Why Being Too Technical Can Cost You Deals

Guest: One of the most interesting patterns you see in engineering LED sales. It's something I describe as the engineering superego. Right now, I know that might sound slightly provocative, but stay with me, it doesn't come from a bad place. In fact, I want to talk about it because I care. Uh, and it comes from a strength that many, many engineers have.

Fred Koepstake: Um, you're listening to the Sales Today podcast and I'm your host, Fred Koepstake. On this podcast, we explore how sales professionals can develop a modern approach to winning business. The application of virtual selling techniques, how to create meaningful business relationships, and much more. Why not take our free collaborative selling scorecard to see how your sales approach suits today's environment? You'll find a link in the show notes.

Guest: Engineering businesses are, ah, built on expertise, deep knowledge, strong technical capability, a genuine understanding and ability to deal with complex problems, and rightly so. Yeah, that's what makes the product strong.

Fred Koepstake: It what give the business credibility.

Guest: And so it's completely natural that this becomes the center of the conversation. We explain, we demonstrate, we go into detail because that's what we're good at. Engineers are excellent at this. But here's where it gets interesting. In a sales conversation, that strength can start to work against you. Because instead of helping the customer to think, instead of helping them make sense of stuff, we start trying to show them how much we know. We explain more, we add more detail, go into greater depth technically. And often the customer steps back. And, uh, it's not necessarily because they're not interested. It's because it's becoming harder to follow or it's going against the grain of how they are thinking about trying to do something. There's also something a little bit more subtle happening. When we lean too heavily into this expertise, we can unintentionally create a distance. The conversation becomes, I understand this and you don't. And, um, even if that's not the intention, that's how it can feel. Now that, of course, is going to make it harder for the customer to engage only or even to say, look, you're right, I'm not sure I fully understand this. Instead, they stay polite, they nod, they'll say something like, oh, that's interesting. Internally though, they haven't moved forward. What customers really value in these conversations, it's not so much how much you know, it's how well you help them think, how clearly they can understand what's actually going on, what, what matters most, what they should do next. That's value. That's where people take value. It's not from a massive volume of information, but it's from clarity of thinking. So the little shift to make isn't about removing technical expertise? No, no, it's not that. It's about using it differently. Instead of explaining more, focus on, um, simplifying things, framing things in a certain way, guiding customers in how they are thinking and making their decision. It's all about, um, helping the customer make sense of their situation. Because when that happens, the technical solution becomes easier to understand. It's just easier to choose. So if you're. If you. If you think that you recognise this pattern, it is worth asking, are we using our expertise to clarify things or to try to impress people? Because depending what you're trying to do, there is a significant impact. Now, I don't know, it might sound familiar, you might not like what I'm saying, but it is useful to reflect on how you're going about sales. What are the things that you're trying

Fred Koepstake: to do to get to the point

Guest: where you're having these conversations? That's what I built the Collaborative Selling Scorecard for. You'll find it below in the Show Notes. Access it, run through it takes about five minutes. I'm sure that will give you some insights into the way in which you are using your expertise to work with your potential customers.

Fred Koepstake: Thank you for listening to the Sales Today podcast with me, your host, Fred Koepstake. I hope you've enjoyed what you heard today. If you did, please get in touch and, uh, hit subscribe. And remember, you can take the Collaborative Selling Scorecard for free to check out how your sales approach works in today's environment. You'll find it in the Show Notes.