One of my clients recently shared an insightful question with me, a question that helped him move forward with large contract for a relatively new client.
This client of mine is a roofer, and he received an opportunity to bid for a project with 26 buildings that needed to be re-roofed. The property management company he sent the bid to was one he'd already performed a much smaller project for, as a monkey's paw. But this project was much larger in scope.
He asked the general contractor how the selection of the roofer would be decided, because there was at least one other roofer putting in a bid. By asking the right questions and building on the rapport he'd already established, my client was able to discover what the other roofer's bid looked like—including the price and what the bid included.
My client shifted his bid around to adjust for what he'd discovered. He asked the general contractor to take a look at it before he sent the bid to the property management company for review, and asked him to let him know whether or not it was competitive.
The general contractor took a look at it and said it looked good.
Now, my client had asked several questions up to this point. But the one that I thought really showed his insightfulness was the one he asked next.
"Does it look good for me or the other guy?"
In this case, the general contractor told my client that it looked good for him. His bid was much more professional than this property management company was used to receiving, and he had itemized it in a way that was really useful to the people who reviewed it.
However, this is a question that could have gone either way. And since my client had built up rapport with the general contractor, it's likely that he would have told my client how he could improve his bid if it hadn't looked good for him—if it had looked good for the other guy.
This is why the bonding and rapport step of sales is so important. There are questions that you might not get an honest answer to otherwise. But if you prioritize that part of your sales process, you'll be surprised at how much information you can gather (and then use).
