Sales representatives have a plethora of tips, tricks, and skills up their sleeve to help close their deals. The best of the best are always looking for new ways to connect with their prospects or clients and ultimately make more sales. It’s the nature of the business.
However, times are changing. The old-school methods are falling flat as people seek something more authentic, honest, and real. In this new age of customer value and experience, exceptional sales representatives are finding that authenticity is the most important sales skill of all. These are the reasons why.
It Ditches the Script
Sales scripts are very much a way of life in the industry, but it’s incredibly challenging to make them sound anything but scripted. While your mind may be set to follow your lines and enter dismay the moment you’ve been driven off them by a prospect, the natural flow of conversation is actually a better method.
That’s true whether you’re talking about this week’s football highlights or last night’s hit TV show. Casual, off the cuff conversation connects with people because it’s authentic. It’s just how people talk. So, go with the flow and find that pivotal moment where you can slide in your pitch.
Conversations Equal Conversions
Adding to the unscripted, conversation allows you to see what’s going on under the surface. While talking about sports or whatever else might come up, you’re getting a better idea of who that customer is and why they might need your product. This dramatically increases your ability to pitch in a way they’ll understand and respond to.
Focusing on Value
Value management is used in several other areas of business, but sales seems slow to adopt it. However, sales reps can make excellent use of the same customer value management software that other departments rely on.
Focusing on value helps prepare sales reps for their jobs, aiding in crafting their pitches and knowing what aspects of a prospect or current client to target. Adding authenticity to this is simple. Look at the data, see how you can help someone out, then approach the conversation with that frame of mind.
Customers Sense the Genuine
Genuineness isn’t something you can fake, unless you’re a Patrick Bateman/American Psycho type. Customers can tell when you’re faking interest, being scripted, and playing a part. When you’re authentic, they know you stand behind your product and enjoy what you’re doing. It shows them you’re a person, not just a salesperson.
Being a Regular Person
Building off that concept, it should come as no surprise to you that most people don’t exactly favor sales reps. Starting off the conversation like the sales machine you are is just that, mechanical. It’s off-putting and has cost you more sales than you likely realize.
Being authentic allows you to come off like a person, something prospects can relate to and talk with. More importantly, you become an interested party who wants to help the customer instead of raking in your commission.
