Building Trust for Better Sales Conversations
This week someone asked me, “How do I really build someone’s trust in a sales conversation? It feels like people come to the call feeling really suspicious, like I’m just going to spend the whole conversation trying to sell them.”
This is a great question – one of the most important aspects of having a really great sales conversation is building trust with the person who’s on the other end of the line or sitting in front of you.
There are a couple of ways that I like to build trust.
First, replace phone calls with Zoom calls so that you can see each other’s faces. Something really amazing happens when you allow people to see you as a full, expressive person rather than just a muffled voice or an email signature.
Second, avoid passivity in your sales conversation. What I mean by passivity is following a script and then letting the other person just talk and talk and talk without asking clarifying questions.
One of the best ways to build trust in a sales conversation is to ask questions. Questions indicate active listening and show the person that you genuinely understand what they’re saying.
Oftentimes, the reason why someone comes to you is that they’re unclear. They’re unclear about what they want. They’re unclear about where they eventually want to go.
When you ask them questions like, “What are you struggling with? What do you want to have a year from now?” they answer in an unclear way – not because they’re trying to be difficult, but because that’s part of their problem. They just don’t know.
Your job is to think like a detective and ask them questions that create clarity.
For example, say someone comes to me about their business and I ask, “What are you struggling with?”
They might say, “Well, I feel like I’m doing all the things but nothing is working.”
I could just jot down “They feel like they’re doing all the things but nothing is working” and continue to the next question on my script.
But instead, I come back and say, “Tell me the activities that you’re doing.”
They say, “Well, I’m posting on social media,” and again, I could just move on to the next question on the script.
But it’s still not clear what is not working for them.
So I’m going to ask again, “What does it mean that you’re posting on social media? What are you posting, and how often?”
They answer, “Oh, I post inspirational quotes once a week on Instagram.”
I then know that social media is part of their problem – they’re posting things that aren’t going to get people’s attention. And I tell them so.
I can write that down in my notes, but I’ve only gotten to that point because I asked the questions.
More often than not, people will say to you, “Oh goodness! That’s a great question! I had never thought of that before.”
Often after a really good sales conversation, people will say to me, “Monica, I’ve never had somebody spend so much time helping me get clear about what I want. I really appreciate your degree of listening.”
People notice the difference between active and passive listening. Trust requires mutual understanding and recognition.
By intermittently asking clarifying questions, you show someone that you’re invested in pinpointing what they want and what is holding them back. This creates genuine trust.
My invitation to you right now is to try holding your sales conversations face-to-face on Zoom if doing them in person is not an option. While you are on those convos, think like a detective. Keep asking questions until you have total clarity.
And if you’d like more support around sales conversations and all things client acquisition – I invite you to join me at our next Get More Clients Intensive (GMCI).
I designed this virtual two-day event for a small group of 8-12 people – a format which allows me to spend time working with each person individually.
Together, you and I will come up with the exact positioning, messaging and marketing strategies that will help you call in 3–6 new high ticket ($3,000–$10,000+) clients in the next 90 days.
We’re holding our next GMCI’s in October and November – click here to learn more about the program.
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