Ask open questions
Lesson 1 in conducting successful sales conversations: ask open questions, not closed ones. Closed questions can stall a conversation. “Do you have a cloud strategy?” leads to a different conversation than “What is your cloud strategy for 2022?”
An open question provides much more information and offers hooks to ask further in-depth questions. This way you get a real conversation and you hear what the potential customer needs most. If you have a relevant solution for that, you can bring it into the conversation at the right time. If you have listened well, you know which part of your own story will resonate best.
Should you only ask open questions in a conversation? No. Alternate the open questions with closed questions that give you information. “Do you have applications running on-premise?” If that is a condition for your proposition, then that is not a strange question in between.
Don’t transmit, but listen
The prospect speaks for about 70%, you for about 30%. Put your potential customer at the center of every conversation. How can you help him or her?
To listen, you need a talking conversation partner. You get your conversation partner talking by asking (open) questions. Don’t know what questions to ask? Then investigate yourself why you don’t know what to ask. >>Spoiler alert<<: you focus on scoring and not on genuine interest in helping your prospect. If you are genuinely interested in what you can do for your potential customer, you don’t have to think about which questions you need an answer to in order to achieve that goal.
Is there no (clear) need? By letting the prospect talk, there is a good chance that he will see for himself that he needs your solution and what the added value is of an appointment. You do this, for example, by using the SPIN method .
No=no
Know when no means no. Our rule of thumb is: 2x no means really no. Don’t keep nagging. Nagging causes irritation and can easily close all doors for the future. Instead, look for the underlying reason for the no. Make sure you understand the no. As long as you sincerely don’t understand the jordan phone number library no, you haven’t listened well enough.
Ask one question at a time
“So I’m curious how you guys are dealing with that challenge. Do you do it this way, or differently? And are there plans for next year to do it differently? Can you tell me voice search optimization more about that?”
It’s clear, right? Never ask multiple questions at once, but always ask one question at a time.
Avoid doubtful language The Basic Rules
If you already have doubts, why would your conversation partner trust you… So avoid words like: actually, perhaps, and the like, in principle, nevertheless, perhaps. Communicate better in proposals.
“I was wondering if I could call you back next week to explain this in more detail” leaves more room for evasion than “I suggest I call you next Tuesday to explain this in more detail. Is that convenient?”
Another example: “In principle we do not give a discount”. This suggests that a discount is given but not to your current conversation partner. It is better to search engine optimization mails say: “Yes we do give a discount, but only on condition that…”. Or if you really do not give a discount, simply leave out the principle part.
Be yourself The Basic Rules
Don’t be a robot, just be yourself. It’s okay to use a script as a guide for your conversation, but don’t read anything out loud. Call someone the way you would like to be called.
