At the core of the conversation-based selling approach is a 3-step sales process that includes the steps:
- Initial Contact
- Conversation
- Explanation
As you can tell by the name of the sales methodology, the conversation sales process step is the key and central piece to this approach to selling. And while everything is about driving prospects to conversations and then getting the most out of those conversations, there is a step before and after the conversation. We will discuss what all of the steps look like in this video.
Mindset Change
But before we get to the three sales process steps, let’s first talk about how this sales process should change your mindset. If you are shifting your focus to the conversation sales process step, your mindset can be built around these two thoughts:
I am not trying to sell anything.
I am just looking to have a first conversation.
With that as the foundation for what you believe and are trying to do, that can and will change everything you say and do. You will start to see that as we go through the three steps of the sales process.
Initial Contact
The initial contact sales process step is the first time you are interacting with the prospect. This can be in the form of a cold call, cold email, or might be meeting the prospect out while networking.
And you should start to see the power of the conversation-based selling approach at this point because product selling salespeople will try to sell the product in their cold calls, cold emails, and while networking. But we are not going to do that because the goal and focus when we are at the initial contact sales process step is to sell the next step in the sales process, which is the conversation. With that, the close at the end of the initial contact is not to see if the prospect wants or needs what we sell; it is to close them on simply talking more and having a conversation.
Conversation
When we close the prospect on talking more, we then progress to the second step in the sales process, which is the conversation. We will talk more about how to organize and optimize your conversations later in the conversation-based selling sales methodology, but the form that the conversation can often take is that it can be an appointment, meeting, or call.
And we are still not ready to sell the product because the next step in the conversation-based selling approach is the explanation. That is what we will focus on closing for at the end of the conversation and we will discuss what that looks like next.
Explanation
The explanation sales process step is where we will explain to the prospect how we can help or what we have to offer. This will usually take the form of a presentation or demonstration for most products or services. But for more simple or commoditized products, the explanation sales process step might be more of more of a presentation of pricing and options by sharing a proposal or quotation.
In the next few videos in this sales training program, we will go through each of these steps in more detail and explain what they look like and what you can do to improve your sales results.
