What Did Socrates Know About Selling?

Does this sound familiar to you?

Someone gets up and starts pitching, whether it's a sales rep with goods and services that you should buy, or a parent or teacher or friend telling you how you should behave, act or live your life. How did you like that? Were you resistant to what was being said? Perhaps not outwardly, but maybe inside you felt some real resistance building up toward this person and their comments.

Urging someone to do something or not do something runs into a person's sense of independence and individuality. We believe we can decide for ourselves, don't we? Why do we feel uncomfortable when told what to do? Is it because we are being pushed in a direction we maybe did not want to go? Or did we have some of our own ideas that seem not to count? Did we feel somehow not in control of the situation or "one down"? Did we dig in our heels and refuse, even though what they were saying makes sense?

Simply telling a person what to do is a totally ineffective and unproductive use of time. It fails to take into account feelings of independence, discounts the individual's ideas, and may be construed as downright pushy. Simple declarative sentences are not always the best way to persuade, are they? Is there another way?

Do you remember Socrates? Wasn't he the fellow who got together with his class and asked a lot of questions and used those questions to shed light on issues and possible resolutions? That is because asking questions can be as powerful as making assertions, but without bringing discomfort and resistance to the listeners or readers, thus leaving a more permanent impression.

Did you know that the "Socratic Method" has been used in most American law schools for over a century as the primary teaching technique? Isn't this method of questioning really what talk therapists use to teach insight and motivate more effective behaviors? And isn't it what trial lawyers and detectives use to expose forgetful, ignorant and lying witnesses? Do you think you could use this method? Should you? Law school professors, detectives, therapists and sales representatives, among others, use questions to guide their audience where they want the audience to go. Would you try this method?

Most salespeople have been taught that the customer ultimately controls all sales situations. While this is true, salespeople fail repeatedly by trying to "lecture" or convince a customer into becoming a buyer. Give them enough information and they will surely want to buy what we are selling ... right!! The Socratic Method teaches a process of questioning that helps bring varying points of view into alignment.

Have you ever read Plato's "Allegory of the Cave?" It is possibly the most memorable portion of his famous writings entitled, "The Republic." The subject of the writing is about people who live/exist in a cave. Ultimately, everyone in the cave lives in different stages of enlightenment. "Cave dwellers" exist in a constant flux of seeking enlightenment, returning to their lot in life or simply accepting a lot without ever searching or desiring for more. If an individual receives enlightenment, he is posed the question of whether or not to help his fellow cave dwellers toward the enlightenment he has found. The same can be said of how people are managed and sold. If enlightenment could be correlated to the benefits of a product, then it is paramount to understand a customer's view within the "cave."

Silence is one of a salesperson's best weapons if they learn to use it effectively. Learning to ask "adult" questions - probing, insightful, thoughtful, and meaningful questions - is a difficult skill to master ... only the best can do it artfully.

How difficult is it for you to ask a question and then let silence exist for as long as necessary until you get the answer? The very next sound you hear after asking a question should never be the sound of your own voice. Learning to ask good questions will serve you better than learning a second language ... it is a second language to a professional salesperson.

Leading a prospect to enlightenment by asking proper questions will lead to great sales success.

Rules for Asking Good Questions:

1. Know why you are asking the question.
2. Remember why you ask the question. 
3. Listen to the answer. 
4. Be patient. 
5. Learn the art of "hooking words" to ask follow-up questions. 
6. Never let your voice be the next sound after asking a question. 
7. Be interested in what is said ... a prospect can detect if you are bored or not interested. 
8. Listen for responses that are emotional as opposed to intellectual ... an emotional response has to do with feelings that affect them or their company or the outcome of something, and intellectual response has to do with facts. 
9. If you think it, find a way to ask a question about it. 
10. Listen to what is being said and ask questions to learn what is missing. 

Socratic dialogue is particularly suited to organizations and companies that are in a process of change, in which basic norms, values and goals need to be expressed.

The method requires the use of communication and thinking skills, which may have been forgotten in a business context. Participants often have to re-learn these skills, such as attentive listening and clarity of expression, along with understandable and logical reasoning.

Although the method is initially time-consuming, it can save time in the longer term. A decision based on concrete and clearly expressed experiences, which have been examined and discussed with emphasis on basic norms and values, should not need later revision, nor is it likely to be withdrawn.

Socratic Method in a Sales Environment

• Open a Socratic dialogue with sales prospects.
• Listen effectively and respond with the right questions.
• Uncover business issues and personal motivators that close the sale.
• Obtain commitments that lead to buying decisions.
• Position solutions to match each prospect's needs.
• Discover and respond to the real issues behind prospect questions.
• Transform objections into avenues that lead to agreements.
• Close with a commitment to the next steps.

Credits to this article:
Bob Moore, President of AZO Corp., Memphis, TN
Unknown Author

By
Ken W. Edmundson - Edmundson Northstar Companies
Bruce Seidman - Sandler Sales Institute