Sales is, at its core, a communication-based business. After all, if customers could make an informed purchase decision without communication, there would be no sales people. Put another way, sales professionals exist precisely to guide, choreograph and execute effective communication between the company and its prospective customers. You are not only in the communication business — you are responsible for the effectiveness of that communication on behalf of your company.
Understanding this is an essential first step toward achieving success in sales communication, because it frames things more strategically. Instead of just viewing communication as the business of you (as salesperson) sharing information with the customer, you need to view your role in communication as much wider than these. Here our five smart strategies you can use to achieve sales communication success:
1. Ask questions early and often.
When a sales cycle begins (usually with an inquiry by the prospect), the typical salesperson thinks that the first step in the process is talking — lots of talking — and usually, only talking *by* the salesperson, with little if any room for the customer to actually talk. After all, we’ve got so much to say about products, features, benefits, advantages, discounts and special offers. Perhaps if we just keep talking right through, by the end of the presentation the customer will be ready to buy, right?
Instead, the seasoned sales professional know that the sales cycle begins with questions. After all, if the process begins with the prospect’s inquiry, that should suggest that maybe we should keep moving along those lines — by asking questions.
2. Practice active listening.
Now that we’re committed to asking questions (rather than sending out endless answers first), we need to follow that with a commitment to active listening. What, exactly, does active listening mean? There are three key steps in active listening:
Step One – Eliminate distractions. That means, when you ask a question, look at the person you addressed the question to directly, without looking to the left or to the right, and patiently address the question while waiting for the answer. Don’t check your phone, don’t start mulling over what your next question should be — just wait. And focus.
Step Two – Embrace silence. In the United States, we live in a culture that embraces just about everything – except silence. Research shows that most Americans immediately assume that a person who pauses silently before saying something or answering a question must be an ‘introvert’ or ‘shy’ — implying that taking any time at all to think before speaking is, somehow, a sign of awkwardness. In fact, the opposite is the truth: Taking deliberate time to think before speaking (especially when answering a question) is actually a sign that the person answering the question is taking the question seriously, and committed to communicating effectively in response. So don’t rush it – and don’t put words in the other person’s mouth. Give silence a chance!
Step Three – Paraphrase and confirm. After the other person answers, it’s time for you to take a moment in silence as well, and think carefully about what was shared. Then, take the opportunity to paraphrase it back and confirm accurately that you understand the other person’s intent.
3. Provide the customer with a template for effective communication.
Effective communication is not just about you…it’s also about the other person. Chances are, your prospect is just as concerned about becoming confused in the sales cycle as you are about losing clarity in the first place.
This creates a great opportunity for you, because customers buy from people they like and trust. What better way to build trust than to work with the prospect to improve communication between the two of you? You can do this by providing tools and steps to guide them. For example, you could create a checklist that they can use to move through the sales cycle clearly, and ask them to fill out key steps as you go along.
This ensures that they communicate clearly to you about where they are in their decision process. You could also work through a questionnaire with them face-to-face that helps them clarify their needs and goals, again bringing better discipline both to the process and to the communications that result.
4. Evaluate and adjust marketing against the customer’s feedback.
Marketing is only valuable if it is effective. If your marketing team is developing product data sheets that are feature-intensive and the customers find them confusing or, worse, don’t relate to them at all, then it’s time to let marketing know…and demand something better.
Encourage your marketing team to pilot-test their own communications with your actual customers and prospects — using focus groups, sales team feedback and other tools to cross-check their efforts against the real-world communication needs of the sales department and, ultimately, your prospective customers.
5. Treat the sales cycle itself as a communication process.
Finally, keep in mind that the entire sales cycle is a communication process. At the beginning, the prospect communicates some level of interest to your company. At the end, they communicate their purchasing decision (hopefully, in the form of a clear ‘yes’ or ‘no’).
In the middle, everyone is communicating through their words, actions and inferences. But remember, this is a full-time process for you and a part-time project at best for your customer. If they don’t return your latest follow-up call in a timely manner, they may not intend to communicate that they aren’t interested (or that they don’t respect you). Chances are, what they are really communicating is that they are buried in other priorities or unclear no how to get internal buy-in on next steps.
That’s why, in the absence of clarity, you should always feel free to return your prospect to a discussion of the process, and re-calibrate it with them if needed. Before getting angry about their inconsistency or your lack of closing success, back up and ask them if the process as it is currently structured will still work. Do they need more steps or fewer ones? Are they still able to move their own process steps along with the agreed-upon timeline?
By returning to a discussion of the process, you are communicating a few key points yourself. First, you are a professional. Second, if the process needs to change, you are willing to change it as long as everyone is clear on what the changes mean. And third, you are willing to put aside the specifics of the deal for a moment in order to improve communication between the two of you.
What all of these sales communication strategies have in common is this: your commitment to communication success. By demonstrating that commitment time and time again, you will engage more deeply with prospects, improve forecasting accuracy and create stronger relationships with your future customers.