effective communication

Put down the PDA and Meet with People

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This is a quick b2b sales tip based upon a conversation I had with a couple of high level decision makers. These gentlemen were talking about both the b2b sales people who call on them AND their own b2b sales staff.

Here is the major point about this post today. Some b2b sales people are more engaged with their electronic equipment than with the actual customer. Since customers are people, they need a b2b sales person to communicate thoughts, strategies and ideas with them. And, based upon the ear full of unfavorable opinions about today”s new b2b sales people, there is room to improve.

In fact, this past week I observed several b2b sales people on a couple of flights around the country. The common thread is this PDA and Smartphone addicts don’t make eye contact with anyone and have this robot look in their eyes. Are you one of these people?

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Top Five Customer Frustrations

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Recently I was asked by a client – “What are typical customer frustrations with sales people?”

That question created a discovery and research process which uncovered several major issues for customers – caused by the sales people who call upon them. This was amazing to me. It seems sales people have the uncanny ability to shot themselves in the foot – then admire their marksmanship rather than not shot at all!

Yes, we – the sales people create major frustration for our customers – consciously or unconsciously – which makes building trust and successful selling more difficult. Here are the major customer frustrations created by sales people.

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Building Rapport is the Starting Point for Building Trust

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Rapport Building is one of the MOST IMPORTANT things you do as a B2B Sales person. Without the ability to gain rapport, you miss out on the things that really matter in the sales process. Think I’m kidding here?  More sales have been lost because the sales person working an account had no credibility with the decision makers. Why? Because they had lousy people skills and did not think that rapport building was important!

One of the major reasons that rapport building is critical to your sales success is rapport building is the starting point for building trust. And, without Trust, there is no sales, no business, and no renewal business.

Buying decisions are made over 80% of the time based upon this concept of trust. Let me put it another way, if a customer or prospect does not have any trust in you – they will not buy from you. It really is that simple.

Are you good at building trust? I find a number of sales people have become quite arrogant and believe that it is all about the product and service. This leads to competitors enjoying the success of winning sales – at your expense if you are one of the arrogant ones!

There are many things you can do to gain rapport. Here is a short list of rapport building steps…

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Listening the Other Number One Skill in Selling

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Closely related to the Questioning skill is the ability to actively listen to everything being said and also what is not being openly said. The key for the sales person is to focus on the customer when the customer is talking and particularly when answering questions presented by the sales person. The number one flaw with aggressive sales people is they are too busy thinking about what they will say next, mentally rehearsing the script plan or just plain thinking about other things unrelated to moment.

Sales Superstars take the proactive listening skill to the next level – giving them a competitive advantage and greater trust with their customers. There are several reasons to improve our listening skills:

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