The Sales Question that Engages Scientists and Qualifies Leads in Less than a Minute

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by Rusty Bishop

Those who read this blog regularly know I am student of sales and marketing with 17 years of experience in the lab.   I question, I observe, I test, and I report my findings to you to help you sell better, because I believe you have the products to make scientists’ lives easier and better.

Last week I spent 4 straight days in the Exhibit Hall of the Neuroscience 2010 Meeting here in San Diego.

It was and is a golden opportunity to crush your numbers and generate hot leads.  Where else in the world do you have the chance to meet 35,000 potential customers?

35,000 potential sales and repeat sales!                           Opportunity knocks.

I listened closely while reps and marketers and inventors and owners talked to scientists about their products and services. My goal was to determine what separated the top sales reps from the pack and to learn from the mistakes of others.

The overall finding was simple – the top sales people asked a great question that engaged the scientist and qualified them as a lead quickly and moved on if they weren’t qualified.

That’s right. The question qualified the lead and engaged the customer.

Seems painfully obvious given that every sales training book or seminar in the last century from Carnegie to Gitomer has preached the power of a great question. So why aren’t you asking them?

“Ask a dumb question get a dumb answer”  - Jeffrey Gittomer, ‘The Sales Bible’.

One thing that really hit me is people often fail to ask engaging questions.

For example, one Mega Corp had probably the most engaging looking booth I have ever seen.  It was a “nerd bar” based loosely on Apple’s Genius Bar concept. When I walked up to the bar and grabbed a stool there were no fewer than 20 employees standing around or sitting behind the bar like “bartenders”.

I was the only “customer.”

I was asked by the “bartender”, “So, what do you want to know?” Talk about open ended and not engaging.

I had no idea.  I was stunned.  I got up and walked away feeling stupid.

Ask a dumb question and a get dumb answer or no answer.

How did he know I wasn’t chief scientist at Pfizer looking to buy $350,000 mass spectrometer? I’m not picking on the guy just observing.

MegaCorp spent tens perhaps hundreds of thousands of dollars to engage scientists and “So, what do you want to know?” is the best question they could come up with.

Here is the top five list of questions I heard and was asked at the meeting that fail to qualify or engage:

1. Can I help you? – Seriously?  This is a Neuroscience conference, not Wal-Mart.
2. How’s the meeting going? err… fine?
3. So what do you work on? – hmmm… Neuroscience.
4. Have you heard of our company? Nope, I’m here to win the iPad.
5. Do you use our antibodies/ kits/ microscopes/cells/mice? Yes or No-not very thought provoking.

Pause for a second and re-read the list you just skimmed.

Are you asking these lame questions of scientists with PhDs that work at MIT and Standford and Astra Zeneca?

Would any of these truly engage you? Do any of them qualify the lead?

Ask a smart question and qualify a lead

35,000 potential sales walked by your booth at the Neuroscience conference.  You have 4 days to sift, sort, engage, and sell.

That’s 1093 scientists per hour.

Since the meeting is front loaded and slow has heck on the last 2 days its really 2187.5 scientists per hour…

…or 36 scientists per minute.

Fact 1 - If you want to be a top sales person, you need to both qualify and engage a scientist instantly.

Fact 2 – There is not a scientist in the world that is not freaking out, pissed off, frustrated, or depressed about one experiment that is keeping them from publishing, graduating, funding, Phase 1, or spending the weekend in the lab.

Fact 3 – You sell products and services that are used in . . . experiments.

Based on these three facts the Sales Question that cuts to the heart of every scientist’s core, engages, and qualifies is -

What experiment is giving you the most trouble in the lab?

The question requires productive thought – If you ask a scientist this question they must think and give a science-based answer. Principle Investigators will talk about their students.  Post-docs will talk about their troubles.  Students will talk about graduating. Pharma scientists will talk about money and time to market. All experiment-driven.

What experiment is giving you the most trouble in the lab?

The question relates directly to scientist’s problems. If they answer anything to do with your products/services, you have qualified them as a lead. If they don’t answer, hand them a pen and move on to the next scientist.

What experiment is giving you the most trouble in the lab?

The question draws information from the scientist that makes the sale easier and allows you to present your product/service as a solution.

What experiment is giving you the most trouble in the lab?

The question makes you seem more knowledgable than your competition.  You know about experiments- their pain point.

What experiment is giving you the most trouble in the lab?

Next week, I will dig into some variations on the question that are focused on various demographics of scientists you might encounter.