Why? Rabbits are carrot connoisseurs and it’s almost guaranteed that they know more about carrots than you do, so if you’re selling carrots to rabbits you’re at a disadvantage.
There is nothing more disempowering than selling to a customer who has more passion and a deeper understanding of your product than you.
Those customers can see things from a higher vantage point. Knowledge is power, particularly when you’re buying, because it creates leverage.
When selling a carrot to a rabbit you better have, at the very least, as much passion about what you’re selling as the rabbit does in buying it.
Fail to take a genuine interest in your product and to reflect a mutual level of expertise and you will come across as ignorant, lacking credibility and uninspiring.
Rabbits will know the finer details about carrots, like where to find more of them, what constitutes quality and how value is best measured.
They’ll also have a broader context and meaningful experiences to draw upon regarding their most precious resource.
If you can’t match rabbits in those areas you’re not contributing to the conversation or influencing their behaviour.
If there’s no way you can converse intellectually with the rabbit be sure to bring another rabbit with you.
That is most common in tech and high-end solution selling, where the sales skills inherent to hunting for new business part ways with the ability to process and articulate complexity.
Rabbits aren’t that complex but when it comes to carrots they really know their stuff.
Demonstrate your appreciation for them loving what you sell, draw out their opinions and positive experiences and acknowledge their expertise, and genuinely mirror their enthusiasm.
When you achieve that you won’t need to sell the carrot — the rabbit will sell it to you.
For more Selling Strategies advice, click here.
Trent Leyshan is the founder and CEO of BOOM Sales! a leading sales training and sales development specialist. He is also the creator of The NAKED Salesman, BOOMOLOGY! RetroService, and the Empathy Selling Process.
James was the editor and publisher of SmartCompany and LeadingCompany for five years. He is now the Australian Financial Review‘s companies & markets editor, and a former BRW editor.
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