Put a stop to your sales reps' “super meetings” that, in fact, go nowhere.

‘I had a great meeting with a prospect today!‘ ’Oh, do tell.’ ’Well, he's really hot and we're doing exactly what he's looking for.’

If you have or have had commercial responsibilities (VP Sales, Sales Director or other) there is a good chance that you hear or have heard this kind of remark on a regular basis. An enthusiastic salesperson comes to see you and talks to you about a ‘great meeting with a prospect’. The champagne is almost always already out...

But he may not be able to explain in detail the real problems of your prospects. And the reasons why he would work with you. Frustrating, isn't it?

How can you resolve these frustrating situations? In many ways. Below are 4 approaches to implement and incorporate into the habits of your teams. And an important principle that they need to understand, especially if you sell technological solutions.

People buy emotionally. And rationalise afterwards.

One of the mistakes that almost all technology companies make is to think that their prospects are interested in their AI technology, their SaaS platform thingy or any other IoT solution blah blah blah...

At the risk of being very blunt, your prospects are as interested in these topics as they are in what their first shirts have become. In short, they couldn't care less. But then really couldn't care less....

The reality is that these product aspects are rational aspects. And humans are not rational creatures. They are emotional creatures. Who make a decision and rationalise afterwards. So....

Once a month, tips and strategies to drive sales excellence: 

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3 keys to help your salespeople sell on emotions.

Here are 3 keys that can help you. There are tons of others. Remember, selling is conceptual. It's not mechanical. However, when properly implemented, these keys can help you.

What vs Why

In my experience, about 99% of the salespeople I interact with and train do not ask the right questions, at the outset. In their discovery process, they focus on what the problem of their prospects is. Unless, of course, they spend most of their time talking about their features and the benefits they provide (no, benefits don't sell, except on that alternative world called LinkedIn...). But if you ask three people from an organisation the question ‘what is the problem?’, all three will give the same answer. But if your salespeople start asking questions about why this is a problem and why it exists, they will get 3 different answers. 3 answers that will have engaged the cognitive analysis of their prospects. And that will allow the development of what I call a ‘trusted advisor’ relationship in which prospects will gradually open up more and more.

A no is OK

One of the biggest obstacles to the development of this ‘trusted advisor’ relationship and therefore to the success of a sale is, surprisingly, the enthusiasm of salespeople. Too many salespeople try to persuade their prospects. They find it difficult to refrain from pushing, from trying to convince with a barrage of arguments. They think they have a magic power that allows them to make prospects do something. The famous ‘close’... The reality is that reminding prospects throughout the sales process that they are perfectly free NOT to decide to work with you is a very good way to increase conversion rates. Reminding them that ‘no is ok’ is, strangely enough, a way to get more ‘yes’.

Align the communication style

One last tactic that is useful to implement in order to develop a better relationship with prospects and thus develop an emotional rapport with them is to align the tone and the questions asked with the DISC profile of the person they are talking to. Too many salespeople, when they discover DISC, are interested in the innovative side of it. But very, very few incorporate it systematically into their way of selling. And lose the opportunity to develop a powerful relationship with their prospects. For example, one of the clients I work with, the SDRs observe the DISC profile of the prospects as soon as they are prospected. This allows the AE to adapt his or her speech in the following phases. And when the account managers manage this client, they know what is important, even which Account Manager should take the client in order to align the AM's style with the client's style. This is in order to optimise retention rates and increase lifetime value...

There you go, I assume that these three keys are already things that you have religiously implemented in your sales methodologies. However, if this is not the case and if you have not completely abandoned the idea that your sales representatives will continue to have ‘very, very good meetings’, let me know. I am happy to block a slot in my diary to discuss it.