How to Build a Personal Connection in 30 Seconds or Less
When you really think about it, who do prospects always come back to?
They always go with the person they remember – the one they have a connection with.
You have so many conversations so quickly, it’s hard to establish firm ground between you and another person.
So how do you that?
Here are my tips:
1. Talk Slowly and Articulately
Everything happens so fast today. When you talk fast, you make prospects feel like numbers, not real human beings. Don’t be in a rush, and don’t sound like a robot. Listen, listen, listen. The single most important thing!
Take your time, relax, and figure out whether your sales solution will help the person you’re talking to, says an article at Entrepreneur.
2. Clearly Show Your Prospect You Have Value to Offer Them
That’s what they’re saying at the Rain Selling blog. Decades ago, you would take the client out to a luxurious party or fancy restaurant. If you liked one another, then you’d start talking about working together.
Now, this blog claims businesses’s first consideration when deciding to work with another company is the value the other company offers. After they decide that, then they think about whether or not they like you.
So demonstrate the value first!
3. Use Your Customer’s Language
In every industry, there’s a certain set of language known to almost everyone. Lead, prospect, qualified prospect, closing ratio, pipeline, and quota are well-known in our sales industry.
Know what lingo your customers use, and make sure you use it too. The more you help them realize you understand them, the more likely you are to make a sale.
4. Prospects Like People who are Like Them
When you make that cold-call, in the first 30 seconds, you’re communicating much more than you think. Your prospects are evaluating (consciously and unconsciously) to see if you are like them.
According to Peter Shallard, they look at very small things like:
- Breathing tempo
- How fast you talk
- Length of pauses between your words
Show confidence by breathing slowly, being succinct in your speaking, and rarely pausing to think of what to say next.
And if you meet them in person, this evaluation goes even further into depth. Eye contact, hand gestures and upper and lower body posture – they all make a difference.
5. Make Fun of Yourself
For example, say, “Hi, my name’s John Smith. I know how much you hate sales calls, so I’ll make it brief.” That should get a snicker. Think about creating your own variation of it, or come up with something new entirely. If it gets a good reaction, you’ve hit on something that works.
Connecting all the Dots…
Sales is tough. Even if you’re the best salesperson sever, the majority of conversations won’t close with a sale. But if you do these things, you get a much higher chance of that happening.
Try them out, or create your own variations and see what happens.
