Imagine you’re in a high-stakes motorsport race and are given the keys to a gleaming Formula 1 car. Foot down, you’re pushed back in the seat. A promising start. But all that speed won’t give you the insight you need to pick the quickest, smartest path to arrive at the finish line first.
So others win the race. Over and over.
That analogy is how I explain what I’m seeing happening to sellers and sales teams in the marketplace today.
WINNERS’ CIRCLE:
A GAME OF UNDERSTANDING BEFORE EXECUTION.
Today, too many are pushing the throttle too hard to communicate the solution to their customer’s business problem before they have a full understanding of it first. And then they wonder why their sales are chronically down!
That rush to judgment happens because people misuse the powerful tools we all have at our disposal in our CRMs and elsewhere today. That included AI, marketing materials and personas. As a result (to return briefly to my analogy): they’re all engine and no road. They have an abundance of facts at their fingertips. But don’t spend any time understanding the relationship between those facts.
In sales today, the only way to properly harness artificial intelligence is by first honing your critical-inquiry skills, or as I like to call it: situational intelligence. Here’s what you must do to apply that approach to get that powerful Formula 1 engine of yours on the right road to victory.
YOU MUST REFRAME.
Your first step is to reframe the challenge at hand. As a seller, your job is to dig into your customer’s problem rather than find a solution quickly. That means be willing to look beyond the needs of your contact on an opportunity. Instead, think about the entire company. As a wise client of mine likes to say: “the job here is to manage the account, not the PO.”
Here’s how that works. Let’s say your client tells you: “We’ve just had a big increase in fraud.” Inquire further about the facts being presented. How do they quantify a big increase? What are the stakes involved tackling this issue? What’s changed that might be causing that increase? How long has the increase been going on? What do they think the solution needs to look like? What other areas of the business are affected by this problem?
YOU MUST LISTEN.
Situational intelligence is all about creating proper context for information. Listen carefully to the answers you get to the questions you ask of your customer. Do this to avoid the pitfall of making otherwise quick assumptions about the state of their problem.
Listen with the intent of formulating even better, more incisive questions to get….more. The more they talk, the more information you have to properly define the problem at hand. This is also for your own benefit. Because by listening carefully, you can choose wisely from three possible outcomes: whether the task is the right fit for you, whether you need to walk away, or whether there’s an even bigger opportunity at hand in the solution that you formulate. Each of these choices is a win.
YOU MUST PRACTICE.
Situational intelligence doesn’t just get dropped into your lap: it’s earned through deliberate, repeated effort…just like any other kind of muscle memory. Be like a Formula 1 driver in this way and never skip the practice sessions!
Working with your team members in roleplaying exercises, practice asking incisive questions. And learn to spot common, vague statements that ought to invite further questions. This is also where you can create suitable prompts with AI tools like ChatGPT or Google’s Gemini to teach you how to keep digging into those conversations you have with you customers. It’s hard to break old habits in a live environment. Practice creates the conditions to solve this problem.
YOU MUST GET COMFORTABLE WITH SILENCE.
Like Shakespeare once said: “men of few words are the best men.” The most powerful tool you have in any conversation is to have a willingness to allow for dead air to happen…especially in moments where you feel the interviewee has more to say and just needs a little encouraging. Silence creates space for the truth to come out.
YOU MUST BROADEN YOUR PRACTICE.
As you get more skilled at exercising your situational intelligence, expand your scope to include your best, most trusted clients. This is how you build and maintain your momentum of confidence. Begin with broad questions about the state of the market: “What market changes are affecting your business this year?” This is also an opportunity to broach current events: a topic that might otherwise be a sensitive one. Do it not to share opinions or to get into emotional arguments, but rather to get a more accurate definition of how your customer perceives today’s marketplace. Ask: “What’s going on today that’s affecting your ability to be successful?” Situational intelligence is all about giving you a better array of facts so that you can properly formulate the problem your customer has.
Today’s technology-driven tools in sales don’t make the basics go away: they complement those time-honored skills. That’s where situational intelligence fits in. And if you do right, it also supercharges those skills and your earning potential. Understanding this fully is a prerequisite to being able to execute skillfully as a sales leader. Start now!
