We hate to be the Bad News Bears, but people straight up do not like to be sold to. Fortunately for you and everyone else in the business of selling things, people do love it when you solve their problems. So that’s what we suggest you do instead.
For real, for real, we want you to spend less time on your “sales calls” selling and pitching and more time helping. You’ll build more genuine connections with potential clients, you’ll have more success, and heck, you’ll even have more fun!
Alright, we can’t really guarantee that last one, but we’re pretty into problem-solving over here, so we can’t help but get excited about it.
So how do you stop pitching and start pitching in? By asking a lot of questions and being an excellent listener, obvi!
Questions To Ask and Answers To Listen For
Usually, if a potential client is reaching out to you, they already know what they need from you. Or, at least, they think they know what they need from you. You’ll listen to that, take it into consideration, and supplement it with a conversational series of questions.
What do we mean by “conversational”? Just keep it cool and caj. Try to find that sweet spot between “interrogation” and “five-year-old who just wants to know why why why?” and work your magic from there.
Let’s take a closer look at this role-played customer call:
Q: I’m a little curious, why are you calling about web comps?
A: I’ve seen the work you’ve done in the past and thought you could help with our brand
Takeaway: The customer is familiar with your work and prepared to trust you
Q: Right, but why do you, specifically, believe you need web comps?
A: We want to increase engagement. We’ve had some success in the past… but have seen our sales going down, and we’re not sure why. We want repeat customers, but it’s very competitive in our industry.
Takeaway: Whoa! This client gave so much information in answering this one question. We now have a pain point, a proposed reason for it, the desired result of fixing it, and a roadblock that they feel is getting in the way.
Make sure you jot down those pain points, the proposed problems, and the peripheral info, too! “We’ve had trouble… We don’t know why… We’re not sure… It’s a pretty competitive industry.”
Q: Anything else?
Throw in a couple of these bad boys every now and then to encourage the potential client to share more information with you without setting limiting parameters around that information. Just keep ‘em talkin’!
Q: Who was providing this for you before?/What were you using before?/Why can’t you use them again?
A: We had someone in the past, but the partnership kind of deteriorated. (Why?) They moved, and they weren't responsive. They pivoted to other clients, and the communication kind of died off.
Echo back