Dave Kurlan’s post reminds us that WHAT WE THINK AS SALESPEOPLE DOES NOT MATTER!
The feature that we like the best might not matter.
Our biggest differentiator might not matter.
Being the lowest price might not matter.
Being the highest price might not matter.
An impending event might not matter.
The color might not matter.
Delivery time might not matter.
Your relationship with the boss might not matter.
The prospect gets to decide what their compelling reason to buy is and if you can do it, you’re on your way.
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RainMakers & Sales Rock Stars 
With tongue firmly implanted in cheek: if I can just get ’em to like me (a whole bunch), then nothing else matters. Nothing, (Do you all hear me?), nothing. Believe it or not, this is the real deal for many .
I like Mike a whole bunch. Were his tongue not so planted, I guess we’d see some serious pipeline bloat!I’ve heard Chris convey this message a handful of times but it came through most clearly when presented inadvertently by a pair of window salesmen!My wife and I decided to replace the double-hung windows in two bedrooms of our house last fall. Salesman A came into the house, and we took him to the rooms in question. He saw the existing windows, took no measurements, and asked no questions. All he said was, “I can see why you’d want to replace these.” We went to the kitchen with him, where he set up his three-ring binder in presentation mode and showed us charts, tables, graphs, photographs, and cartoons to explain how much energy we were going to save, how little maintenance we were going to have to do, and how quickly the windows would pay for themselves in fuel savings.An hour later, Salesman B came to the house. When he saw the windows, he said, “so why do you want to replace these?” 45 minutes after his arrival, we had scheduled the window replacement for two weeks later. This gentleman came into the house equipped with nothing but a tape measure, a cell phone and a desire to understand our motives. Salesman A never even called to follow up his quote. He knew what was great about his windows, but he had no idea why we wanted to get rid of the old ones.
Rob, great example of what I was talking about. And your other comment – I agree that nothing illustrates the lesson better than when you have the compelling reason and the salespeople don’t bother to find out what it is. Thanks for sharing the story!