4 Tactics to Help Buyers Qualify You
When sellers like you first meet a prospect, the prospect qualifies you. The prospect judges in the beginning whether they like you, and whether you are credible. Program on Persuasion’s corporate sales training teaches four triggers to help navigate a prospect through the top of the sales funnel.
Using these four tactics, you can earn likability and credibility from your business prospects.
- Recognize Shared Similarities
- Declare Your Intent
- Appeal to the Visual
- Teach Something Valuable
Although these skills can be used independently, they are more effective when used interdependently.
1 Recognize Shared Similarities
We like people who are like us, people who share our values, our backgrounds, or a common cause, because this is our comfort zone. As sellers in our corporate sales training, we should seek out and talk about common interests, business or social in order to be someone with whom the prospect identifies.
Be careful not to spend too much time in the small-talk zone—although buyers do prefer that we start with small-talk, they also prefer three to four minutes instead of half an hour.
This skill that almost all sellers understand, and this is the one that is most utilized, which can be dangerous.
2 Declare Your Intent
Be open and honest, and do not make anyone guess at your agenda. Transparency builds our credibility. For example, if you need to take photos of someone’s property, tell them your plan, and why it’s your plan, before you actually do it. Otherwise they’re left to draw their own conclusions, and human nature often goes negative.
The clearer you are, the more trustworthy you are, and the more you show your prospect that you are credible.
3 Appeal to the Visual
We process images much more quickly than we do words. A visual provides a fast understanding. Pictures, demonstrations, and props help to convey our message accurately and memorably.
In fact, many people’s main learning style is visual. So, not only will you appear more prepared and the information seem more streamlined, but it will also most likely resonate more clearly with your prospects and stay with them for longer.
4 Teach Something Valuable
When a prospect feels like we’re trying to sell them something—whether it’s a product or an idea—we break rapport with them. When we teach something, though, we build rapport.
One tool that our corporate sales training uses to inspire credibility is our educational briefing, which details valuable market information to your prospect and cultivates their trust in you.
Conclusion
Utilizing our corporate sales training’s four triggers—Showing Common Interests, Declaring Your Intent, Appealing to Visuals, and Teaching Something Valuable—will inspire likeability and credibility from your buyers. These four tactics will help guide your prospects through the top of the sales funnel, the qualification phase.
Photo by Roman Mager.