Ever wonder how much you actually impact your buyers and customers?
Before you answer, consider this:
When is the last time you had a really good day? How about a bad day? And what makes a day good or bad anyway?
It might be more calculable (able to be measured) than you think.
In each day, we have about 20,000 ‘moments’ according to research by John Gottman. A moment is defined as a few seconds in which our brain records an experience.
The quality of our days is determined by how our brains recognize and categorize our moments—either as positive, negative, or neutral.
When you have more positive experiences than negative, your day is good. And just the opposite.
Think about that for a moment… every experience throughout YOUR day contributes to the quality of your day.
It’s the same for your buyers and customers. Every experience in THEIR day contributes to the quality of their day. That means your conversations with them are an experience that contributes to the quality of their day.
That’s why YOU count in every conversation. In each conversation you have an opportunity to leave the other person:
• Better in some way
• Worse in some way
• The same
The differentiating factor in sales and service experiences often has more to do with the experience of working with YOU than the solution you represent.
The good news is that customers and buyers don’t need to be wow’ed or have grandiose gestures for the experience to be positive. The productiveness of the conversation and connection makes the difference.
To make your conversations a positive experience for your clients and team:
1. Ask yourself “What’s in it for Them?” Make the conversation relevant and personal by making everything you communicate about Them or connected to Them. This practice reduces unnecessary data, detail, and talk time.
2. Listen. It sounds elementary, but listening is more than a pause in your talking. Listen to the words and the intent, intensity, and the story they are telling you. Then paraphrase what you heard. Challenge yourself to paraphrase and not repeat exactly which will help you listen for intent.
3. Stop the multi-tasking! You really can’t be effective in actions #1 and #2 if you are doing something else when in conversation.
4. Ask them what they want to accomplish. For planned conversations, don’t assume the other person remembers what you scheduled time to discuss. Review the objective and ask them what they want to accomplish. It may have changed since you first scheduled. It’s the start of collaborative selling.
5. Make it easy for them to make a decision.
• Take away the extra steps and information that confuses more than it helps.
• Make the connection for what you can do for Them to the problem, opportunity, want, or need that they have.
• Identify the next steps that get Them what they want or need.
• Ask them for a decision or commitment or a timeframe for when they will make one.
You control each of these actions in your conversations.
That means when you provide a productive and a positive experience, the buyer is positively impacted and you win more sales.
Your Turn! How else can you make your buyers/customers have a good experience in your conversations? Leave a comment at the Sales Pro Insider blog for a chance to win a signed copy of Conversations That Sell.
Congratulations to Russell Hrdy who is the winner of the book for his comment on the post: Skip the Assumptions and Set expectations That Advance Your Sale post.
