Selling is a profession in itself. It goes far beyond 'a smooth talker' and a clean-shaven appearance. As a salesperson, you are THE point of contact for the organization and are therefore crucial to its survival. Successful salespeople sense what is important during conversations. They also know that trust and non-verbal communication are far more important than the actual content of a conversation. Do you want more enjoyment in your work as a salesperson? Do you want customers to choose you? And do you want to know how to achieve this? Then our blog this week is definitely for you!
Good and chameleon
A good salesperson is like a chameleon. They adapt to the situation. Preparation is, of course, always important, but sales conversations often unfold quite differently than anticipated. Therefore, it is crucial to prepare well for the people you will be dealing with, rather than the content of the conversation. Ensure that you have already gotten to know them, for example through information available online. As a salesperson, your primary task is to demonstrate that the conversation partner can trust you . It helps enormously if you know the contact person and possess the adaptability to win that trust during the conversation.
Fight for a common goal
During major change processes , such as mergers or budget cuts, there is often a great deal of stress and uncertainty within a team. Everyone has their own ideas and interests. It is of great importance to eliminate this uncertainty by clearly arriving at a common vision and objective together. Roda JC was recently relegated from the Dutch Eredivisie. Were they able to motivate themselves optimally together to avoid relegation? Was the team spirit still sufficiently present? Relegation is a very drastic change in sports and can only be tackled if the entire team is on the same page and fully focused on the shared goal. When the Dutch national team was successful at the 2010 World Cup, it was primarily due to the team spirit and the shared goal that was clear to everyone on the team: the final! Even players who were not playing or had lost their place in the team did not rebel.
Suppose your conversation partner is stressed because of a campaign that can go live at any moment, and you quickly notice during the conversation that his mind is not ready to have a substantive lead conversation with you. Do you then continue with the substantive presentation you have prepared? Or will you talk to him about the campaign and thereby build trust? Before the appointment, you may have already noticed on Linkedin that your contact person is busy launching a campaign... you can use your previously acquired knowledge to adapt your approach and thus build a lifelong relationship. Selling isn't always about selling...as strange as that sounds!
Lessons from psychology
Sales has a lot in common with psychology. Only a small part of the award is based on content, the majority on the basis of personalities and trust. In short: selling is about people and therefore about psychology. As sales professionals, we can learn a lot from psychological research in the field of communication during conversations. We would like to share some of those lessons with you.
Listen instead of talking
Salespeople tend to talk a lot. However, if you do a lot of the talking yourself, your conversation partner will develop a psychological feeling of imbalance and often dissatisfaction. Trust is not gained by talking, but mainly by listening. Be sure to let your conversation partner speak and ask open questions about their interests, challenges, and passions. You will see that it will be much more appreciated than your sales pitch.
Be vulnerable
Your vulnerability can provide relief to your conversation partner. Salespeople often think they have to appear confident and powerful. This is partly true, but if you make suggestions during a conversation and make it clear that you think 'out of the box' and are not completely sure of your case, your conversation partner will get the perception that you communicate on an equal level. . This in turn creates that crucial bond of trust.
Don't judge your conversation partner
As a seller, we mainly try to explain to the customer what we could do better! However, do not forget that you are indirectly indicating that the work of your conversation partner is not good. Even if you are right, it is not up to you to judge that because you do not know the full situation. In short: constructive criticism is very good, but never judge the work of your conversation partner.
Non-verbal signals are therefore of decisive importance in a sales conversation, as well as in other result-oriented conversations. In Kenneth Smit's Non-verbal Communication training, you will learn how to recognize such signals. Subsequently, you will learn to analyze non-verbal signals and anticipate them. This creates more mutual understanding and trust among your conversation partners, allowing you to achieve even greater success as a salesperson!
