Why ‘Tell Them Something They Don't Know’ Is Bad Advice in B2B Sales
Common advice in sales is to provide insights to customers during sales calls. But this advice generally stays at the level of “tell people something they don’t already know” and results in sales conversations littered with many irrelevant factoids. This article provides examples of how salespeople develop and deliver resonant insights in customer conversations and why the framing of insights depends upon to whom they are talking and when in the sales cycle.
Keywords: Sales; Interpersonal Communication; Communication Strategy;
Citation:
Cespedes, Frank V., and Tracy DeCicco. "Why ‘Tell Them Something They Don't Know’ Is Bad Advice in B2B Sales." Harvard Business Review (website) (August 19, 2019). View Details