To sell anything, you first have to make the buyer think. That’s a fairly simple assertion with some important implications for how your reps sell. It means reps must devote some real thought to how they can provoke real thinking. “Without real thinking, the likelihood you will see any change in behavior is probably close to zero,” says Jerry Acuff, president of Delta Point – The Sales Agency in Scottsdale, AZ, and author of The Relationship Edge: The Key to Strategic Influence and Selling Success (John Wiley & Sons, 2007). “That means you have to think about what you can do to make the other person think.”

Loading up the prospect with numbers and facts about your product won’t do the trick. Instead, you have to raise important questions and present information in a way the prospect hasn’t previously considered. Take this example from the days when Acuff worked as a sales manager at a major pharmaceutical company. He once accompanied a rep on a sales call to a urologist who was committed to a competitive product for treating infections. After exploring the doctor’s needs and his criteria for choosing drugs, Acuff presented this argument: “You said you chose a drug because it kills the bacteria e-coli.” The doctor nodded. “You told me that 90 percent of what you see is e-coli but the other 10 percent is all kinds of stuff.” Again, the doctor nodded, so Acuff went on: “I don’t think e-coli is important for this reason: Almost all antibiotics kill e-coli. Your issue is not what drug kills e-coli; your issue is: What drug has the greatest likelihood of success every time you prescribe it? Now, if that’s what you are looking for, the drug you’re using doesn’t fit that description. Our drug does.”

Acuff went on to explain why. He also explained that the numbers were not statistically significant. The current drug the doctor was using would cure 98.99 percent of patients and Acuff’s drug would cure 99 percent. But if the doctor wanted the drug “with the greatest likelihood for success every time you use it – it’s not what you are using right now.” Then Acuff was silent. He didn’t ask, “Will you use our drug?” Or, “Will you try it?” Or, “What do you think?” He simply stopped and waited. After a moment of silence, the doctor picked up the phone and made a call to the hospital to change patients from the other drug to Acuff’s drug. He then called a nurse to change his preprinted orders to Acuff’s drug. When it was done, the doctor said he had made the switch because Acuff made him think.

There are a couple of important things to consider here. First, you can’t provoke thought if you don’t give people something to think about, so spend some time mulling over how to make your prospects think. Second, recognize that just because you’ve asked a question doesn’t mean you’re stimulating thought. If your questions point toward their answers (“You’d like to improve the quality of your promotional brochures, wouldn’t you?”) or are superficial (“Do you want to project a high-quality image to your customers?”), they’re not going to make the prospect think. Instead, something like, “Tell me about the image you aim to project to your customers,” will be far more effective in activating the prospect’s brain.

Finally, keep in mind that prospects can’t think if you don’t give them conversational space in which to reflect. So make your statement or ask your question, then stop, and remain silent. It will feel awkward and take effort if you’re not used to it, so practice it ahead of time. You’ll be glad you did when the silence results in some “aha!” insights and an order for your product.

For more information about Delta Point – The Sales Agency, visit www.gottochange.com.