Today I wanted to focus on Sales Strategies and specifically, 3 Sales Mistakes That Are Costing You 1 on 1 Clients for your business. So first a bit of background, I’ve been in sales for over 25 years now and, over the last while coaching female entrepreneurs I’ve noticed some making grave mistakes that can cost you sales.
So, if you find yourself struggling to close one on one coaching or consulting gigs, pay attention because this will help you.
So the first mistake to avoid is…
1. Criticizing your prospect in order to sell your services. You may have heard that in your website and social media copy and during webinars, livestreams and recorded video that you should discuss your prospect’s pain points and the solution you have to offer to relieve their pain. That is totally okay because your ideal clients will know right away that if they are struggling with a particular problem and you are offering a solution for it that there is potentially a good fit there. And, because you are sharing your message with a wide audience, you will not insult your prospects.
But…in a one on one situation that’s either face to face, on the phone or on email, you need to approach it differently. Ideally you will want to have a conversation with your prospect and ask a series of questions to uncover their pain points and then offer them your solution (if it’s a good fit).
It’s never okay to approach a one on one prospect and say something along the lines of, “I can see that you are making a bunch of mistakes and I have a solution can save you from further ruining your life or business. Call me or email me for help.” That’s just plain old criticism and no one likes that. You will get their back up and they will not want to deal with you. It’s NOT the way to win friends and influence people, which is a great book by the way by Dale Carnegie.
So instead of shining a light on a prospect’s weaknesses and leaving it at that, cushion your comments with some positive feedback. For example, you might say something like, I really like your blog article on XYZ and I’m reaching out to let you know that my specialty is _____. I help my clients with _____ and I think I can help you improve upon _____. If you’re open to learning more about what I do and how I can help, call me or email me. And I stress again, I’m specifically talking about how to handle approaching prospects one on one.
2. Ignoring your prospect’s personality style. In a one on one situation, you may find from time to time that you are not connecting well with your prospect. And this might only be apparent in a face to face or telephone conversation. Often it’s because you are not speaking to a person’s personality style.
For example, let’s say you’re more of a people person and when you talk, you’re quite animated, you like to tell jokes and you smile a lot but then notice that your prospect is more stony faced and asking detailed questions. In this case, you are likely speaking to an analytical personality style and with this type of person and you will need to adjust your approach with them and get right to the point with giving them factual information such as testimonials. Analytical types love numbers so if you can supply numbers, even better. For example, I helped my client Jane launch her product and she had a 6 figure launch.
Likewise, if you are an analytical type and your prospect wants to chat about pleasantries and smiles a lot, they will connect with you more quickly if you do the same. While some of you might find that this is manipulative, it’s not.
In fact, there are 4 basic personality styles and each one of us has a different mixture of each of these personality styles but, there is usually 1 that is more dominant than others. In a sales situation, you want to be able to identify quickly which personality style your speaking to so that you can make a better connection more quickly.
3. Focusing the conversation on yourself. Although you’ve probably heard before that you should be mindful that the prospect is dialed into their own radio station WIIFM – What’s In It For Me. What that means is that you should focus on learning as much as you can about your prospect by asking questions.
People love to talk about themselves and so you will uncover a lot of Intel for how you can help them and other prospects as well. There’s a saying in sales that goes, you have 2 ears and one mouth so you should listen twice as much as you talk.
The mistake that some inexperienced sales people make (and don’t be fooled by the way, if you are a solopreneur then you are a salesperson) is that they get nervous and talk on and on about their business and perhaps the benefits they offer and forget to ask the prospect what they need and what their struggles are. It’s as if they are hoping that if they continue talking, that they will eventually say something that hooks the prospect into hiring them. You should instead focus on asking questions and opening your ears to listen.
Also, another point I want to make is, when questioning your prospects, while you will ultimately want to uncover their pain points, don’t forget to also ask them positive questions about their accomplishments and what they are proud of.
So I hope you found this information useful. I would like to invite you to join my Facebook group the Female Entrepreneurs Success Club where I provide marketing and mindset strategies to help you profit in your business.
And, don’t forget to download your FREE guide to Supercharge Your Money Magnetism.
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