"The best salespeople are the best listeners - that's how they find out what the prospect wants."
The best way to get someone interested in what you do, is to
be interested in what they do. You truly want to understand if what you do, or what you sell is appropriate for solving a real problem of theirs. It's very important to know that it is NOT always an appropriate product or service, or the appropriate time for every single person or company you come in contact with. Your prospect with appreciate your sincerity if it is not and will probably, refer you to better prospects.
Sales are made by listening, I mean truly listening
to what the prospect is saying and working extremely hard to understand what they
are not saying. You really have to fight your instincts and not get into
“pitch mode”. Remember, if you truly listen to somebody and show that you have
understood them, they will be much more inclined to listen to you when it is
your turn. Here is an outline for how to get the sales meeting off to a great start:
Discovery Process – Begin your meeting by finding
out as much as you can about their organization, goals, family, challenges, and inspiration. It is
very important that they do 90% of the talking here, even if it is a little
uncomfortable for you. Listen, listen, listen because these will be key points
that you can refer back to if and when you make a recommendation for your product or servicec. You want to put yourself in a strong position to say “After listening to YOU, here is how we can help YOU accomplish, what
YOU said you wanted to.”
There is no reason to try to convince or coerce someone in a sales meeting. Your goal is simple - to position yourself as a resource or business partner for your potential prospect. Once you have done that, the opportunity will present itself for you to diagnosis if and how you could help them. Below are some targeted questions to keep the people we are talking to….talking. When they are talking, that means we are listening. Which is absolutely what we are after!
1 First, I appreciate you taking the time to
chat with me. I want to be respectful of your time, how much time did you set
aside to chat today? Great, is there anything you want to be sure that we cover
today?
(You really don’t
want a meeting to feel like an interview. You want to help guide the prospect
with targeted questions, but more times than not they will express their
concerns/motives very quickly in the meeting if you listen and fight the urge
to fill silence by talking. Although it is hard to do you need to be ok with a
little bit of awkward silence. When
people feel a little awkward, they talk. When people talk they tell you their
concerns and give you reasons to help them. I don’t think you need to be
awkward in a meeting but you need to listen a little bit past the point of
comfort.)
So tell me a little bit about the goals your
organization has over the next few years?
a. What about long term? Where do you see your
organization in 5 years? 10 years?
3 What would you have to do in the next 12
months to accomplish everything that you have set out to?
a. What are some things that you could keep you
from accomplishing those goals? (be specific about their goals – it shows
you were listening earlier)
b. Are there any things your organization needs
to change to ensure you accomplish all of your goals?
c. What do you think is your biggest opportunity this year? What are you most excited about?
c. What do you think is your biggest opportunity this year? What are you most excited about?
Now what? How do we transition to what we do and create interest with our prospects?
Stay tuned. We will be diving into that at a later date.
