I don’t know how it happened but the telephone is slowly becoming extinct…well, okay, not extinct but no longer being used for calling each other. Our phones are still a major part of our lives we just have slowed down how often we use them to talk. This blog is not heading in the direction of how or why we should stop this trend; this is about how to make sales in this changing dynamic. When your potential customer is doing business this way, you had better get savvy at communicating via emails and texts.
The mistake that most make when evaluating their efforts to garner sales via the “written word” is that they are looking at how persuasive and articulate they are in convincing their buyer to buy. They’ll look for strong, confident and intelligent phrasing in their writings to compel a positive response from the buyer that indicates the sale is near. Sounds like Sales 101, right? Wrong…
Sales 101 always reminds the sales person that listening to your customer is how you can understand what they need and how they’d like it. So how does that work when you are reduced to emails and texting?
If you are initiating the communication, be brief, to the point and be specific in asking for a response. “Hi Dave, We have some new items that will benefit you and your company making your next quarter more profitable. Are you available for a call tomorrow at ten a.m. or early afternoon?” Notice how brief the email is and how I am requesting two specific times of day to have him get back to me. Getting call to action is partly based on not giving too much information upfront. I didn’t say what items will help him or how, just that it will. Let Dave ask or give an alternate time to talk or write you with his questions because he’s too busy for a call.
Now is where the listening begins. With luck he’ll write back some kind of a response. This is the “listening” I was speaking of at the top. Is he brief, too? Does he say how busy he is or what pressures he’s under? Are there buying signs showing yet or is he sitting on his dug -in heels asking “What’ja got?”
If he’s brief, be brief back. If he asks good questions, answer them directly and without the “pitch”. Match his style so he’ll trust you and want more information. Make it easy for him to communicate with you and he’ll show you what he needs in the end. Listen (or really “read”) to how they respond – both in tone and style, not just in content. Remember, they want to succeed and if you can make that happen for them, you have your way in for the close – which is another blog for another time.
The mistake that most make when evaluating their efforts to garner sales via the “written word” is that they are looking at how persuasive and articulate they are in convincing their buyer to buy. They’ll look for strong, confident and intelligent phrasing in their writings to compel a positive response from the buyer that indicates the sale is near. Sounds like Sales 101, right? Wrong…
Sales 101 always reminds the sales person that listening to your customer is how you can understand what they need and how they’d like it. So how does that work when you are reduced to emails and texting?
If you are initiating the communication, be brief, to the point and be specific in asking for a response. “Hi Dave, We have some new items that will benefit you and your company making your next quarter more profitable. Are you available for a call tomorrow at ten a.m. or early afternoon?” Notice how brief the email is and how I am requesting two specific times of day to have him get back to me. Getting call to action is partly based on not giving too much information upfront. I didn’t say what items will help him or how, just that it will. Let Dave ask or give an alternate time to talk or write you with his questions because he’s too busy for a call.
Now is where the listening begins. With luck he’ll write back some kind of a response. This is the “listening” I was speaking of at the top. Is he brief, too? Does he say how busy he is or what pressures he’s under? Are there buying signs showing yet or is he sitting on his dug -in heels asking “What’ja got?”
If he’s brief, be brief back. If he asks good questions, answer them directly and without the “pitch”. Match his style so he’ll trust you and want more information. Make it easy for him to communicate with you and he’ll show you what he needs in the end. Listen (or really “read”) to how they respond – both in tone and style, not just in content. Remember, they want to succeed and if you can make that happen for them, you have your way in for the close – which is another blog for another time.
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