Why ‘Tell Them Something They Don’t Know’ Is Bad Advice in B2B Sales

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by: Frank V. Cespedes and Tracy DeCicco
This article was originally published in Harvard Business Review on August 19th, 2019
Few people in sales would dispute the importance of bringing insights to customer conversations. One might call this the Jane Austen rule of selling: a seller in possession of a desired prospect must be in want of a relevant insight. Or as one executive says to sellers who call on him: “Your job isn’t to ask me what keeps me up at night. It’s to tell me what should be.”
Over the years, we’ve observed many salespeople who successfully make developing and delivering meaningful insights a core part of their approach. Their experience and our research indicate that, at a minimum, you need to do more than “tell people something they don’t know.” That approach can lead you to develop irrelevant factoids. Instead, we suggest crafting a strategy based on whom you’re talking