Is having a conversation a lost sales art?
Conversations are the strongest sales tool that sales reps have in order to effectively build credible relationships between their clients, their prospects, their brand and their company.
When’s the last time you had a conversation with a client or a prospect and heard this…
“Wow, this was one of the best conversations I’ve ever had!”
The way you open up new conversations has a direct bearing on what happens next. The direction of those conversations, along with the strategy behind those conversations, all will have a direct bearing on one thing…a potential sales opportunity.
This is why conversation starters are so important. Because conversations build relationships, and relationships build businesses.
What do your clients and prospects care about? They don’t care about your canned pitches and the all-about-you messaging. Stop pitching and puking canned crapola and start opening up a human connection and conversation.
Conversations Start in Many Different Ways
Technology plays an extremely important role in how you communicate. In today’s digitally-driven business world, it’s imperative you learn how to drive business conversations leveraging many different communication tools.
A few conversation starters can be:
- Face to face
- Text messages
- Emails
- Social media posts
- Phone calls
What’s important is you create conversations, and use all of them!
Content Starts Conversations
In a socially-connected and digitally-driven business world, content opens up new opportunities to drive new conversations. Sales reps must start researching the business problems inside the industries of their clients and prospects.
With a simple Google search, salespeople can uncover a ton of information to help them kick start a professional business conversation.
Let’s say a sales rep calls into the legal community… imagine opening up a conversation like this…
“In a recent IDC study, lawyers and paralegals lose as much as 2.3 hours a week searching, but not finding, the right documents and another 2 hours recreating documents that can’t found. All told, time wasted in document creation and management activities cost firms $9,071 per lawyer a year or a 9.8% loss in the firm’s total productivity, according to the study. Can you imagine the impact this could have on your law firm?”
You can continue to start conversations around ‘I can save you money’ or take the value approach, the decision is yours but I promise the outcomes will be different.
Conversational Appetizers
What are you bringing to the business conversation table?
1. Bite-Size Doses of Education
Do you know more about what you sell than your clients or prospects? I would sure hope so! Then, do they believe you do? Do they see you as an advisor?
Are you showing them you know what’s going on in their marketplace?
How about starting conversations based upon what you’ve observed from other companies like theirs?
How about sharing valuable insights and bits of education? Imagine them saying, “Maybe I should listen to this person.”
2. Snack-Size Challenges
How well do you understand their world?
Think for a moment about some of the challenges your current clients are facing. Is it possible that some of your prospects might be facing some of the same challenges?
How about opening conversations with a few challenges you see in their marketplace?
This may sound so simple but it works, I promise!
If you understand the issues your clients are facing and you’ve helped solve them, then wouldn’t you think you could use these to open up new conversations?
Stop over-complicating…open up new conversations!
As an example… “Right now, I’m seeing my clients having to deal with A, B and C… which one hits home the most?”
3. Plates Full of Questions
Great conversation is about engaging with great questions. The key is getting them to open up about their issues, challenges and problems.
Tell me more…
In addition to that, what else?
Imagine for a moment, what would happen if…
Insert these into your question starters and watch what starts to happen.
Get to Know Your Clients
The single-best source of help is your clients. Engage with them. Ask them questions. Learn something new about them. What pains may they be having? These become conversation starters when it comes to prospecting.
How well do you understand your clients, their business and their competitive landscape?
Are you someone who truly cares about improving their business lives? Do you give a rip about them?
Your clients can see the sincerity in your eyes. They can smell sincerity, but all too often what they smell is commission breath spewing out your mouths.
How can you improve the business lives of your clients? Quite simply, just ask them. Make it about them.
Final Word
Conversations are the most powerful tool you have at your disposal to foster relationships. Having meaningful conversations is something that can be learned, with focus and practice, and all those in sales can become better at it.
Whether it be digital or face to face, you proactively engaging in conversations will catapult your sales success.
