You know the time-honored formula:
- You prospect
- You get a lead
- You follow-up on the lead
- You get the appointment with a decision maker
- You pitch your pitch
- You don’t get the sale
- Oh no!
What happened? You tried to sell them. While there are myriad ways to kill a sale, one way it shouldn’t happen is by your own hand. I know, I know. It’s a numbers game and if you go through the process xx amount of times you’ll get xx amount of sales. Anybody could do it and everybody does.
Here’s the thing: your customers don’t want to be sold. Maybe they need what you have to offer, but they definitely don’t care about it as much as you do. When you’re selling to someone in this sense, you sound just like everyone else who is pushing for your prospect’s attention and dollars. Instead, create relationships. If you change this one aspect of your approach, you’ll not only sell your product or service today but tomorrow as well.
Prospects want to know that you care about them even if it’s only for the purposes of solving their immediate problem. Note: the immediate problem might not involve you. How do you communicate care and sell something at the same time?
First, get to know your prospect by having a conversation not a presentation. For those whose sales funnel involves a formal presentation, build in the time to find out who you’re talking to.
Second, determine what your prospect’s problems are and not only those that pertain to your product or service. Don’t mistake this conversation for a therapy session. The only way you can solve a problem is too gain understanding of what the parameters of the problem are. Ask questions that not only define the problem but also explore your prospect’s desired outcome. In the end you’ll gain a lifelong customer and a possible friend.
Want to learn more about how to talk to prospects? Sign up for our workshop: Creating a Word of Mouth Marketing Machine.
