Are You a Salesperson or A Problem Solver?

​I was talking with a client, Jessica, last year in a coaching session who shared with me one of her “aha” moments. This particular discovery pertained to how to describe to prospective clients what she does. Jessica is a white-collar partner at a large international law firm who works with companies that face complex white-collar issues.

She was practicing her “land and expand” approach by meeting additional colleagues of her main contacts at existing clients. In a conversation with a large Silicon Valley client, a colleague of Jessica’s main contact asked, “Jessica, do you mind if I run a problem by you?”

Before Jessica could reply, Jessica’s contact said to her colleague, “Kathryn, that is exactly what Jessica is here for; to make any of your problems her problems.”

​I was talking with a client, Jessica, last year in a coaching session who shared with me one of her “aha” moments. This particular discovery pertained to how to describe to prospective clients what she does. Jessica is a white-collar partner at a large international law firm who works with companies that face complex white-collar issues.

She was practicing her “land and expand” approach by meeting additional colleagues of her main contacts at existing clients. In a conversation with a large Silicon Valley client, a colleague of Jessica’s main contact asked, “Jessica, do you mind if I run a problem by you?”

Before Jessica could reply, Jessica’s contact said to her colleague, “Kathryn, that is exactly what Jessica is here for; to make any of your problems her problems.”

Jessica quickly realized that a large part of her role was to make her clients' problems her problems so that her clients can stick to their main tasks of protecting and helping their companies grow. From that point on, Jessica’s view of selling her practice and her firm changed from acting as a salesperson to acting as a problem solver.

A salesperson is more interested in first talking about what services they have to offer and making the conversation more about them. For many firms who offer a lot of services, that pitch can take a while to get through…at the risk of putting the prospective client to sleep. More importantly, most prospective clients don't want to listen through an entire menu of services unless they ask for it.

A problem solver is focused more on the client to better understand if and what the problem may be. It is difficult to solve any problems if s/he spends most of the time talking about themselves. 

An outstanding problem solver will do everything they can to help the client solve the problem, even if s/he or anyone else in their firm cannot solve the problem. They will look deeper into their network to find someone who can. This leads to a separate conversation on building long-term trusting relationships that I will address in another article.

Most professionals who are not dedicated sales professionals do not like to be viewed as sales professionals. I don’t blame them. Who wants to view perceived as someone trying to push their services on someone else who may or may not need them? This is why I teach my clients how NOT to sell to their clients.

Many of you already know the importance of uncovering the needs and pain points of the client, yet how many of you still talk too much about yourself before first learning about the client and what they may need?

Any good doctor will first diagnose what your ailment is before prescribing a treatment. Those doctors who spend too much time talking about themselves are ones I have difficulty trusting.

If you struggle at all with how to build relationships with new prospective clients, ask yourself one simple question.

Am I a salesperson or a problem solver?

If you choose the latter, you will naturally be more inquisitive and start asking more questions about the client and their potential challenges.

If you want, you can even steal Jessica’s line in how she describes to prospective clients what she does.

“I make my clients’ problems my problems so that they can get back to what they do best for their companies.” I am sure Jessica won’t mind. 😉