Personal Gain Identification

One of my customers recently had a 3-day Miller Heiman strategic selling course.  When I asked them the one thing that they took from it, their answer was unequivocal; uncovering personal gain.

Most sales people have heard of the Miller Heiman Blue Sheet philosophy, which is your account plan.  They also expound a Green Sheet.  This is for your individual call planning.  One thing vital for this, is knowing your DMU (decision making unit) and what makes them tick.

They key to this, emerged for them as knowing what the personal gain for each member of the DMU is, and how we can help make it happen for them.  When the role-playing started, it became clear this was a new avenue for them.  People came straight out with blurting “what’s your personal gain then?”  This form of words is of course, not the best approach.  Getting the answer is essential, but the trick is to get it without framing it in such obvious terms.

They came up with all sorts of ways of asking this, like “how would this help you” and “what priority does this have for you” and if high, then “how come so high?”.