6 Strategies To Develop A Great Sales Conversation

You can sell the best products, have all the knowledge in the world, and be sitting in front of the most qualified customers, but if you cannot deliver a meaningful and engaging sales conversation, you will never get the sale.

A productive sales conversation is a powerful tool as it engages your customers, provides you with valuable information and sets you apart from your competition. In fact, it is your best shot to stand out from your competition. Customers who feel heard, understood and validated are far more motivated to buy.

Building sales conversations are about ensuring you have the steps in place to meet the needs that are most foundational to a strong sales conversation.

Below are six strategies in developing great sales conversations with your clients:

1. Build rapport – customers buy from people they like – period. So, for them to like you, your customers have to feel connected to you. Building rapport is about merely taking a sincere interest in your customer. An interest that goes beyond the business at hand. I always love to know how my customers got started working in their field. Alternatively, what do they enjoy doing in their spare time? Give it a try, take a minute now and then, come up with one or two questions that you could use to establish rapport.
2. Explore the opportunities – next, you need to start asking those open-ended questions that will help you understand where your customers’ pain point is or where their opportunities lie. You cannot sell anything until you know your customers’ goals and their obstacles.
3. Transition to value – with their pain point established, it is time to validate that you heard their challenge and understood it. Next, you can transition to value. Value is about the solutions you have (i.e.) products that will solve the issue. In a sales conversation, you have to position your products as solutions to the problem or opportunity you and your customer have identified.
4. Listen to resistance – invite your customers to ask questions, challenge your ideas and resist the idea of purchase. In this part of the sales conversation, it is important to slow down, not talk, just listen. If you listen to the resistance, you will understand how to approach the next step.
5. Create the vision – now is your time to create the vision. Resistance happens because customers are still unsure of the value, or what difference your product or service will make for them. If your customer is challenged by a lack of cash flow, and the inability to meet financial deadlines. You may offer a line of credit that eases the burden and provides cash at times when they most need it. However, your customer is still worried – worried about paying fees, becoming dependent on the line or their ability to pay it down as the product requires. So, creating the vision would be helping them to see how much more time they would have to generate more revenue or develop efficiencies in their business if they did not have to worry about cash flow.
6. Plan for success – the end of every sales conversation either ends with a sale or with the seed planted to continue to have more sales conversation. More often it is about planting the seeds. A closed sale is the result of many sales conversations that follow this exact pattern.

So now it is your turn, follow the steps, put them into action, and you will create a strong sales conversation.