I read an article recently about programmers. It described programmers as program experts and their clients as domain experts. I couldn’t help thinking how customer-focused we could be in sales if we thought of clients as domain experts.

You know your capabilities, industries, markets, etc. Do you believe it is the client who knows what he or she needs a product or service to do? Do you think your client holds the key to how to sell to him or her?

More often than not, the biggest bottleneck in closing sales isn’t the competitors, budgets, or products. It is the sales dialogue itself — specifically, not giving the client a big enough role.

The article also referenced a “workbench.” This was the place where the domain expert and the program expert build the solution together. One major solution to the bottleneck to closing deals is to get on the workbench together with your client. If you hammer out a solution alone, you are trying to be both the program expert and domain expert. And you may find you’ve built a solution that you like but the client doesn’t.

Thinking about the client as the domain expert isn’t all that simple. For so long, it has been drilled into salespeople’s heads that they have to be the expert. Many feel they are not doing their job when they are not the one wearing the expert hat. The point is every sales call has room for two experts — the program expert — you, and the domain expert — your client.

Before your next call, think about these two roles. When you see your client, imagine he or she is wearing a flashing name tag with “domain expert” on it. If you see the client as the domain expert, you will be more successful having the client see you as the program expert. Get together on the workbench to drill down, hammer out, and nail down the sale.

Linda Richardson is founder of Richardson (www.richardson.com), a leading sales training and consulting firm. Ms. Richardson recently received a Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence for Sales Training by Selling Power Magazine. Ms. Richardson has written 9 books on selling including her most recent, The Sales Success Handbook. She has been published extensively in industry and training journals and has been featured in numerous publications including Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling, Selling Power, Success, The Conference Board Magazine, and The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Tags: Linda Richardson, sales, Sales Training, selling

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