Don’t focus on the appointment, focus on the conversation

First look and read who you are calling and why you as a person can be of added value, before you call. No, this does not have to lead to a sale right away. Sometimes listening to someone is enough. How nice is it when someone can just tell their story, without that person jumping into focus on the conversation a judgment and thinking “there we have another one”.

Listen and ask

Do you have doubts about how to shape your conversation to reach the goal of your ‘sales’ conversation? Then remember that you should not start by telling, but focus on asking questions. Of course, you look for the opening of a conversation by making a short pitch and ending with an open question. After you have received this opening, you mainly ask questions.

During the conversation, just listen. Nothing more. Don’t understand something? Just ask! The threshold to ask for clarification is often high. You become insecure. “Am I asking a stupid question? Shouldn’t I know this?” Before you know it, you end up in the mode that you want to regain control and you often give safe answers. Or you do your extensive pitch and mainly talk (that is Sales-specific). When you really listen, you can better put yourself in the shoes of your conversation partner and this ensures that a connection is created. And this ultimately ensures a higher favorability factor.

In examples talk

While listening, you can still think: “appointment, appointment, appointment”. Let that go. When there is a problem that you can help with, your conversation partner greece phone number library will automatically ask for advice on how you would approach it. Of course, you can also do this yourself by talking in examples. This way, you can immediately check whether you understand him/her well and you registering an individual entrepreneur in the online bank “tochka create recognition for your conversation partner, which benefits the conversation. If you start talking in examples, a conversation arises in which you can profile yourself as an advisor and your conversation partner feels heard.

Mapping the situation focus on the conversation

Then you map out the situation of your conversation partner for yourself and you can become increasingly concrete by means of, for example, the SPIN method . When you use this method, you gradually move towards the appointment. This only applies if you can fully apply the method. That requires some preparation and practice, but it certainly pays off.

If there is no problem, you do not have to offer a solution. In that case, you can only sound out whether the ‘solutions’ you have to offer are interesting for the organization of your conversation partner. If this is the case, you agree on a specific date to talk about the situation and the state of affairs, both with the prospect and with your organization. Experience shows that when you tell something about your own situation, people are more inclined to be open themselves.

Cherish your good substantive conversations in which you feel a good connection with your conversation partner. Even if there is currently no direct reason to school email list enter into a collaboration, such a contact is interesting to record on a list of ‘to nurture’ contacts. Experience shows that if this list gradually becomes larger and is followed up structurally over time, it generates a very good conversion. In this way, you are, as it were, structurally building your personal network. This requires some discipline and a longer breath, but it is certainly worth it!

Tip: dare to be vulnerable focus on the conversation

If you give something, people will give something back more quickly.

Now that you have mapped out the situation, you can go in two directions as an advisor:

  • You offer an opportunity to resolve the problem and move on to the appointment.
  • Or you can arrange a follow-up time to catch up. Be careful to focus on the ‘to be nurtured’ contacts and not on contacts who are too quick to say that you can always call them. Without the right click, these are the contacts that cost you a lot of time and decimate your feeling to a feeling of peddling and dragging without sufficient results.

Is it a serious lead? Always make sure that you ‘close’ a concrete follow-up moment. We wrote a blog about this earlier: ‘Always closing for commitment’ .

Good luck with improving your commercial processes and conversations. If you would like to exchange thoughts about this in a call or Teams meeting, we are always open to that!

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