In this video, we will discuss how to optimize the conversations you have with sales prospects. We will provide clear and practical tips that will not only improve the impression you make, but they will also help you to get the most out of your meetings leading to an increase in leads being generated.
Product Selling Conversations
Before we discuss how to optimize your meetings with prospects, let’s first look at what the product selling salespeople do, and that is that they primarily try to talk about the product and close the sales. And while that might seem logical for a salesperson who has a product to sell, it is still too early for that, as selling the product is not the next step in the sales process. The next sales process step is the explanation and that is where we can explain the product we sell and try to close the prospect on moving forward.
Goals for the Conversation
The conversation is our first and main opportunity to learn about the prospect. With that, instead of talking about your stuff (your product and company), you can make the conversation more about the prospect. And a very easy way to do that is by simply asking the prospect good questions.
By making the conversation more about the prospect, not only do you capture valuable information, but you decrease how much you look like a salesperson who is trying to sell something and that can lead to a better connection and more rapport with the prospect.
But we don’t want the conversation to only be about the prospect, as we also want to introduce who we are, the product we sell, and the company we work for. A nice way to do this is to make the first half of the meeting all about the prospect by asking questions and then spend the second half of the conversation introducing your product and how it can help. But you don’t need to get into all of the details of your product because that is what you can do when you progress to the next step in the sales process, which is the explanation.
The Explanation
In the conversation-based selling approach, we break want you to make the conversation more about the prospect and less about you. This why we have a separate step we call the explanation where you can get into the details and explain what you sell and how it can help.
Instant Presentation
You could certainly progress to the explanation sales process step in the same meeting as the conversation, and we refer to this as an Instant Presentation. An example of this might be that after learning about the prospect, you decide to review some slides or brochures and explain what you sell and how you can help in deep detail.
In most scenarios, it is good to separate these two sales process steps as that will lead to you getting more time and attention with the prospect. But there could certainly be situations where it makes more sense to squeeze these steps together and go through them in one complete interaction with the prospect.
We hope this provides new ideas for how you can optimize your conversations with sales prospects!
