Archive for the ‘Relationship-building’ Category

Small Actions Can Make a Big Difference

Friday, May 28th, 2010

Selling in 2010, especially as the economy grows again, hinges on how you handle those critical junctures in your interactions with sales prospects. As I’ve said, what you say or do during those junctures can most impact the outcome, moving the deal more quickly to a close or immediately breaking it. The first 120 seconds with a prospect, whether on the phone or in person, is the most important or “golden” juncture — that’s when what you say or do you creates that first impression.

So, now you’re thinking, “Don’t I have enough pressure going into my sales calls?” While focusing on the critical junctures may seem daunting, it’s actually easier than you think to say and do what will win over the prospect. You don’t have to be a super-bright and entertaining conversationalist or wow the prospect with a slick PowerPoint and a stack of collateral. Mainly, you need to be prepared and you need to be proactive.

Your focus may be on your presentation of your company and its product or service, however you need to also keep in mind that minor behaviors during your interactions with the prospect can reveal more than your slides do and have more influence on the prospect’s ultimate decision to buy from you.

For example, I had sat down with a prospect in a conference room at their office to start our first meeting. To get settled in for taking notes and answering my prospect’s questions, I took off my suit jacket and neatly rolled up the sleeves of my shirt. I later won this prospect’s business and when I did the due diligence of asking them why they selected my company, they told me that removing my jacket and rolling up my sleeves (among other things) had made an impression. It showed to them that I was ready to go to work and that I was a true consultant and not some slick salesperson.

So you see how easy it is for the smallest action to have an impact on the direction your sales call or meeting takes. An action such as this demonstrates to the prospect that you are sincere about wanting to work with them and it can help you establish trust. Conversely, behavior that indicates you’re not listening (e.g., not answering the prospect’s questions or interrupting them), talking about irrelevant subjects, talking fast, and making poor eye contact gives the impression you are not totally engaged, disinterested, in a hurry to close the sale or trying too hard.

You want to proactively include behavior such as what I describe in the example as you interact with your prospect; but at the same time be yourself and make sure you are tuned into the prospect’s current mindset. It’s really easy to incorporate the behaviors that will have a positive effect when you remember to be prepared and be proactive.

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Nurturing Relationships is Key to Sales Success

Wednesday, May 19th, 2010

If there’s a sales professional you know who is consistently closing deals and exceeding sales goals, chances are that person is skilled at connecting with his/her contacts and nurturing those relationships. The essence of great selling is the relationships you establish and build, primarily with your prospects, but also with your current customers and with associates in your business network.

You don’t need to be a social butterfly or leave your specific human relations comfort zone to be great at relationship-building. All you need to do is employ the following tactics in your sales approach and you’ll see that making and fostering connections is a natural process which can lead to rewarding relationships with long-term advantages for both you and your contacts.

1. Find out what your prospects’ goals, issues and challenges are at the outset of your first call or meeting. By proactively inquiring about and learning your prospect’s needs, you demonstrate you care but also have the information you need to best respond to those needs and provide a solution.

2. Establish and maintain trust – this is very important to building and maintaining relationships. You want to make sure you protect the relationship you’ve formed by “walking the talk” — for example, if you tell your customers they can call you 24/7, be available to accept the call 24/7; or, if you promise to deliver something by a specific date or time, make sure you deliver on that promise.

3. Focus on what’s in it for them. As discussed in my last blog post, taking the opportunity to explain “what’s in it for them” is a critical juncture in every sales interaction. You need to convey to the prospect the value they’ll receive by buying from and working with you, and that point needs to be part of your core sales message in the early stages of your first call or meeting.

4. Listen. This is so vital to cementing your relationships and perhaps the greatest gift you can give any prospect. Your prospects are accustomed to having sales people talk at them and recite their product’s or service’s features without getting an understanding of their problems, needs or goals. By listening, you convey respect for what they have to say and in turn earn theirs.

The sales profession is crowded with people who are focused on just telling the customer about their product or service and making the sale — not on the customer. By interacting with your prospects in a heartfelt way, you’ll make that essential connection much more easily and help shorten your sales cycle. By continuing this approach as prospects become customers, you will strengthen that connection and create enduring relationships that will benefit you in multiple ways.

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