What’s my answer when somebody asks me for 3 Tips for Better Customer Conversations?
You don’t want to miss these tips… they can help you improve your conversations today.
Read the newsletter: “3 Tips for Better Customer Conversations“
Today’s newsletter, Everything your customer says is true, reminds us that the customer is not always right, but even when the customer is wrong we need to figure out how to deal with it.
You can get frustrated, you can try to tell the customer he is wrong, or you can recognize his reality and then work from there. Guess which works better …
Steve writes in today’s newsletter, Sales Conversations: Earning the right to be heard, “The first thing we need to do, if we want customers to listen to us, is to earn the right to be heard.”
This solution is part empathy and part smart selling – if we want our customers to listen to us, we must first listen to them and learn what they care about. We know this as a general rule, but how many of us earn the right to be heard each and every time we talk with a customer or prospect?
Get some sales inspiration. Read today’s newsletter, Sales Conversations: Earning the right to be heard.
Steve’s newsletter today, Sales Pitch? Sales Conversation, is a call-to-arms for real, human selling. Replace your sales pitches with sales conversations, and you will be a more successful salesperson (even if you don’t think you can sell).
Steve writes, “Any time you are giving a sales pitch, you will be better off with a sales conversation. Anytime. No exceptions.”
Don’t you want to read more?
Read today’s newsletter: Sales Pitch? Sales Conversation.
“Don’t Talk About Yourself” is the theme of today’s newsletter.
Consider this: If you talk about yourself, there’s something like a 1% chance your customer will care about what you’re saying. But if you talk about your customer, there’s a 100% chance your customer will care about it.
Hmmm… tough choice… talk about yourself, or talk about your customer?
Read the newsletter – Sales Rule #1: Don’t Talk About Yourself
A sales pitch is written ahead of time, before you meet with your customer, but when you Ditch the Pitch, the story is created as you engage in conversation with your customer.
As the sales conversation unfolds, you’re not exactly sure what the story will be, and things are said that don’t seem to fit into any story. But as the story takes shape, you start to notice that many of the things said earlier in the conversation now do fit into a story. You are writing your sales story backwards.
Please have a look at this weeks newsletter, and please share your comments.
No one listens to long, drawn out sales pitches, yet so many salespeople still use this odious practice (You’ve probably hung up on a telemarketer before he could come up for air within the last week, right?). Don’t be part of this problem! Break off your monologuing by learning the One-Paragraph Rule.
Steve writes about the rule in this week’s newsletter, It’s time for a break (The one-paragraph rule).
We can all thank Steve’s brother for developing the One-Paragraph Rule – Thanks, Phil! And, more importantly, we can all use it to improve our sales conversations.
“The quieter you become, the more you can hear.”
– Ram Dass
Every second you are talking in a sales conversation is a second you are not listening to your customer. You are listening to yourself. Use words sparingly, returning to “input mode” as quickly as possible, giving yourself the chance to be alert and notice things that can drive your reactions.
I’m always impressed by how infrequently stage improvisers interrupt each other. One reason for this is that these actors are much more focused on listening and observing than on talking. Their mouths wait for their ears and eyes, and this extra focus on input makes it easier for them to exchange the focus of the scene between themselves.
Contrast this with business meetings where people are more interested in getting their points out than they are interested in listening to others. People are constantly starting sentences in the middle of other people’s sentences, and people are not alert to cues from colleagues that could help communication.
Sell like the stage improviser, not like that obnoxious guy you work with who is always interrupting people in meetings. The quieter you become, the more you can hear.
Imagine you are in a conversation with a customer, and there is something you really want to say, but you can’t find a way to fit it in the conversation.
What should you do?
Change the subject so you can say it?
Raise your hand to get your customer’s attention?
Write it on your palm so you don’t forget it?
My answer: Leave it in your pocket. Don’t say it, because your customer won’t hear it anyway.
Have a look at today’s newsletter, Sales tip – Leave things in your pocket.
I recently ran a sales workshop for lawyers from a successful Chicago firm. One of the attorneys said, “I have a hard time explaining what I do. It’s pretty technical, and by the time I finish describing it I’ve usually confused the person.”
In response, a more senior lawyer, who also happens to be one of the biggest ‘rainmakers’ at the firm, said, “If someone asks me what I do, I just say that I’m a lawyer. I don’t offer any details. Then, they usually ask me to tell them more. At that point, they’re interested, so I can give them some more information.”
The Second City Almanac of Improvisation says “the more you tell the audience, the less they can imagine.” (page 160) This is a wonderful maxim for sales and marketing. Brochures stuffed with copy, hour-long fact-filled presentations, massive PowerPoint decks … they’re all based on the idea that the job of sales and marketing is to explain a story to customers.
But explaining a story is usually not best the best way to communicate that story. In order to communicate successfully, it is important for the customer to become engaged in the story, and a monologue won’t engage her. A dialogue in which she participates has a much better chance of engaging her and creating successful communication.
Resist the temptation to explain. Remember that your customer isn’t all that interested in your story, and so a detailed explanation is likely to lose her attention. Make it easy for her to participate in the conversation.
View your sales and marketing interactions not as opportunities to explain your story but as opportunities to engage your customers deeper. Don’t over explain … and give your customers a chance to imagine.
"When Steve Yastrow writes, I pay close attention"
- Tom Peters
"I had to buy two copies. The first one is so dog-eared and underlined I couldn't read it any longer."
- Seth Godin
Microsoft's Retailspeak interview with Steve
Sign up for Steve’s blog
Read Steve's Free Ebook to start benefiting from profitable We relationships.
Encounters: The Building Blocks of We Relationships (Adobe PDF)
In addition to writing, I spend most of my work time helping companies unleash their potential by creating better connections with their customers. This happens through my speaking events and through Yastrow & Company consulting engagements, where my team and I help companies figure out who they intend to be in the future, and then engage the entire company in creating that future through strong "We" customer relationships.
Before starting Yastrow & Company in the mid-90s I was vice-president of resort marketing for Hyatt Hotels. My experiences in the hotel business showed me clearly that most marketing doesn’t happen in the marketing department. Customers are paying attention to all interactions with a company, not just the promises made in traditional "marketing communications."
For more information, see our About page.
