IN THIS POST
Creative ways to improve sales conversations skills.
Recognizing and diffusing hidden sales call pressures.
Sales conversation secrets that even the sales gurus don’t know.
No one ever said that having a sales conversation is an easy task. Many business owners have difficulty building relationships with potential clients throughout the sales call process. Too many have expressed their dislike for making sales calls altogether and have had various negative emotions that come with the process.
Have you ever felt fear and insecurity before or during your sales conversation? Perhaps your focus was entirely on the goal of making the sale during your call. Have you ever considered that a trust-based sales system can bring you confidence, build positive relationships and provide overall success? Well, it can!
Ari Galper is the world’s #1 authority on trust-based selling and his sales approaches have helped hundreds of thousands of business owners to eliminate resistance in the sales process and create successful sales conversions.
This trust-based selling approach creates a new mindset that will shift your traditional linear-based process to a whole new way of how you look at sales conversations. This new mindset teaches that if the potential client doesn’t buy your sales approach, they aren’t going to buy what you sell.
Let’s dive into how this new mindset can build a positive relationship with potential clients, avoid rejection during sales calls and get to the true problems that prospects are facing so that you can mutually determine if you are a good fit.
By simply changing your mindset and being more flexible, you can change the trajectory of your career. There are five right-brained attributes that business owners should tap into to be successful in their sales calls – Emotions, Spontaneity, Problem-Solving, Intuition and Flexibility.
Emotions – How do you make your negative thoughts, positive ones? We have all heard “sorry not interested” or “I don’t have time for this” from potential clients. These rejections cause fear and anxiety and make us dislike having sales conversations.
With trust-based sales conversations, you will see that the listener will feel a sense of trust and comfort. Visualize the prospect as a potential friend when using natural communication and you will confidently build relationships based on trust, eliminating the negative emotions that come along with selling.
Spontaneity – By simply letting go of rehearsed scripts and old behaviors, you will find yourself spontaneously using language that you would use in a natural conversation. Using natural words and phrases vs. scripted lines will transform sales conversations into a refreshing and productive experience.
If you sound scripted and tense, potential clients may begin to feel defensive and untrusting. Don’t control the conversation by forcing them to commit, instead, simply ask them “where do you think we should go from here?” This is an effective way to see if they genuinely think that the relationship is a good fit or not.
Problem-Solving – Think about what kind of conversation you might have if you make your sales calls about helping your prospects instead of focusing on the close. As prospects divulge information, you now have the opportunity for mutual exploration.
This is not the time to probe them, but instead have a relaxed conversation about what their needs are. Keep the focus on them during the conversation rather than overwhelming them with charts and presentations.
Intuition – Being able to understand your prospect on the first call, is like having a superpower. To truly see if a prospect is a good fit, we need to let go of any assumptions that we might have and let the information we are absorbing be our guide.
With your new mindset, you will never feel “forced” to pull someone along and create momentum. Instead, listening and allowing the prospect to bring you along their path, will help you learn if there is a fit between you both.
Flexibility – Save your step-by-step mindset for the next time you need to read an instruction manual! Too many professionals are taught to use structured, linear sales models.
Potential clients can tell when you are trying to guide them down an obvious path which they may not be ready for, and this can create a reaction of suspicion and mistrust. By using a trust-based approach, potential clients will be more likely to share valuable information about their situation as well as their true needs.
Too many business owners subconsciously raise red flags when making sales calls to potential clients whether they know it or not. These warning signs become inevitable sales pressures when trying to win the trust of a prospect.
We will discuss four forms of sales pressure that can sabotage sales conversations. It is crucial to recognize these pressures early on so that you can avoid going down a path of frustration, mistrust, and loss of sales.
Focusing on the Sale – When making calls, many of us are overly focused on the sale and not what the prospect’s issues really are. The listener senses that your focus is on your goals rather than on their needs and this can short-circuit the entire process of trust building and productive communication.
When you are exploring right along with the other person to see if there is a fit, then that person doesn’t feel any sales pressure and what you have is a trust-based sales conversation.
Promoting Ourselves First – When you start a sales conversation with a pitch about who you are and what you can do for someone, you introduce sales pressure right away. The listener clearly knows what your agenda is, and they will respond with defensiveness and rejection.
Remember the conversation is not about you, it is about them. So, begin your conversation focusing on a need or issue that you feel the prospect might be facing. If you become a part of their world and allow them to share their thoughts and concerns, they will more than likely be willing to explore viable solutions with you.
Using Rehearsed Scripts and a Linear Process – If you were taught to use scripted lines and follow a carefully planned strategy, this mindset may be particularly difficult. When you are engaging with a prospect using scripted lines, they will feel like they are being controlled and that is definite pressure!
Let go of the script. Find a more natural way to have these conversations with potential clients, and they will appreciate you for it. They will be more likely to offer valuable information and discussing their needs with you.
Being Overly Enthusiastic – The problem with over-enthusiasm in sales conversations, is that the listener has a choice whether to “buy into” your perspective or reject it. They feel the pressure of your expectations and are compelled to respond, whether positively or negatively. Mostly the latter.
They sense your tension or nervousness and your ability to try and mask it by being overly eager. It is extremely easy for the listener to put up a wall, so toning it down to a natural conversation, will help eliminate the sales pressure and invite them to respond more warmly and positively.
Making sales calls using a traditional method can be a painful struggle. The old way of referring to sales was as a “numbers game” …. meaning make a call, and if rejected, move onto someone else. It is a very rigid, cold approach.
With the new mindset of having sales conversations, it is not about how many calls you make. It is about what you say to the listener and how they perceive it.
Read on for the seven sales conversation secrets that even the sales gurus don’t know.
Change Your Mental Objective – Before even making your sales call, I would bet that your mind is already on making the sale and winning over the potential client. The problem with this is that the listener can immediately sense your agenda and is ready to dismiss what you are saying.
How can you build a trust-based conversation if your focus is not on the right things? You cannot. Practice shifting your mental focus by thinking “When I make this call, I will build trust and have a conversation based on an exchange of information to determine if there is a fit.”
Understand the Potential Client’s Mindset – How many times have you received a phone call where someone says “Hello,” states their name and then proceeds to tell you what solutions their company offers?
I would bet that you were thinking…” Uh-oh another salesperson who is trying to sell me something.” This traditional approach has immediately triggered a negative “salesperson” stereotype in your mind, and you are ready to build a wall.
Active listening and understanding the mindset of the potential client will break barriers and build trust avoiding rejection.
Identify a Core Problem That You Can Solve – Business owners are taught to push their solutions very quickly in sales conversations. Pitching your solution first without learning the truth about what the potential client truly needs, is a real problem.
Try and think of two or three specific core problems that you can mutually explore and allow them to take you down their path. When people feel understood, they remain open to talking and sharing valuable information with you.
Start with Dialogue, not a Presentation – Let’s remember the purpose of a sales conversation is to create a two-way dialogue which is relaxed and engaging. Don’t set up the listener for a yes or no response.
You do not know yet if the potential client will be a fit with what you are selling. Learn to stay focused on the dialogue to determine where the relationship will go.
Recognize and Diffuse Hidden Pressures – We discussed this in topic #2 of this article, but let’s refresh! Be aware that hidden sales pressures can take on many forms. One way to make certain that your prospect puts up a wall in your sales conversation is by being overly enthusiastic. Over enthusiasm tells them that you already assume you are a good fit for them, and this creates sales pressure.
Moving them along each step of your sales process is also another way to lose them to sales pressure. Let the conversations evolve naturally and use checkpoints to assess if there is a fit between you and the prospect.
Determine a Fit – Let’s suppose you are having a productive sales conversation with good dialogue, and you are reaching a natural conclusion. Now what? The old way of thinking would be to panic and react by trying to quickly close the sale.
Remember the new mindset. Finding out if the prospect’s need is a top priority is crucial. You need to both determine if there is a problem that you can solve and knowing this early avoids wasting valuable time chasing down a ghost.
Sales conversations are a vital part of the selling process. There are various emotions that business owners deal with on a daily basis when making these calls including fear, insecurity, and anxiety. Potential clients feel sales pressure easily and put-up walls indicating distrust when you push them down a linear path.
Letting go of scripts and focusing on the potential client and their needs using natural language, will help them develop a sense of trust and comfort. This will lead to mutual exploration and a true determination as to whether there is a good fit or not.
By letting go of the traditional, linear sales model and adopting a new mindset of trust-based selling, you can eliminate rejection, have productive conversations, and build long-lasting business relationships.
