Ep 21: A Picture Can Be Worth a Thousand Words

The Sales Psyched Podcast

Episode 21: A Picture Can Be Worth a Thousand Words

Today's episode follows up on the topic discussed last week in Episode 20. So, if you haven't listened to that episode, stop and listen to it first.
In this episode, Dr. Croner outlines an actual success story that emphasizes the point of "talking about their kids and not your kids" and what a brilliant, up-and-coming architect did to land a job. Listen in now!

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Additional Resources

More on this topic:

• Ep 20: Prospects Want to Talk About Their Kids, Not Your Kids

More selling and presenting tips, check out some of our other podcast episodes:

• Ep 2: Great Salespeople Talk Way Less Than Their Competitors
• Ep 4: The #1 Mistake Salespeople Make During Online Meetings
• Ep 12: Prospects Cannot Resist This Sales Psychology

More About SalesDrive, LLC

At SalesDrive, LLC, we help companies perfect the salesperson hiring process by offering a variety of tools, like a sales assessment and psychologically-based interview guides, that aid companies in never hiring a bad salesperson again. SalesDrive was founded in 2005 based on the single biggest frustration many companies face, selecting sales candidates who interviewed well, only to flame out when placed on the line. Dr. Croner reviewed more than 90 years of academic research as well as his own work in conducting intensive behavioral interviews and discovered that high-performance salespeople shared three innate personality traits. After identifying a gap in the marketplace, he went on to develop The DriveTest® sales assessment. The only sales assessment to measure the three non-teachable traits necessary for new business acquisition.
If you are hiring salespeople, request a free DriveTest assessment today: https://salesdrive.info/free-trial-request

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Transcript

[soft melody theme music]
[00:00] Katherine Abraham: Hello and Welcome to the Sales Psyched podcast, where we discuss strategies for leveraging psychology within the world of sales. Each episode is hosted by Dr. Chris Croner, who has a PhD in clinical psychology and has spent his career helping companies around the world build stellar sales teams.
[00:20] Let's get started.
[deep drum, marching intro music]
[00:30] Chris Croner: Dr. Chris Croner here, following up on our recent discussion of talking about the client's kids and not your kids.
[00:36] Here's an actual success story to emphasize the point.
[00:40] A client of ours was a big real estate developer charged with remodeling and repositioning one of the largest and most famous office buildings in the world. The developer was naturally very excited and had all sorts of ideas but there was an outstanding problem.
[01:00] The building attracted a ton of pedestrian traffic to its tower restaurant and observation deck which mixed with the building's office tenants. So, there was chaos in the lobby and getting to the elevators, which would be a turn off when showing space to new tenants.
[01:16] Four famous architects were asked to pitch this incredibly high profile business. The first three pitched exactly the same way. They showed pictures of the important projects they had done around the world. In other words, their kids. They were all highly accomplished and the presentations were all equally impressive but they kind of blended together.
[01:42] Finally, the last architect came in. He was actually not as famous as the first three but was on the rise. So, the developer wanted to hear from him. After shaking hands all around, the architect asked everyone to pick up their coffee and he unfolded a big plan of the building's proposed new lobby.
[02:00] And his opening line was: "Here is how we are going to solve the pedestrian traffic problem in the remodeled building."
[02:10] There was a pause as the development team looked it over. Then, the rest of the meeting was spent on discussing this powerful solution.
[02:20] This was a brilliant move at several levels.

1. First, dispensing with the usual pictures of his kids, the architect went right to the heart of the matter. He had obviously done his homework and rolled out a huge picture of their kids.
2. Second, he completely differentiated himself from his competitors.
3. Third, he immediately engaged the prospect in a collaboration, rather than simply talking at them.

[02:49] He was the underdog. He did his homework. He led with their kids. He got the job.
[02:56] See you next time.

[soft melody theme music]
[03:00] Chris Croner: Thank you for listening to the Sales Psyched Podcast. If you haven't already, please be sure to click the subscribe button and leave us a five-star review. If you found this information helpful, please consider sharing it. We'd love your help in spreading the word.
[03:18] Until next time, take care!