Sales Rapport: Remembering How To Sell Like A Professional
Have you noticed that more and more people appear to have shorter attention spans these days? The lack of desire to read a lot of in-depth material in a story, email, letter, or article is common. In fact, the shorter the word count is, the more likely it is someone will actually read the content anymore.
This attitude is not just found in the reading of information, it is true for many things in society now. People have adopted what I call a “microwave mentality” in that they want everything with the snap of a finger. Patience was once considered a virtue but seems to have gone missing in action.
Whatever it Takes, The Missing Mentality
Want a large social media network, sales, money, fame or anything like these? When asked, most would say they do. The answer to these questions when asked on face value has not changed much. What seems to have changed however is the time and effort people are willing to invest to achieve them.
Sales for example can take a while to generate. I learned firsthand in my 20+ year career selling print professionally that before companies would buy from the company I was selling for, I had to create a relationship with someone inside the prospective company. Most businesses already had existing vendors who they ordered from. They were not looking for a new company to deal with. I had to build rapport with someone who could influence the change first, to get a shot at earning a sale.
One Sales Foot In Front of the Other
One reason I was good at my job is I learned not to rush right in for the sale. This is a lesson I believe many can benefit from learning or remembering today.
Every day I receive countless emails and direct messages on LinkedIn from strangers trying to pitch me their products or services. They are all without fail a waste of time. The people who write those messages have failed to generate any interest or business from me. In fact, for those who keep sending me message after message, they turn my attention on to them in a negative way and ruin the reputation of the company they represent. The poor sales tactics can not only destroy the chance at a sale now, but they can also eliminate the chance of a sale from ever happening down the road.
Sales Rapport Is Missing
What should you do to generate sales? Do not rush the process by overloading a prospect you don’t know with information about your company, your product or even about yourself. Prospects are not interested in you or your business.
To generate a sustainable business sales strategy must start as it always has, in establishing new connections and building friendships. Once people know who you are and that you care about them as people, doing business together becomes more natural. Your odds of success increase dramatically when you build the foundation of trust, I call sales rapport.
How do You Build Sales Rapport?
You can still email, call, send direct messages to people you have never met, from a prospect list. What you say is going to be different than what most have been sending. Instead of talking about yourself, your product and your business, however you are going to ask questions, offer to help, invite to events and things that don’t come across as a sales pitch.
Why? Because you need to establish some trust and people don’t want to be sold by strangers.
This is where technology can really help. Instead of typing a long email no one wants to read, remember we live in a “microwave mentality” world these days, try recording a 60 second video, posting on Vimeo or YouTube and then sending the link in an email to your prospect. Another idea would be to send a corporate gift with your company logo printed on it, and a VoiceGift® Tag from Voice Express that records a personalized message to help establish good will. Not every person will respond to the same techniques, for example some might not like a gift, as they can consider it a bribe, where others would love it.
Sales Processes Vary Based on Industry
Certainly what you sell is going to factor in to how you sell, as selling fuel delivery services like they do at Preferred Petroleum Services is much different than selling custom software and app development at Sparkfish even though they are both located in the Dallas, Texas area. While one shoe certainly does not fit all, the rapport building is important for everyone in the business to business sales space. The length of the sale cycle and the effort put into generating sales will vary based on industry, competition, established brand, advertising budget and the economy as a whole.
Need Sales Help?
There are two ways to increase your sales fire power right away. You can consider adding outside help by hiring a fractional sales professional like Erika Warfield via Erika Warfield Sales. The advantage of hiring a fractional employee is you get a lot of experience at a lower cost than a full-time staff member and the ROI is typically realized much faster too.
If you are looking for a traditional hire, I recommend you reach out to Kelly Robinson of Panna Knows. There is no better talent acquisition team on the planet in my professional opinion. Kelly and her team will make sure you hire someone that has the skillset and the right mentality to fill the sales role(s) you have available and help maximize their chance of success.
The Successful Sales Strategy Starts with Rapport
For anyone who has struggled generating sales or have managed a team falling short of their sales goals, don’t lose heart. The good news is that by remember how successful sales are earned and then working on the critical foundational work of building rapport to support future sales activities will help you reverse your fortune.
The sale might take longer to build than you like, but if you build rapport with the right decision makers inside your prospective client’s companies, sales will come.