What Would It Take?

What would it take to make your job better?

What would it take to improve the process?

What would it take to increase the return?

Three simple questions, but the phrase what would it take does something the rest of your pitch can't: it causes the customer to think differently.

Where This Comes From

I come from selling printed products: marketing collateral that my customers used to sell to their own external and internal customers. Before every meeting, I made it a rule. Always walk in with two ways to improve that piece and connect it better with their audience.

That habit is what earned me a reputation as the "idea guy." Not just the salesperson who took the order, but the one who helped make the order better.

Bring Two Answers Before They Ask

The same rule applies to you and me today. We prepare for every meeting with two answers to "what would it take" already worked out, two ideas to help the customer improve results before they even ask.

So when a customer asks what it would take to get a better return on this marketing piece, we're not thinking on our feet. We already have two answers.

That's the real value of the question. Asking "what would it take" doesn't just open a conversation, it deepens one. It's what makes us a more valuable vendor than the one who's just there to write the order.

Next meeting, don't wait for the question. Walk in with your two answers already built.

Roy Waterhouse is the founder of Lean Sales Group, where he coaches salespeople on building trust and growing accounts.