"Educating" the Prospect

In the March 13th issue of "B to B", author Wayne Pollard makes a good point in his article, "The Education Fallacy."

Ofttimes, a salesperson will give an 'educational presentation to inform a prospect about his/her offering.

However, for certain prospects, an 'educational presentation' will fall upon deaf ears...and may even be counterproductive.

Let's assume that a prospect is reasonably knowledgeable about the marketplace of whatever you are selling and leaning against purchasing what you are selling. If the salesperson delivers a presentation to a prospect who is already emotionally committed to another course of action...the prospect will be more resistant to any new information that threatens their rigid perspective.

Here's a good example of how this works. An educated smoker who has seen and heard all of the evidence on the evils of smoking is presented with evidence that smoking causes cancer. However, the smoker is completely committed to continuing their smoking...and will resist the 'new' evidence by discrediting it.

'Educating' them will not change their minds.

What's the answer? In the first place, 'educating' a prospect is not the same as persuasion. Persuading a prospect to change their minds requires empathy...what are the propects' emotional reasons for holding on so tightly to their viewpoint?

'Educating' the market without persuasion does not result  in sales.

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