Blog and News > sales > “At least buy me dinner first!”: Slowing down your sales approach
“At least buy me dinner first!”: Slowing down your sales approach
When you want something, it’s hard not to go all out to get it.
And if you’re in sales, that thing you want is… sales.
But in rushing to secure the sale, you actually become a lot less effective salesperson. You lose your prospect’s trust and respect, and the time you did invest is wasted.
So in the interest of slowing things down to speed things up, here are three rules of thumb to help you become a better (less pushy!) salesperson.
Understand your prospect before getting in touch
Look, we get it. The need for leads, the itch to pitch… it’s overwhelming. You’ve found someone who loosely fits your demographic, and you want to get in there and tell them why your product is so great.
But if you’re giving the same copy-and-paste pitch to ever prospect you meet… chances are it isn’t a very good one.
Try to personalize your approach to every customer; understand their business, and get in touch with a personal approach which stands out from the likely dozens of other phone-calls and emails they receive each week.
Listen, then help
Try to see what you’re doing as helping instead of selling. Your product and service should always be something you genuinely believe in, so frame conversations as you simply being an expert who wants to help another person get on board.
Instead of jumping straight in, ask lots of questions. Try to dig down to the real pain point your prospect has, then go on to discuss your proposition as the solution together.
If you have a good visitor tracking tool like CANDDi, you can get some insight into this before you even speak to the prospect. Take a look at their activity on your website - which pages did they show particular interest in? Knowing how to steer the conversation in the right direction can mean the difference between a bad sales conversation and a good one.
Take no for an answer
When your prospect rejects a request, don’t try to push it.
There’s a reason they said ‘no’; maybe you asked too soon, maybe you asked in the wrong way, or maybe they’re just not a good fit for your product or service. Whatever the reason, attempting to steamroll onwards without altering your approach will only make them feel uncomfortable and leave a bad taste in their mouth.
Ask yourself: what is the source of resistance here? If it’s something you can feasibly help to alleviate; great! Take some time to address the concern and help your prospect to progress further through the buying process.
If it isn’t? Know when to throw in the towel. It might seem like a waste to give up after you’ve invested time in someone… but it’s even more of a waste if you continue. It’s better to spend time helping prospects who are likely to close!
