Your Prospect Already Researched You: What Is the Sales Call For Now?
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Brooke Greening: Your prospect may know your services, your competitors, the pricing range, reviews, and even your philosophy before you even say hello.
So if sharing information is not the point, what exactly is the sales call supposed to
accomplish
If you're going- if they're going to work with you, they have to be able to know you and trust you, and the website is not going to do it.
Scott Greening: But the one thing that AI, I think is always going to struggle with is building trust with a human, like human to human trust.
And so, uh, that's what sales conversations are really about is building that trust.
Brooke Greening: So another sign is you've been talking for several minutes, and you haven't learned anything new.
That is a big red flag that you are giving way too much information.
If I understand where they're at and the problems that they're facing, and I've been able to uncover those things that are driving them and motivating them, I am going to beat you in every TED Talk that you give them.
Those are not buying signals. That is a polite way of them wanting to kind of shut things down, and it's been an information overload at that point.
Just ask yourself, if you've had a conversation, they have said those things, and it didn't result in a sale, and either you felt like you got ghosted or it just kept going on forever and ever, that is when you know it, they were politely shutting you down.
Scott Greening: Hey everyone. Welcome to another episode of Sippin Matcha and Helping You Make More Sales. Where in about the time that it takes you to enjoy your matcha or coffee break, our sales expert, Brooke Greening, gives us some great advice on our sales conversations.
Because if you have to talk to people to make more sales or to make sales, how well you lead those conversations is going to make or potentially break your revenue. And Brooke, we're starting a new series today, five episodes or so, on some of the changing realities of B2B purchasing-
Brooke Greening: Mm-hmm ...
Scott Greening: service providing businesses especially.
And things are changing and we're going to talk about that today. It has to do with information. And one place that this reality shows up, like for us, it's football season, so we just had- ... our family fantasy football draft.
Brooke Greening: Oh my word. It takes forever because there are so many family members. It takes hours and hours, and trying to keep everybody focused is a little bit of a, little bit of a hassle.
But it's fun. We do it every single year. And so yeah, we have our fantasy footballs. My team is called Chasing Your Dreams 'cause I have Ja'Marr Chase as-
Scott Greening: Yep ...
Brooke Greening: my head one.
Scott Greening: Yeah, so our kids are participating, that's why it takes in part so long, and that- And the reality is, like I enjoy football, I watch a good amount of football, but I am not a fantasy football expert.
But what I can do is look up on the internet and have it tell me who I'm supposed to draft.
Brooke Greening: Yeah, and you don't even actually have to do a ton of looking up. So like on our Yahoo account or whatever, I can literally see, okay, these are the points they're projected to make. This is, and it says it in really big red letters if they're hurt or if they're ha- if something happened or if they're not playing that week.
And so I can very, very quickly get enough information to be dangerous in regards to choosing who's going to be playing that week for fantasy football. And it's the same with people when they're having our sales conversations.
Scott Greening: Yeah, it's the, it's the same thing. People can find out a fair amount about us, our businesses, our services, what we do, before they even get onto a conversation with us.
So let's talk about that today. If buyers already know a lot about us, what is the salesperson's job? What's the role of having a sales conversation?
Brooke Greening: So it's less and less about being a presenter and more like being a guide. And so we're going to start talking today in regards to, okay, so if they already know information, how do we lead this conversation?
What's the point of what our sales conversation is going to be? And I just wanna encourage you as we keep talking through this, this is not about sharing more information. We're not a billboard. We're going to have a real conversation and be the guide in helping them to come to a buying decision. That is the goal.
Scott Greening: All right, Brooke. I know sometimes when it's our own business, we kind of lose sight, and we're s- we're so excited about what we do and all that, we know how much it can help that we kind of get into this, like, information sharing idea. But is there an example of, like, someone where, that you can flesh this out, where somebody can find something, a lot of information, but they still need to have the sales conversation?
Brooke Greening: Oh, 100%. Let's just maybe talk about a financial advisor. So from the potential client's perspective, you can look up index funds, you can look up tax strategies, retirement calculators, like historical returns, all of those things, but it actually doesn't answer the question that they need to know when they're talking with the sa- with the financial advisor, which is, "What do I do with my money?"
Scott Greening: Yeah, and I think what happens is, like, information is abundant. It... You can find it anywhere, but knowing the wisdom, the g- the good judgment of what to do with that information is actually pretty rare. And so that's where the salesperson, that's where service providers can come in and really help people take the steps forward that they wanna make.
Brooke Greening: Yeah. A sales conversation is not meant to be like this billboard of proving to them everything that you know. It is all about understanding where they're at, the frustrations they're facing, and if you can be able to help them, and what those next steps are going to look like.
Scott Greening: All right. So that's good conversation.
There's still a role for sales, whoo- ... otherwise we'd be out of a job. But then let's ask another r- related type of question. They can find out all this information, but what should a prospect, what should a potential customer know at the end of a sales conversation that they couldn't learn from our website?
Brooke Greening: So the biggest thing that they need to know, and they also need to believe, is because now they are trusting you, that you can be able to help them with the problems that they're facing, and you're now sharing with them what they need to do next in order to keep moving that forward. And our website does not usually share that type of stuff, because we don't know the problems that they're facing.
A website is just, boom, this is what we're doing, and we're trying to sell one to many at that point. When we're in a conversation, that's when we don't have to guess anymore, we don't have to assume what's happening. The whole point is to be able to uncover what problems they're facing and to see if we can help them with that.
If we can, great, then we're going to start talking about what we need to do next to keep working through solving that problem.
Scott Greening: Yeah, so people want- And so- People wanna know, like, you're, you understand them. They wanna know, "Oh, I trust this person. Oh, I, I'm beli- I'm even excited that they can help me with this."
I cut you off. What were you going to say?
Brooke Greening: I was just going to say, I know we were just joking and saying, "Oh, whoo, there's a place for sales," uh, because sometimes people are like, "Is AI going to take over absolutely everything?" But it is- Even more abundant that there is a place in regards to sales conversations, especially when we're talking about these higher ticket investments, especially in B2B, that they have to have.
If you're going- if they're going to work with you, they have to be able to know you and trust you, and the website is not going to do it. You can't... It's a great first step. It's a great way to get them to start having a conversation with you, but you can't just use your marketing trying to get to your sales goals, especially if they have to talk to you in order to decide, yes, we're going to move forward, we're making this investment, we're getting contracts going, all of those pieces.
So it's even more important that we have good sales conversations in this AI stage.
Scott Greening: Yeah, we're going to do- And one- ... I think, a, a little deeper dive on AI in a couple of, of episodes and the, the pluses and minuses. But the one thing that AI, I think is always going to struggle with is building trust with a human, like human to human trust.
And so, uh, that's what sales conversations are really about is building that trust. Yeah. So what are some signs that you might be explaining too much? Like you're doing too much of an information dump.
Brooke Greening: Yeah ...
Scott Greening: what does that look like?
Brooke Greening: I would say the very first sign is you're answering questions they haven't asked.
That is a big thing. So like, and then you're like, "Oh, oh, and another thing about this," or, "We can talk about this," or, "Hey, this is, this is also a part of it," that's often a warning sign. There are times and places. I am not saying we do not share in regards to how we can help with those features, benefits.
Like, I'm not saying those are evil, but I am saying specifically in our sales conversations, we tend to overload way too much. And so if they haven't asked, we need to just continue to keep s- focusing on them and what's going on with the problems they're facing, what's going on with the questions they're asking.
That's the most important thing.
Scott Greening: Yeah. It's sort of like if we had our youngest one along with us at a museum, and we were a- asking the, the tour guide like, "Where's the restroom?" And they said- ... "Well, I can tell you, but before I do that, let me tell you about this Renaissance painting and the archit- why we set up this room like this."
And I'm like, "Okay, that's great." Um, she's gotta pee. So let's- ... Let's
Brooke Greening: get that- Let's keep going.
Scott Greening: Yep, that's right. Yeah. All right. So what's another sign? So it we're answering questions that they haven't asked. What's another sign?
Brooke Greening: Yeah. So another sign is you've been talking for several minutes, and you haven't learned anything new.
That is a big red flag that you are giving way too much information. We are supposed to have good questions so that we can learn what's going on with them. The, so many times we think, "Well, they have to know all of this stuff about me before they'll make the decision." That's not actually true. They need to be able to trust you, and the only way they can do that is when you know more about them and what they're facing and then can clearly share how you're able to help.
So if you're talking and you haven't learned anything new about them, and it's been three, four minutes, you're sharing too much.
Scott Greening: Yeah. We w- a conversation has two sides, right? So it's-
Brooke Greening: Mm-hmm ...
Scott Greening: like pickleball or tennis or ping pong or like there's back and forth you want to go, and it's, it's really easy to sort of default into one person talking, um, and lose that, that interaction, uh, which then people stop engaging and trusting and all of that.
Brooke Greening: Yeah. And so many times, and I've worked with different clients like this, where they have like a pitch deck ready to go and all of that, and I'm not saying any of that is wrong. But when we're having a conversation with the person that can actually make the decision, and it's like a one-on-one. We're not in a boardroom, and we've got a bunch of people that we're talking to.
We're giving ourself a disservice when we're trying to hope that our marketing is going to make the sale for us. We're literally treating it as, " I'm just going to keep talking at you," instead of understanding where they're at. If I understand where they're at and the problems that they're facing, and I've been able to uncover those things that are driving them and motivating them, I am going to beat you in every TED Talk that you give them.
And it's not because I've had 90,000 sales conversations. It's because that's what's important to them, and it's the same thing I teach my clients. All of these things have a place, but when you have a one-on-one conversation, don't hide behind some presentation, because that's assuming we know the problems that they're facing, and that's assuming we have all of the answers for them, and we don't want to do that.
When you have a one-on-one, stop assuming and start asking and understanding where they're actually coming from.
Scott Greening: All right, so that's the... We're, got a couple of signs here of the dangers of information dump. What's another sign that you are dumping too much information?
Brooke Greening: They give you the polite shutdown.
And I'm going to share this, and people are going to maybe stop their cars or whatever, and they're going to be like, "Wait a minute. That's a polite shutdown?" Especially in B2B, there's not very many jerks out there, and I greatly appreciate that, 'cause I have been in some other industries and you're like, "Holy cow," "that was not a fun conversation."
That is not really where we're at, especially when we're talking about higher investments. But when they start saying things like, "Oh, yeah, that makes sense. Got it. Yeah, okay, sounds good. Hey, just send me something. Ooh, wow, you were very thorough. You've given me a lot to think about," those aren't actually...
Those are not buying signals. That is a polite way of them wanting to kind of shut things down, and it's been an information overload at that point.
Scott Greening: Yeah, I know that sort of the, the typical... So we're both have Midwest roots, and so I think sometimes our East Coast friends and family, like, our goodbyes are very polite and sort of drawn out.
But we're, we're still saying goodbye. And, uh- Right ... sometimes that happens on, sometimes that happens on sales calls when you've shared too much information and people have checked out, and they're like, "All right, I gotta move on. You need to-
Brooke Greening: Yeah ...
Scott Greening: to wrap this up."
Brooke Greening: And I do, I do wanna share quickly that it's not every time you hear that, that is a bad thing.
That is not what I am saying. But if... This is where you can kind of know, is she actually right in what she's saying, or is this not pertaining to me? Just ask yourself, if you've had a conversation, they have said those things, and it didn't result in a sale, and either you felt like you got ghosted or it just kept going on forever and ever, that is when you know it, they were politely shutting you down.
It was too much information. We didn't uncover the problem. And so they're just looking at it again, like, "Hey, this is more of just information gathering, not helping me actually make a decision."
Scott Greening: So then what's the, the last sign that you've got for us on how to know that we may be dumping too much information?
Brooke Greening: You've ended the call and you have missed key information. Meaning, okay, we don't actually know what's motivating them to buy. We don't actually know what their timeframe is. We don't know who other decision-makers are. Like, there are key pieces that we need to know that we, if we would have taken time and to be able to, to take a breath and be able to ask those questions instead of focusing so much on what we're saying, that's how you know.
So when you get off of a call and you're like, "I don't actually know if they're going to move forward. I don't know what their buying timeframe is. I don't know who else is involved in these decisions," that is a key indicator we talked too much, and we weren't able to give them space to be able to share what they needed to.
Scott Greening: All right, so we've been talking about this theme of there's so much information out there, and that we shouldn't be information dumping. If we're not supposed to be spending the call explaining our products and services- ... In brief, what are we supposed to be doing instead?
Brooke Greening: And to be clear, it's not that we don't explain it all, but we just need to explain the pieces that are important to help connect with the problems that they were sharing with us.
But just as a quick example, you want to be able to listen. You want to be able to recognize what's going on with them, the problems that they're facing. We want to clarify, make sure we're not assuming things, that we do have it right, and then we can start recommending what those next steps are and how to be able to work with us.
Scott Greening: All right, everyone. We're exploring this theme about sales not being just dumping information. And the reality is, is that there are two parts to every sales conversation. There's the part that you say, but then there's the part that's going on. There's the conversation that's happening in your potential customer's mind where they're actually making the decision.
And if you don't hear that part, what you say is going to be much less relevant to the, the sales conversation. And that's where Brooke's 90,000 sales conversation and her master's in counseling come into play and can help you make more sales. Brooke has a six-session sales lab where she'll lead you through learning how to both listen and say the things that will lead people to the buying decision and not just dump information.
So if you want to explore what that looks like, you can go to buildingmomentum.info/meet and set up a call with Brooke that fits your schedule, and she can help you have these purposeful, authentic conversations that will make more sales
Brooke Greening: All right, so this has been a great conversation and I can't wait till next week because then we're going to start talking about, okay, so if I'm not supposed to give them a bunch of information, then how do I actually lead them in a sales conversation to them being able to make the decision to buy? So join us next week, and that's what we're going to be talking about.
Scott Greening: So if you wanna make sure that you don't miss this conversation, we encourage you to go to buildingmomentum.info/matcha where you can find the links to the podcast on all of your favorite platforms.
We love hearing from you. We love it when you like and review and follow and do all of those things. You can find that again at buildingmomentum.info/matcha.
Brooke Greening: And remember, when you're ready to make some more money, call Brooke
