Another sales tip by Ryan Ohls, a Market Development Executive at ReachForce.

My sales career started when I was a 22-year old kid…and let’s just say my phone skills were not very polished at that point.  However, in one of my first weeks of making calls I had a prospect ask me a very poignant question.  He said, “Why should I do business with you when there are so many other options available to me?”

I had no answer.  To this day I have no clue what kind of mealy-mouthed response I came up with.  At the time I thought the guy was just a jerk.  Looking back though, I see how significant that question really was.  In fact, it’s possibly THE single most important question every salesperson should answer.

Why should your prospects do business with you?  What makes your offer and your company unique?  How do you know you’re not being perceived as a commodity?  You should be able to wake up from a deep sleep in the middle of the night and immediately be able to answer that question if asked.

But wait – there’s a catch.  When you go through this exercise always follow each of your answers with “So What?”

“We offer full installation and a 12-month warranty…So what?”

“We use prettier colors than everybody else…So what?”

In other words, “why should your prospects care?”  Eventually you will get to the root of what THEY find important, not you.  Chances are they don’t care about the things you think are impressive about your company.

How can you distinguish your company in the minds of your prospects to the point you literally have no competitors?  A company or a salesperson that figures this out has adequately answered “the most important question in business.”