement particular aspects of it, or when salespeople share with me elements that have helped them to make it their own more quickly. Recently, I was revisiting the BADAS Questions – those five areas of discussion and information that, based on how the customer answers the questions, will tell you where they are in their buying process – in short, CAN they buy today. They are critical and essential to determine as part of Discovery…and yet, many salespeople get a couple of them asked and answered but struggle to get them all. In revisiting them, I again asked myself “How can I make these easier to understand and incorporate?”

The Rule of Three tends to help people to remember something…and The BADAS Questions really are about three things: Time, Money, Other People. Specifically, Time as it relates to how long someone can wait for special order/when they need to have it in their home (Availability) AND how long they have been in the process of deciding/buying this product (Shopping/Comparing)? Money as it relates to how much they expect to invest (Budget) and what they have access to or have set aside for this purchase (Ability to Buy)? And lastly, is everyone who needs to be here to do this here…or how can we involve them to get this done today (Decision Maker)? Time, Money, Other People. Be willing to stay in the conversations in each silo until you learn what you need to know to determine if they can buy today or if you need to make an appointment – on the phone, in their home, back in the store. These three areas of Time, Money and Other People are also the 3 greatest Objections…so we can bring them up early as part of Discovery and include them in the sales presentation, or we can get REALLY good at managing these as objections. The former is more powerful and effective.

And if you need help with this, call me. 877-663-9663.

Now, go sell something.

oxo,

Jody