Proven Frameworks for Sales Growth

Proven Frameworks For Sales Growth Success

The 4 P’s of Prospect Delay. Number 4: Personal

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The final P on my 4P’s of Prospect Delay is Personal. Building a personal connection with a prospect is vital if you’re going to win business quickly.

PROSPECT DELAY NO.4: PERSONAL

Whilst technology plays an important role in the modern business environment, people still buy from people. Therefore, developing a personal relationship with your prospects can have a big impact on their decision making. If they feel like they have a personal connection with you, the timescale of the deal is more likely to be accelerated and the chance of a prospect delay eliminated.

I have had numerous conversations with prospects who have chosen to prioritise my project ahead of other major projects because of the relationship I have built with them. That’s not to say they didn’t have a need to work with me, but they did also have a desire to work with me. If however, I hadn’t worked hard to build that rapport with my prospects, the outcome could be very different and other projects could have taken priority because they hadn’t formed a relationship with me. Therefore, causing a prospect delay.

So how can you build a personal connection with your prospect?

DON’T CONSTANTLY TRY TO SELL TO THEM

Rather than talking about the deal every time you speak to your prospect, instead offer them advice and guidance in your area of expertise. Talk to them to simply touch base and see how they’re getting on rather than trying to close the deal every time you speak with them.

ASK PERSONAL QUESTIONS

When I say personal questions, I’m not suggesting you ask inappropriately personal questions but personal questions like ‘did you have a good weekend?’ or ‘you said you went on holiday last week, how was it?’ This will go a long way towards building a relationship with your prospects.

LEARN ABOUT THEIR HOBBIES AND INTERESTS.

The more you engage with your prospects, over time you should be able to discover what they are interested in. For example, I spoke with a prospect recently who said he was playing golf at the weekend. Being a golfer myself, we immediately had something in common and I was able to use this in later conversations.

Building strong personal connections with your prospects means you have more chance of bumping your way up their list of priorities and get your deal closed faster. Of course, there are other factors to consider but as I said earlier, people buy from people and if you dislike the person you’re engaging with, it puts you off working with them all together.

So, that brings my 4 P’s of Prospect Delay to a close. The other 3 P’s are ‘Priority’, ‘Pain’ and ‘Passion’, give them a read if you missed them because they are also vital elements in speeding up the sales process and avoid prospect delays. Do you experience any other reasons for prospects delaying closing the deal? Let me know in a comment below or tweet me at @jameswhitesales.