Observe those successful in sales, and you’ll soon notice they’re good at the art of conversation. If you think this sounds easy, think twice. Having engaging sales conversations takes a tremendous amount of skill, practice and patience.
With so many leaning heavily on social media for their interactions, the less face-to-face communication is practiced, the less skilled your team becomes in having business conversations. If your business relies on your sales team to win clients, the better their conversations become, the higher their business acumen becomes, the more opportunities they’re likely to uncover and the more likely they’ll be able to convert sales opportunities into profitable clients.
Before your team puts their sales shoes on, you might take a step back and look at your sales process. Does your sales team know what distinguishes a sales opportunity? How well are they prioritizing their time and channeling their sales efforts where they get the most returns?
It’s About Starting Conversation
Conversation serves as the foundation in the creation and maintenance of relationships. It serves as the gateway. If navigated successfully, it can lead your team to the information or results they want.
On the surface, conversation is a simple exchange of thoughts and ideas, but even more important, it carries rich opportunities to build and strengthen bonds, uncover new information, and present it in a way to help create more sales opportunities.
So, why do many of your sales reps struggle to open up a simple conversation? Shift the focus from “all about what your sales reps want” and “all about your company” to all about the other person, their interests and their desires—showing them your sales reps care.
Real Conversations
For the most part, many in sales today fail to engage in genuine conversations with their clients and prospects. They rely upon pre-formatted questions and rehearsed answers which, to me, resembles watching a tennis match, moving your head right to left.
Real conversations require your sales team’s full participation. It’s the space where two human beings participate in a conversation. A genuine conversation is where reality unfolds.
How do your sales reps achieve this authentic experience of conversation, in order to help them increase their sales opportunities?
Authentic conversations mean your sales team must drop their sales defenses and stop acting like and reeking of commission breath. Yes, it’s about having them become vulnerable, allowing the conversation to proceed in a humanistic manner. The possibilities and opportunities for engagement become endless.
Real Conversations Yield Real Sales Opportunities
Authenticity is at the center of Selling From the Heart professionals who don’t just “talk the talk,” they also “walk the walk.” They back up their positive, empowering words with action, benefitting their clients and prospects. I encourage your sales team to stay true to themselves and do what they say they’re going to do.
The Conversion of One New Conversation Per Week
Authentic and real conversations are the crown sales jewel. Imagine your sales reps having these on a daily and weekly basis. How could this help in growing sales revenue and profits?
Let’s use a sales team of 15 with an average deal size of $10,000. If we can attach a $10,000 potential sales opportunity to each new conversation, what could this mean to you and your sales team?
- One new genuine conversation per week, per sales rep, equals 15 conversations/opportunities;
- Fifteen conversations week over week per month equals 60 conversations/opportunities;
- Every single month, this is $600,000 worth of sales opportunities, generated by having heartfelt and caring conversations.
Over an entire year, this pans out to $7.2 million worth of sales opportunities.
I will allow you to play the conversion game, but I think you get it!
- An overachieving sales team
- A happy and healthy sales team
- A no bitching and moaning sales team
- Happy leaders
- Happy clients
Bringing it All Together
A simple conversation, the most overlooked sales tool for connection and change. If every member of your sales team can choose to be present with the conversations they have with your clients and prospects, they’ll soon increase their engagement levels leading to an increase in trust.
I will leave you with this to think about. Are your sales reps…
- Establishing a trusting relationship with their clients and prospects?
- Showing genuine appreciation for their clients and prospects?
- Building for their sales future?
