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Step #1: Demonstrate quick insight up front.
The start of every sales conversation is critical—you can’t get those first moments of a call or meeting back again once they’ve happened. That’s why what you say early on can make all the difference between sales conversations that close the deal, and those that don’t.
Demonstrating quick insight up front is key to having sales conversations that close the deal. The insight you share early on will ultimately earn you that in-depth sales qualification conversation—or, as we like to call it at the Sales Insights Lab, the disqualification conversation.
Step #2: Engage them.
You should demonstrate your quick insight up front and then get the prospect talking. That’s it. Get them talking about their challenges.
A good transitionary question might sound something like, “Based on what I just shared with you, do any of those challenges ring true for you?”
Once you get them to open up and engage, the floodgates will open and they’ll start to connect with the sales conversation.
Step #3: Disqualify.
In today's world of selling, everyone's teaching you some kind of qualification technique. But the problem with sales qualification is that it hinges on the hope or assumption that the prospect is actually qualified. And our research shows that a whopping 50% of prospects aren’t a fit for whatever a given salesperson is selling.
So we have a pretty different take on qualification.
Instead of assuming or hoping that prospects are qualified, we focus instead on simply determining whether they’re a fit—and if they’re not, that’s perfectly fine. We come in with a mindset of, “I’m not sure if this prospect is a fit. Let’s find out.”
If it becomes clear that the prospect is not a fit, then end the conversation, move on, and never think about them again.
Step #4: Use spontaneous questions.
I know I just got through telling you to take each prospect through a systematic set of questions to determine whether they’re a fit or not—but hear me out. Spontaneous questions are critical for sales conversations that close the deal, too. Here’s how systematic and spontaneous questions work together.
You should follow a systematic set of questions that you typically ask every prospect. But if you're just thinking like a robot during the whole sales conversation, rotely asking question one, question two, question three, question four….then you're missing so many opportunities.
Spontaneous questions make all the difference between an average salesperson and a great salesperson. A great salesperson can ask spontaneous questions to really get the prospect to open up—leading to far more sales conversations that close the deal.
Step #5: Give a two-way presentation.
This is one of the biggest distinctions between average salespeople and the best salespeople out there. It’s also one of the biggest differentiators between mediocre sales conversations and sales conversations that close the deal.
Average salespeople give presentations that are more like monologues than engaging presentations. They just talk the whole entire time. They throw up all their information over the prospect—even if they’ve already gone through a thorough discovery conversation. It’s a one-way presentation.
But the data unequivocally shows that top-performing salespeople only do about 65% of the talking during their presentations, which means that the prospect is doing at least 35% of the talking. This is an important distinction because great presentations are actually two-way conversations. Your presentation should never be a monologue, but rather a dialogue.
Two-way presentations require presenting a little bit of information or a key point, and then letting the prospect take it all in and respond. You also want to keep the presentation really short. That way, the prospect’s questions and responses are what ultimately drive the bulk of the presentation.
When you have a prospect effectively lead the presentation with their questions and responses, they’ll automatically be engaged with what you’re saying. If you find that you’re doing all of the talking during your presentations, you’re in trouble. This means that your prospects are likely feeling disengaged, distracted, and thinking about other things while you present.
Remember, it’s critical to give two-way presentations if you want to have sales conversations that close deals.
