Sales Tip: Feel, Felt, Found

There are certain things that successful salespeople do that unsuccessful salespeople do not do.

One of the things that a good salesperson does is control the conversation. They don’t worry about what they have to say next; instead, they focus on what their prospects are saying. Having patterns in mind to help you formulate a response is a great way to help you listen. I learned one of my favorites a long (long) time ago. In fact, it is so old that it’s new again to a lot of people. It’s called “feel, felt, found.”

The feel, felt, found formula is really very simple. When someone gives you an objection you frame your answer within this formula.

Feel

First, acknowledge how that person feels. It can be as simple as saying, “I understand how you feel.”

Felt

Next, talk about others who may have felt that same way. Again, this can be as simple as saying, “I spoke with someone yesterday who felt the same way,” or “I felt the same, too.”

Found

Here’s where you give them the benefit. Give your prospect something they can hang their hat on. You can say something like, “But then I found that this did [insert benefit of your product here].”

Put it Into Practice

So, let’s say that your prospect says that your service is too pricy. Using the feel, felt, found formula, your response may be, “I appreciate you mentioning that to me and I understand how you feel. I felt the same way when someone approached me about this, but I found that the investment actually saved me money, and made me money in the long run.”

Related: Sales Strategy — Selling What Something Does

If someone tells you that they don’t have time to see you for an appointment, you can say something like this, “I understand how you feel. I spoke with someone last week who felt that same way. But they told me afterwards that our appointment was the best investment of their time that they could have made.”

Will it work all the time? Of course not. Nothing works all the time in sales. But this formula will give you a track to run on. No matter what kind of an objection you get, you can say, “I understand how you feel. I felt or someone else I talked to felt the same way. But this is what they found, this is the benefit.”  This will allow you to focus more on what your prospect is saying rather than thinking about what you are going to say.