Ask & Listen: Tackling the Sales Conversation

Simply contacting a new customer can feel like an uphill battle. Even with my 20 years of experience in sales, I sometimes get stumped when trying to access new accounts. To organize myself and prepare to speak with customers, I classify my leads by ease of contact: cold, warm, or hot. A cold lead means I don’t have a clue who I will sell my products or services to. With a warm lead, I have the name of who I’ll be meeting with and they’re open to meeting with me. Lastly, a hot lead requested to meet with me and is also highly interested in my product. A quick trick to turn a cold lead to a warm lead is to get their name. Having a name creates familiarity which allows for a more productive conversation. For more useful tips and tricks on making it through the begrudged initial contact phase, check out the activities below.

I’ve always preferred to have a conversational sales call with my customers for organic engagement. This approach is non-threatening and customers tend to release their guard because it doesn’t feel like the sales person has an agenda. Oftentimes, your customer does not know what they want and asking clear, open ended questions helps us understand the need much better. Once you clarify the need, you can pinpoint why your product or service will be the best fit. The activities below go more in depth about the Sandler sales methodology and shares techniques to help you ace your next sales call.

The most important part of this 3 step process is keeping your customer! You don’t want all your hard work to go to waste, right? Following up helps build trust and appreciation for you, your company, and your product or service. For best results, I suggest “high touch frequency”: making a physical visit to your customer or making a phone call. During your follow-up visit or call, talk to your customer and ensure everything is going well. Ask for honest feedback. If there are any complaints or issues, handle them right away. The activities below stress the importance of following up and provide best practices for maintaining relationships with your customer.