Sales pitches vs. sales conversations

Recently I was conducting a sales workshop for salespeople and business owners, and as they told me of their experiences I noticed a common thread running through most of them – potential prospects who were no longer using words to communicate, but using actions. These actions came in the form of the cold shoulder, the silent treatment and the disappearing act.

There are many reasons prospects resort to these methods but one blaring reason is that you are using tension-filled sales pitches instead of having high-value sales conversations. Why else would they feel like they have to lie, hide and evade you? The distinction is powerful.

A tension-filled sales pitch is a one-way monologue where you talk endlessly about how great you are or how perfect your product or service is without asking probing questions to find out your customer’s true needs and pains.

A high-value sales conversation is a discussion where you have an open, two-way dialogue about your prospect’s situation, problems, concerns and issues. On the surface it seems simple enough to execute. Unfortunately a variety of factors prevent people from having this type of sales conversation.
Many salespeople give customers no choice but to employ the age-old tactics of avoiding, evading, hiding, stalling, vanishing and lying. Salespeople are to blame for triggering these reactions and they are responsible for preventing them.

Think about it. If you are coming across in the sales process as open, honest, sincere and authentic, with no hidden agenda, why would a customer be unable to tell you the truth? Answer: You are creating pressure and tension with the way you sell.

Many salespeople are using outdated sales phrases, techniques and closes that create tension, raise the heat and add unnecessary pressure in the sales process, causing customers to flee. Many don’t even know they are applying subtle pressure and tension because that way is the only way they know.
How can you start a conversation in a totally natural, familiar way that doesn’t sound like a sales pitch to your customer, doesn’t feel like a sales pitch to you and yet increases your chance of getting your next referral or making your next sale?

Unfortunately, there’s no such thing as a magical phrase that will make the other person want to buy your product or service – it just doesn’t exist. What does exist is a tension-free approach that will elicit interest from the other person so that they will want to engage you in a conversation. Every business is different and every conversation is unique to that business.

If I could change one thing in the world of sales, I would make sure that every salesperson and business owner had high-value conversations with their prospects and customers. This is the major focus of my business: conducting workshops and delivering presentations to help salespeople master their sales conversations. Too many salespeople still launch into a sales pitch too early in the conversation, which puts the prospect on the defensive and creates pressure. Remember, the sales conversation is not about you!

I am not suggesting that every sales person is to blame for this behavior. The customer has some responsibility here as well. What I am suggesting is when you enter into a sales conversation you take responsibility for distinguishing yourself in a different way so the customer does not view you like every other sales person. If you continue to see this bad customer behavior, it’s a sign you need some firm dialogue that creates mutual respect. Sales conversations equal sales opportunities.

If you have left a few messages, sent a few emails and still have not heard back from your prospects, I call that a clue. A clue that somewhere along the way you created a situation in your sale pitch that shut down the sales conversation.
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