Opening a conversation with a prospect is hard at the best of times, but especially now during the current business climate. I am looking to start a conversation with street level reps and managers.
- What would you suggest to your teams as they start to have a conversation with a prospect?
- What tools do you lead with, Snapshot, Product Lead Growth, other social or email touchpoint?
- How quick do you follow up with a list of leads you have sent the above to?
- What objections should we prepare our teams for?
- How do you present the value you are bringing to the prospect?
As we move to launch the new #smbtoolkit this week at Vendasta for our cloud brokers to help local business and build real estate, I am looking to generate lively debate in this topic on how sales reps and managers can avoid common pitfalls and have more successful conversations. Remember a moving sales person attracts business. Every valuable conversation you have with a businesses you know is a fit for your solution is the key to having a solid pipeline when this thing is over.
Looking to the “conquerors” for help
I think it is essential to make sure your conversation around your service offerings speaks to our current state. Whether it is showing how you can help them currently with a problem that COVID19 is causing them or helping them manage through and prepare for getting back to businesses as usual. Just make sure your not blowing off our current state or what may be to come in the local economy and coming across as just a salesperson trying to hit quota. This is a awesome time to be a salesperson. WHAT you do and HOW you do it for your customers and prospects now…can pay huge dividends for you in the future!
Here’s what works for me…
I first offer help before trying to sell. Go live on Facebook, make posts about something you noticed, share helpful information.
The post I made yesterday on my profile got 500 responses and 300+ emails-- many local businesses who want to talk.
Here it is:
See how this is more powerful than just cold calling?
Brendan, I learn from amazing people like you who care and take rapid action!
Fantastic idea @gleith George. I started offering strategy sessions to all of our agency partners in business partners this week. I know people have questions and many just want to talk. My goal is to simply make meaningful connections and offer that out to those I touch and influence. We also have several healthcare systems in the pipeline and it will be interesting to see how the current situation will influence the decisions. It was all really nice to meet @dennisyu at the 7 Figure Agency event in Miami last month 
Thanks for posting Lane. These are crazy times. I imagine health care is extremely busy and I am very interested to understand how it impacts these types of marketing decisions. All the best.
At this time, one of the most important pieces is to lead with empathy and value.
I’ve coached my sales reps to reach out to prospects with the purpose of finding out how they are holding up, how they are making the transition to remote, and how they are helping their clients through this situation. Once the sales rep has established trust with the prospect, its time to share the #protectlocal initiatives and how Vendasta can support them and aid them in helping their customers. They have to want the help, we cannot force it on them.
As David has mentioned, it’s important that we are addressing the current situation and the conversations are focused around what we are doing to help those most in need, the SMBs. As they say, people don’t care what you have to say until they know you care. By taking this approach, we believe commercial sales and opportunities will develop organically.
Thanks Lane, looking forward to see how your Healthcare prospects come through the pipeline! Keep Conquering!