Utilizing a Rating Scale in Your Selling

Ever use a rating scale in your selling? We see it all the time in other settings. Restaurants, books, and Amazon products are rated with 1 to 5 stars. The Washington Post assigns 1 to 4 Pinocchios for how untruthful a statement is.

You too can use rating systems as a strategy in multiple sales situations. I’ll walk through three of them and tell you why I think they work.

Situation #1: On a Prospecting Call

Prospect: “We’re very happy with XYZ (your competitor)”.

You: “OK. On a scale of 1-10, with 1 being bloody awful and 10 being just perfect, how would you rate them?”

Prospect: “Probably about a 7.”

You: “Not bad. What would make them a 10?”

Why this works: Because you’ll never hear a 10 if you frame it right. 10 means perfection and no one is perfect. And they won’t say 1 (or 2 or 3) because they just told you they were happy with them. The range is basically 4 to 8, and I’ve only heard someone say an 8 once in my career. You’ll hear lots of 5’s, 6’s & 7’s. Which are just the numbers you want to hear. This leaves plenty of room for a weakness or two to come up. You may even uncover something that’s a hot button for this prospective client to get you in the door. Even if it gets you nowhere with this them, it can help you find opportunity with other clients of this competitor.

Situation #2: After Reviewing a Draft Proposal with a “Weak” Coach

You: “Now that you’ve had a chance to review our proposal, using a 1 to 10 scale, how confident would you say Harry (the Decision Maker) is in our ability to deliver what we’ve proposed?”

Your Coach: “About a 7.”

You: “We want everyone involved to be as confident as we are. How do we get that up to a 10?” Or, “What’s keeping that number down?”

Why this works: (1.) You uncover what’s standing in the way from the decision maker’s perspective of finalizing the deal. (2.) If your Coach is concerned about your ability to deliver, but also is afraid of offending you in any way, they can use the decision maker as the foil.

Situation #3: After we’ve been selected, but not yet signed

You: “On a scale of 0 to 100%, what do you think is the probability we’ll have this done by the end of June?”

Your Coach: “I’d say about 70.”

You: “OK. Why that percentage?” (Note: You’d ask this no matter what percentage they give you.)

Why this works: You get a much more realistic answer than asking, “Are we still on track to have this approved in June?” That kind of question invites them to placate you, and just say “yes” or “I think so”. The 0 to 100% scale allows you to find out any obstacles so you can then move right into problem solving.

And that’s how you can use rating scales in your selling.

One note of caution: Like most tactics, it can be overused. My recommendation is not to use this more than once or twice with any one stakeholder during the sales process.

See you next week!

Bob

P.S. If you’d like to improve your skills in developing coaches in your accounts, send me an email: [email protected] and I’ll hold you a slot. Details were in 2 emails sent last week. The course starts on May 15.