Hello Reader,
The final piece of the puzzle is here.
If you are new, this link will help explain what I mean but we have been building a bulletproof sales plan to help you grow.
Each part of the plan over the last 7 weeks has been put in place.
You have created a clear target and defined an ideal target market to focus on and identified where these people are.
You have worked so hard to create great content and have engaged with a targeted group of customers and made them curious about who you are and what you do.
You were persistent across multiple media channels and in the end as a result of your engagement, you got a bite. Not just 1 but a few as it was a good plan.
One of those prospects has said they are interested in what you do and would like a meeting.
Whoop Whoop! 😁
That amazing feeling when someone you would like to work with says ‘It would be good to meet and find out more about what you do’
You arrange a time to speak with them and set up a Zoom call.
The person joins the call and then after a few pleasantries, you then go into talking about how long your company has been going and how great your service is.
You talk for 25 minutes and the prospect listens. They look interested (you think..) and you agree that you will send them some information and make contact next week.
- You send them the information. No response
- You then email them. No response
- You then call them. It rings and goes to voicemail.
- You emailed again asking what they thought of your proposal.
You hear nothing and start to pull your hair out!
“That bloody sales plan that James White shared with me didn’t work”, you say to yourself.
Which brings me to Week 8 and the final email in this series.
I can’t do the fun part of these plans for you (which is having conversations with your prospects!) but I URGE, maybe even beg you to not screw this bit up.
Building Initial Rapport with new prospects is the final part of the Sales Plan and it’s the best bit. The chance to turn all of your hard work into business.
And yet this is the part that so many get wrong.
Let me explain why.
Many think that Sales is about them.
They think that the prospect has agreed to the meeting because they wanted to hear about the solution offered within the email/social message/video message/call (pick which method worked)…..
Many think to themselves, “Why else would the other person want to talk with me, if it wasn’t about what we do?”
There is some truth to this. The prospect is meeting with you as something you have shared with them has resonated with them or made them curious.
But this DOES NOT MEAN they want to sit and listen to someone drone on about their service or how special they are in a meeting.
And if they are sitting there listening, nodding their head, looking interested but not saying much it is HIGHLY LIKELY they are just being polite.
It is also HIGHLY LIKELY that they will get off that call and think ‘I wish I hadn’t bothered, all they wanted to do was sell to me and I don’t want to work with them’
You have ONE simple job within this first meeting.
It’s to build enough rapport and enough intrigue in the mind of the other person to make them think ‘This is quite interesting, they are quite interesting, I think it worth carrying on the conversation’
One Job.
It may even be, sadly, that the meeting doesn’t go anywhere as there were cross wires about who you were and what you did but this shouldn’t happen if you were focused on the right target customer group.
So how should you ensure that you do this one job well?
Do these 2 things.
Point Number 1 – Build a good first impression.
Build a good first impression. Studies show you have 7 seconds and so when the camera appears on zoom or when you first meet someone, ensure you look your best smile and start off in the right way. A simple ‘Good morning’ or ‘Lovely to meet you x’ is a great way to get things started.
You may find the other person to be quite stern on the other side or with their barriers up. That’s normal and its because they don’t know you and are protecting themselves. It’s your job at this point to try and break down those barriers and get to find out more about them.
When I do sales calls (and you can see a video of a live calling session I did below . I always try and ask a question to break the ice. It might be something like ‘Have you had a good morning so far’ or ‘How was your weekend?’ (if I am speaking to them early in the week).
I am trying to break the ice with a smile and do 2 things here.
- I am asking an open question to find out more about them, and
- I am trying to get a sense of who they are as a person. Based upon this initial reaction, I can then make a judgement call on where to go next.
If they are chatty and open to sharing more about themselves, I may carry this on for a few more minutes. People will often share information about themselves which is very helpful in a sales situation such as where they go on holiday or the hobbies they have. I always make a note of this in my notepad and then use this within in future conversations where I need to.
Once I feel that there is a bit of good rapport building up, I will then say the following:
From here, they are likely to say that there was something in what you shared which was interesting or which caught their eye and they are keen to hear more about this.
THIS IS THE KEY POINT. It’s the point people get wrong. They think this is an open goal to then go on and talk about their company. It is not. It is a TRAP. I explain more in the video below but don’t go headlong into what you do and pitch.
Use this simple phrase in reply:
What should happen here is that the prospect will then go on to explain their situation more. Why this particular problem is a challenge for them or what is happening in their world that makes this relevant?
And when this does happen, your job is to Listen, Ask more questions and Probe further into the responses they provide.
You may think ‘well, I haven’t talked about what I do at this point’ and that’s fine.
The first meeting or call is NOT ABOUT YOU!
Use this time to dig into the other person’s world. What is going on? What is their current position? How long has it been this way? What is the impact of this? What have they been doing to try and fix this? There are a range of different questions you can ask in these meetings and I have provided a link below to a free set of questions you can use. The key is to use this time to find out what is going on in the mind of the other person and what has really made them want to spend time with you.
Point Number 2: Make them want to continue the conversation with you
The second goal you should have from these meetings is to ideally make the other person WANT to carry on the conversation with you.
Or, if from your conversation you feel what they are looking for is not something you can help with, then it’s also a chance for you to say that to them in a nice way (but if you have focused on the right target market then they should be a fit for you and your solution and this shouldn’t be the case).
When you are near the end of your meeting time then say the following:
They will say YES at this point (if you have listened) and it’s at this point you can ask them a simple question which is ‘Ok thanks, what would you like to do next?’
If:
- you have built up a rapport,
- the other person thinks you have listened
- the other person thinks you are someone who is interested in helping them…
Then they are likely to say ‘It would be good to find out what you do or I would be interested in knowing how you can help me solve this problem’.
To which you can either carry on the discussion there and then, or you can book another meeting.
The point is that you have developed enough RAPPORT to make the prospect think this is worthy of their time and that is all you need to do on this first call.
There are many other nuances and elements to running these calls and meetings but this is the whole part of our plan where it gets interesting and I just see so many people get this wrong.
If you do this bit right then you will succeed because the plan does work. I have used it with my own companies and used it with countless other organisations to help them win new business. Business owners such as Ian Redbourn from Paragon Brokers.
I know I can only share snippets of how to approach these situations though which is why we have launched a brand new Sales Plan course where we go through each of the 8 areas with you over an 8 week period. You will get access to not only all of the materials you need but weekly coaching with me and my team to get the results you want.
The initial feedback on the course has been incredibly positive and so I would love you to join those others and get your revenue plans back on track. If you want to hear more and have enjoyed the last 8 weeks of building this plan then click here.
So that’s the full 8 weeks of the Sales Plan done.
Hope you’ve enjoyed it. Please do let me know if you have.
Until next Saturday, keep smiling and stay focused on becoming a fly on the wall of the brain of your buyer.
James
