In the background, I’m hearing the theme to Jaws
While I was at the dentist this morning, the doctor asked me if I wanted to them to explain what they were doing. I said no and they proceeded to replace an old filling by giving me numbing shots, drilling, scraping, and talking amongst themselves. I was paying attention to the in-room TV and was pretty relaxed, well as relaxed as you can get in a dentist’s chair, and before I knew it they were done.
How many times do sales or service people talk about their “process” in granular detail? Because they’re telling the prospect every step in the engagement, the client has more things to worry about. If they don’t hear confirmation that you ordered the equipment, they freak out that you’re going to miss the installation deadline. If they know there are 147 items in the project plan, it will require too much of their time. The more detail they see, the greater the opportunity for failure.
If you offer enough information to make them nervous, you’ve said too much. Nobody cares if your team works 24 hours a day to make the deadline. The client just wants to know that you’ll make the deadline. Instead, sell on trust, because if the prospect trusts you, they don’t need to know every detail of the process. That’s your job to manage the process, not theirs. You allow them to relax and the next thing they know, you’re done.
One Moore Thing: If you need a good dentist, Valley Dental Spa is fantastic. You can even get a warm neck wrap or paraffin wax dip on your hands… not that I would ever admit to knowing how to spell paraffin… or having my hands softened by wax.