The news is full of celebrity relationships that didn't work out. Often when things fall apart we hear that there was "no chemistry".
Do you believe that there is such a thing as "chemistry" or "spark"? When you think about personal relationships you probably agree that there is. It is not uncommon for someone to say even after a first date - "we just clicked" or "we just didn't connect"
When you think about selling and sales you probably also agree that in reality it is one long date - unfortunately, there are times when the prospect just doesn't feel the connection. There are also times when as the salesperson you can tell you just are not clicking with the person on the other side of the desk.
Maybe at this point you are hoping that I will provide a quick one-liner that will help you to instantly click with everyone you encounter? That would be nice but that is also impossible - no such tactic exists.
We could however discuss some ways to increase the odds of us connecting and engaging with more of our prospects sooner. These recent posts were interesting because they discussed the ten things men and women do to ruin relationships and the 10 things girls do wrong when dating. Not surprisingly we can draw some lessons from both of these posts when it comes to how we manage our sales relationships with prospects and clients. Let's take some of the most common things that seem to be behaviors that ruin relationships.
1) Talking about the wrong things or talking about the right things at the wrong time - when you talk about the X or you talk about marriage and kids too early you are in trouble. What subjects should you avoid bringing up too early on the sales call?
2) Asking about personal information too early and jumping ahead- you just don't ask someone what they make per year or for their deepest political views on a controversial topic on the first date. Similarly there is a need to ask tough questions on a sales call but if you go there too quickly you come across as abrasive.
3) Dress Appropriately - Your appearance says so much on a date and even more when we look at your interaction with a prospect. Everything says something about you!
4) Be Honest - You have nothing to gain on a date by not telling the truth. Eventually it comes out and the same thing will happen if you are not honest with your prospects.
5) Don't become infatuated - when you do you lose clarity. Don't make the mistake of focusing only on looks but take time to get to know them. Similarly when a sales person becomes emotionally involved they get happy ears and stop listening.
6) Be Patient - Sometimes relationships happen quickly and other times it takes time to really engage. Not all sales people have the patience required to work on becoming a trusted adviser.
As I said at the beginning there is no magic bullet - but you can certainly work on your skills and widen the net of people that you connect with.
Another area where many sales people miss the boat so to speak is by not learning about who they are going to meet with before going on the appointment. With modern tools like linked in we can learn more than ever about the people we are going to meet. Get an understanding of what seems to interest them (what they read? Who do they follow?) and then show an interest in those things yourself - I have noticed that just taking 5 minutes before a conversation to do this can make all the difference in the world!
