From my email:
The Secret to Good Sales Conversations
Believe it or not, the secret, the silver bullet, the key to killer sales conversations has nothing to do with developing great PowerPoint presentations or being able to talk an Eskimo into buying a refrigerator.
It is about listening.
Paying attention and being able to connect the dots between what your prospect is saying and how you can help is the best sales tactic in your arsenal.
It is much more effective to get your prospect to articulate their problem and for you to give an example of how you helped a similar company in their industry with this same problem, than it is to spout off a laundry list of industries you work with and problems you solve.
Asking questions is the best way to get your prospects talking so that you can listen. Questions that position you as an expert work particularly well. For example, "In our work in industry X, Y, Z, we see this happening. How is your firm dealing with this?" Questions like this demonstrates your credibility and expertise in a non-salesy way.
Then, listen and pay attention. A good rule of thumb is to listen 70% of the time and speak 30% of the time. (That's right - you should only be speaking 18 minutes in every hour long sales conversation.)
In your next sales call, before you pull up your prepared PowerPoint presentation, start the conversation by asking questions to get your prospect talking. It is sure to be one of the better sales conversations you've had in a while and all you need to do is let the prospect do all of the talking.
And remember, RainToday...Dark by Midnight.
Erica Stritch
General Manager,
RainToday.com
estritch@raintoday.com
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