Mastering the World of Selling: The Ultimate Training Resource from the Biggest Names in Sales

Chapter 24. Want More Sales? Stop "Selling" and Start Helping Clients Succeed

Mahan Khalsa

FranklinCovey Sales Performance Solutions

One of our senior consultants within the FranklinCovey Sales Performance Practice, a former CEO of a clinical research company, has shared the following experience he had when a large pharmaceutical company approached him about being a pivotal trial site for evaluating a new compound. Winning this study with this client would have been significant for our colleague.

After meeting with our colleague and reviewing the compound, the client began discussing expectations for the study, including a fairly short time line. Right away, our colleague could see that the time line would be too short to develop valid data. He raised this concern with the client, emphasizing that the short time line could compromise the quality of the data produced by the study.

The client's response was that our colleague's competitors were claiming they could conduct a valid study within the time line. Still concerned, our colleague responded that he didn't feel like his company could do it, and he reiterated that he didn't want to jeopardize the client's data by rushing through the study.

To get a better understanding of what the client was looking at, our colleague respectfully asked if they would share who the competitors were. After hearing who they were, he commented that they were good companies, they did good work, and if they were saying they could conduct the study within ...