Unless you are selling Boy Scout popcorns to your friends and families, remember your prospects are not making their purchasing decisions based on how they know you. C-Suit prospects are far more concerned with buying their company’s products and services from someone they respect and trust.
Hence, if you want to be a trusted advisor and close more sales with high-level prospects, stop trying to be everyone’s friend. Rather, be intentional about earning the trust of your C-Suit prospects.
Here are 7 undemanding and easy ways to get started:
1. Check body language
Body language often plays a vital role in influencing how a prospect looks at you even before you get a chance to introduce yourself or utter your name. In fact, according to Barbara Pease the author of the book ‘The Definitive Book of Body Language: The Hidden Meaning Behind People’s Gestures and Expressions’ states that tonality and body language accounts for more than 95% of how you are perceived by your customers and prospects. Hence, it is critical that you need to pay serious attention to those little details. Since research shows people are always more inclined to trust those who seem similar to them, so try matching each prospect’s body languages. Does your prospect lean in, stand tall or crosses his/her arms? Pay close attention to your prospects and customers and match your body language to create an invisible connection with your prospects.
2. Be a handshake Pro
Handshakes typically can fall on a scale between super strong to passively soft. If the handshake with your prospect falls on the opposite end of the spectrum, you will both immediately feel disconnected. Hence, try to avoid that ill at ease situation by acting like a handshake pro. Pay close attention to your customer’s or prospect’s approach and then match it instantly. Studies on human behavior show that this is an excellent way to connect with any prospect, and it also increases the likelihood that your prospect will believe in your words and trust you for the rest of your meeting.
3. Show your expertise
C-level prospects often consider themselves as experts in the own fields. However, the good news is as a professional you are also an expert in your field. Nevertheless, while high-level professionals only see the challenges they are facing in their organization, you can observe the industry trends from a wider bird’s eye view. Therefore, when you meet any C-level prospects, begin your meeting by listing a couple of common challenges that you have seen and then ask if any of those rings true to your prospect. Once you do this, your prospect will appreciate your valuable insight and start trusting you as an expert in your field.
4. Match your prospect’s tonality
In most cases, while making a sales call, what you say is not as much important as to how you express it. Tonality is what constitutes the volume and pace of your speech. Although the meaning of ideal tonality differs from person to person, so the safest bet is to match your tonality with that of your prospect in this arena. Try to gauge whether your prospect speaks loudly and quickly or softly and slowly and match your tonality accordingly so that they can remain comfortable talking to you.
5. Trade enthusiasm for a low-key approach
To make your offer sound irresistible you do not always have to be overly enthusiastic. Rather, being too excited does make most salespeople sound cheesy. Record your next few sales calls and playback them to yourself later. Do you feel that your voice sounds louder than it should have been? If it is so, slow yourself down and focus on forming a genuine connection with your prospects with a low-key approach.
6. Keep an unwavering focus
C-level prospects only care about themselves. However, unfortunately, the same stigma can be placed on most salespeople. Therefore, if you are too hasty about pitching the features and benefits of your products and services that you are offering, you will be marked as someone who is little more then necessarily eager about closing the sale. On the other hand, if you let your prospect talk, you will earn their trust when they recognize that you are a person who cares to understand and is ready to serve them according to their needs.
7. Dig deep into challenges
It is just not enough to find out what your prospect’s problems are, superficially. Instead, if you dig deeper to find out your prospect’s deepest frustrations you can establish yourself as a trustworthy expert. Doing this will not only create a massive value around the solutions that you present later on to your prospect, but it will also make you stand apart as a knowledgeable salesperson, someone who is different from the crowd.
Are you still struggling to earn the respect of your C-level prospects? Let us know in ConvergeHub how you will use these tips to adjust your sales approaches in the future, in the comment box below.
