At socializing events, the biggest mistake people make is to start the “What do you do?” conversation. It’s unimaginative and not the best introductory phrase. Sometimes people get defensive because they know you will judge their worth based on what they do.
Having the word “sales” in my title scares a lot of people, even though my work is very important to others.
So what I always say to people at socializing events is “Hi, I’m Peter, what brought you here?”
It’s a different way of connecting – and the second thing I say is, “Who can I introduce you to?”
I say that all the time because I love helping people. Business is not about you or your product. It’s about helping others.
One person I helped recently, I found out he’s a bank vice president.
He told me his team struggles with sales. So I asked the following:
- What kind of problems are you having?
- Why are you having them?
- What deadlines are you working to?
- What happens if you do nothing?
If you ask too many questions, you sound like a reporter.
If you don’t ask good enough questions, you don’t stand out, and in most people’s minds, salespeople are all the same, even though we’re not.
“A lot of my team don’t pick up the phone. They keep insisting they’re not salespeople. ”
This is a common problem. You see, everyone works in sales.
Account manager, sales rep, business development manager, office manager, product manager, marketing manager, they all have to sell.
I asked “Can I show you some interesting pictures on my phone?”
An awkward pause and mutual laughter followed thankfully after I realized what I had said.
I pulled out my phone and showed him a training session I had done a week earlier.
Powerpoint and handouts will only get you so far. The training I do is question and answer, it’s interactive. I get people involved and raise the energy of the room. My training is delivered on a flipchart or a whiteboard. Nodding to a PowerPoint all day is so boring, and the sales team won’t develop or even care that much.
The training session images were on my phone.
Fortunately, I had online training.
If someone doesn’t want to pick up the phone, you can’t just teach them how to sell over the phone (telemarketing), you have to address the mindset first. So we did a training session on why you don’t like the phone, because you have to get to the fears that people have. Then we held a training session on why the phone is important and here are the results for the company after that.
“What do you think?” I asked.
Nothing was said for 5 seconds.
It is very important to pause when saying something important or discussing price. Give the other person time to think and process everything you have said.
“Brilliant, when can you come over?”
I think I got the best part of six months of knocking on the doors of that bank before that day, being rejected by all the managers and business directors. Some of them had fancy job titles and zero buying power.
Some people said they were coming back and never did. A few actually said they had no use for sales – it was a long six months.
By sheer luck – you need a little luck – I met the bank VP at an event.
He had a problem and I offered my solution. Since then, I’ve given several training sessions to the various branches of his company and had many 1-on-1 coaching sessions with bank staff on sales, personal development and mindset.
Source: Case study from the sales trainer’s experience.
