---

Guest post by: Milly Sonneman Become an Author

Tweet

---

---

Many people seek presentation skills training to learn how to sell to crazy busy buyers. If you want to set yourself apart from these common practices, learn 6 steps for holding a true conversation everyone values.

What are frazzled customers fed up with? One directional pitches. The ones that sound like the professional is spitting sand. Conversations are the heart of a successful relationship, and a successful sale. If you’ve ever tried to get a point across to a lover or spouse, you know that doing all the talking is the fastest way to lose. The same holds true for talking with target buyers.

Here is a short list of simple steps to hold highly effective conversations that move you toward the close. By following these steps, you will be able to start, hold, and lead conversations with skill and mastery.

Step 1. Set Aside Time

If you’re booking appointments with clients and prospects in a super tight time schedule, you are killing opportunity before it is born. A by the numbers meeting with a client might keep you organized and on schedule, but is it the best way to open up discussion?

Not likely. Set aside time to have conversations. If you have fewer meetings but get more sales…well, you do the math.

Step 2. Be Yourself

While many sales trainings instruct you to become more forceful, extrovert or directive, this may not match your unique strengths. Use your specific personality and core strengths to find your personal style.

In conversations, buyers are looking for clues from the tiniest detail to the most obvious point. They are tracking information intuitively about your body language, tone, pace and presence. It’s a lot to keep track of—if you’re trying to emulate someone else’s style.

But if you’re being authentic, you won’t have to worry. You’re already the best version of you.

Step 3. Ask Key Questions

Rather than relying on a corporate script or a sales training prescription, ask relevant questions. Ask questions that expose the buyer’s core needs, desires and problems.

By asking highly relevant questions, you will find that your clients and prospects get engaged. They want to tell you what’s bothering them. That’s when you must do the all-important next step.

Step 4. Actively Listen

Shocking, right? You must actively listen to what your clients are saying. Otherwise you fall into the vast sea of sales professionals who are just waiting to say their next selling point.

When you listen with full attention and total presence, you will hear your client’s core needs. You’ll be in a much better position to customize solutions on the spots.

Step 5. Personalize

What’s vitally important to your customer or prospect? That you are speaking directly and personally to them. They appreciate that you’re authentic, asking questions and listening. But now they want to see that you’ve been truly paying attention to what they are experiencing.

This step is all about satisfying your client’s desire for personalization. Speak directly to the benefits they’ve told you are important to them. Ditch the order of a ‘say this-do that’ script in favor of responding to the person you are talking with.

Step 6. Open The Zone

Open up the room, space or zone for your client to step into. By this point in the conversation, your target buyer wants to make an intelligent decision. By guiding the conversation with a clear, structured process, you can sell your services without being pushy, ‘salesy’ or unethical.

Keeping with the highest standards of integrity, open up the options. Discuss the merits of your complete solution, tiered approach, or white glove treatment. Open up the room for your client to step into the solution that is best for them.

Follow these 6 steps. Giving awesome presentations and guiding powerful sales conversations just got a whole lot simpler.

Related Articles

  Present the Butterflies in Formation
  Present Your Way To The Top: Selling At The Whiteboard
  Present the Presentation Confidently
  How Execs Gain Competitive Advantage With Storytelling
  Can You Really Quit Your Job?
  How To Be A Hero With Presentation Skills Training
  Presentation Skill
  Discover the 8 Secrets to Successful Presentations
  No Time for Executive Skills Training?
  Collaboration & Team Building for Sales Force Management Growth
  Presenting Without the Fear
  Writing Training, Business Communication Training, Presentation Skills Training And Instruction in Effective Communication
  WorkLess, Make More Money: 7 Secrets Of Executive Coaches
  Presentations - Easy as 1 - 2 - 3
  How to Boost Your Business With Online Presentation Skills Training
  Shattering The 5 Most Dangerous Presentation Myths
  Improve Your Sales Training By Changing Fuel
  The 4 P’s of Presenting Persuasively
  Help! I Don't Have Time to Learn Presentation Skills
  Boost Your Sales With Presentation Skills Training

Related Forum Posts

Re: Host of Marketing Made Simple TV
niche forum categories
7 words or less for Structogram
Online Sales and Marketing vs Traditional
Re: Online Sales and Marketing vs Traditional

Share this article. Fund someone's dream.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

TRADE SHOW FOLLOW-UP: HOW MUCH IS TOO MUCH?

The First Thing You Say In Marketing…

Organization Development Techniques

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.