Or Are You a Moron?

Sometimes in sales we need to sort out those who are truly interested and qualified from those who are just wasting our time.  They aren’t necessarily bad people. Perhaps they just don’t know how to say “no” or how to be fully candid.

After 40 years in sales, I have developed a method of sorting the wheat from the chaff by asking what I call “or are you a moron” questions.

For example, when people would say that they are happy with their current supplier, I would ask, “I’m sure you would agree with me it’s smart business to have a backup supplier, right?”  The only sensible answer to that question is “yes.”  If people said “no” or were evasive, I knew that I probably wasn’t dealing with a straight shooter. Sometimes people say they already have a backup supplier. That’s a great answer.  At least I would know I’m likely dealing with a sensible person who I would want to follow-up with in the future.

Similarly when I would pitch a program and people said they were already part of a different program I would ask, “I’m sure you would agree with me that smart business people want to know their options, right?”

You get the point.

By the way, these are great, honest questions. Despite the silly name I give these types of questions, they are rock solid business questions. Businesses should want to have back up suppliers. Smart business people should want to know their options.

I am a big believer in consistent, persistent professional follow-up.  In sales we need to determine who the folks that are sincerely interested and deserve our time.

Buyers can be liars and we need to do a good job of quickly figuring out which is which or we could waste a great deal of time and energy following-up with the wrong folks.

So, do you get my point? Or are you a _ _ _ _ _?  Haha! It’s all good. Thanks for reading.

Dream big!

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Read past articles in Greg’s Million Dollar Mindset at Promo Marketing Magazine

About The Author

Greg Muzzillo started Proforma as an industry distributor in 1978. The company grew quickly and in the early 1980s Proforma was recognized for three consecutive years on Inc. magazine’s list of the 500 fastest-growing companies in North America. In the late 1980’s Proforma introduced its membership program to empower distributors to retain their business ownership and independence, and to share in sales and marketing resources, purchasing power with industry suppliers, one back office including all billing, accounting, vendor payments, cash flow, computer systems and more. Today Proforma has over 600 Members and is the $500 Million leader in the Promotional Products and Print Industry. Proforma’s record breaking success includes having 18 of its Affiliates named to Inc. Magazine’s 2020 list of the 5,000 fastest-growing companies and 193 Affiliates achieving its Million/Multi-Million Dollar Club with sales up to $38 million.