How to kick butt in sales without looking and feeling like you are selling.
Posted on April 06, 2023 by?Jill Orsatti, one of?Career Coaches on Noomii.com
Trying to navigate the sales process and find your winning formula? The key is to build trust, find out customer needs and create solutions to issues.
In sales, how do you find a fast way to make your quota, establish and win key accounts? The key is to find a pathway to trust and illustrate how your products can create a solution to the customer's needs.
Build rapport by finding a conversational topic between you and your client; like; sports, alumni affiliation, family, travel, restaurants. If you see a dog or family photo on their screen, ask a question about that, share your photos to build a bridge of commonality.
Before your meeting, do an online search on social media and company website, learning as much as you can about this client, education, background, any posts that they have made about their business.
Preparation is key before going into the client or customer. Know what your angle will be and know your product or service cold, so that you don’t get nervous about any objections or challenges.
The sales process is more about EQ, Emotional quotient (intelligence), reading the cues, reading the room, assessing what your customer is saying but not saying. Sometimes the words aren’t really conveying what they are saying.
If you can ask great open ended questions to engage your customer in a way that doesn’t feel like you are in a court room, you can determine what their need is, so that you can tailor your presentation to the solution and get to the heart of the discussion pretty quickly.
Selling objectively by sharing feedback from other clients in the same industry, to solve issues or gain a competitive edge in their space is another way to gauge the client's interest. Watch their reaction and see what part of your conversation resonates. Explore their reaction with more questions of their opinion, to elevate their ego and empower them to tell you their particular hook or need that makes them interested in moving forward with your solution.
Some customers won’t tell you that they are having any issue or need, which is often a harder way to drive into the sales process, but what that leaves you with is knowing that this person may not yet trust you yet and that needs to be earned.
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If they ask you for more information, that is a good buying signal, that may be a test or challenge, which needs to be handled carefully in order for you to prove your worthiness as a business partner and establish that trust. Do the task well and respond quickly to prove your reliability and knowledge. If they don’t ask for anything find something to offer to keep the dialogue going and give you another chance to prove your value. Make sure to find a way to follow up with them as you are leaving, get a contact method, email, cell or ask for a in person follow up in one week. Timing is critical, people lose interest with too much time between meetings. Less than 2 weeks is best.
Once the task has been completed, check in on their response to determine their reaction to the new information that they have been given about your product or service. Ask questions like, how do you see your company’s needs beneft from my solution? What are you currently doing/using and what are some things you wish were improved with that company/product?
Follow up is everything. If this part isn't completed, all of the preparation and listening will be lost. It is up to you to find a way to get back in front of them for another chance to deepen the rapport, engage with more questions and feedback. Don’t do what most green sales people do, which is the information dump. It’s more about tailoring the conversation to the customer, empowering them to make a great decision, which of course is working with you and buying your service or product.
Another angle for your consideration. If your customer states that they are happy with their current supplier and you cannot currently win that spot, positioning yourself as the number 2 player is a great strategy. It often leads to becoming number one, when the other company has a backorder, pricing issue or service issue or change in sales rep, you can be ready to swoop in and showcase how well you can partner with the client.
Remember being a price disrupter is one way in, but it not the best way into the business because, creating value is much more important than price. Value is perceived by the customer by the superiority or uniqueness of what you can offer and that will help hold pricing higher. Great service, strong products and a responsiveness from sales, ultimately is what showcases great value.
At the end of the day, make the customer feel special, engaged, make the experience fun, educational and ultimately customized to what their needs are and you will kick butt selling, without looking and feeling like you are selling.
Remember often it is a marathon, not a sprint and relationships take longer to build with some customers than others. But if you are prepared, listen well, build rapport and trust quickly and ask great questions, feel confident that you are on your way to hitting quota.
For more sales advice, career or business coaching, Reach out for a free consultation via Zoom with Jill Orsatti on the Noomii link below.