How you listen and treat your customers matters just as much as what they say during a sales conversation.
By Patrick T. Malone
For decades, experts have said that leadership is intangible and therefore un-measurable. But if you look at any great leader, you see that leadership is clearly measurable. Leaders are determined by their followers. No committed customers. No sales leadership.
In business, leadership occurs at all levels – from the executive suite to the shop floor – and at every level in between. Influential leaders, no matter what title they have or role they play, are those with willing followers.
Leadership is merely getting wholehearted followers for a given course of action. Unfortunately, too many salespeople ignore followership and focus instead on being more engaging, convincing, or interesting. Or, sometimes, they even rely on their positional power and end up, not with committed customers, but with agreements at best, compliance at worst, and marginal business results.
Most successful sales leaders prepare for their interactions by establishing a common goal. Leaders understand the difference between goals and strategies. Goals are always outcome-oriented, starting with the end in mind. Strategies are the plan a leader has for reaching a goal.
The next step involves the conversation the leader has with a potential customer. Leaders express the common goal which includes three critical elements:
1. A confident statement of the goal which has value or benefit to the potential customer
2. An invitation for the customer to look at or listen to the goal and strategy
3. An acknowledgement that the potential customer is the decision-maker.
By stating confidence when the leader puts forth an idea for others to decide on and treating the potential customer as the decision maker, the leader has a greater chance to create an open mind and gain credibility.
Not everyone sees the same information the same way. Because emotions shape logic, the way we look at information is different if we are fearful than if we are interested.
Where to start
Opening conversations with a well-stated decision goal establishes rapport, openness, and trust. Also, this lets the potential customer know they are the decision maker, so they feel safer talking and revealing their true attitudes toward a plan.
A customer’s potential attitude is either positive, negative, or neutral. However, because attitudes are situational, they can change moment-to-moment. So, when we talk about attitudes, we mean attitudes in the moment. Exceptional sales leaders intuitively recognize momentary changes in attitudes or points of view in a conversation. They focus more on how something is said, and then, what is said makes more sense.
Recognizing and adapting is what enables sales leaders to influence others. For example, when you give someone directions to your home or office, you first determine the other person’s location or starting point. The directions you then give vary based on where the other person is at that moment in time. The same is true for leadership interactions.
If a potential customer considers the goal and strategy difficult to execute, then you must simplify both. If a customer sees the plan as risky, you mitigate or eliminate the risk. If a customer is skeptical, provide proof. Because customers demonstrate a variety of different attitudes, you need a range of responses that make sense to each potential follower. The key to finding the right response is to have customers share their points of view and how they see a situation. As a result, sales leaders know from the customer’s perceptive what is difficult, risky, or unbelievable.
Regardless of a potential customer’s response, you must treat them with respect, so they talk openly and seriously consider the goals and strategies. This is where acknowledging is critical.
Respecting another person’s point of view and taking that person seriously is not difficult if you will remember you are not saying their point of view is correct but only acknowledging that they have a right to that point of view at this moment in time.
Clearly the ability to obtain a committed customer for a given course of action involves more than we have articulated here. However, understanding that successful leaders are great followers first will assist you in becoming a better, more effective leader.
Patrick T. Malone is a business advisor and leadership mentor based in Taylors, South Carolina. He is the co-author of the best-selling business book “Cracking the Code to Leadership” and may be reached at ptm4936@gmail.com or 404-630-7504.