08 May Social Selling Tips Part 2: How to Move from a Discovery Call to a Successful Sales Conversation

In my last article I talked about how to warm up the relationship with new LinkedIn or Facebook contacts and get them engaged in learning about and becoming interested in the solution you offer through “micro commitments”.

First of all, before I speak with anyone I make sure I’m in the mindset of truly wanting to help them. It’s not about the sale. It’s about the results you get your clients. Achieve good results and you’ll get lots of testimonials and referrals. So when you get on a discovery call, it’s important to have more of a “give” mentality than a “get” mentality.  No one wants to be sold to.

Once you’ve explained what you do for people in their industry (read the Part 1 article here), and they share with you that they have a similar problem and would like to learn more, your next step is to ask if they have time to go into more detail now, or if they’d prefer scheduling a follow up call in the next 2 days. If so, get the time on your calendar.

If however, they have not mentioned a problem or expressed an interest in learning more, don’t start a sales conversation. Instead you could ask them if they know of any other companies that need the results you offer. You could also ask them if they’d like to view a webinar you have that delves deeper into your topic.

Only segue into a discussion of your solution if they want you to.

So how do you seamlessly transition into having a sales conversation?

Here are a few simple steps that will help you have a comfortable, high value sales conversation:

• Do a deep dive into the problem they have that you can solve and understand how they perceive it.
• Do a deep dive into the solution they really want and their timeline for achieving it.
• Ask how it would benefit them or their company long term.
• Ask about their specific
• Ask what they have budgeted for achieving the solution.
• Listen, listen, and listen.

Then explain the result you can help them get, and an overview of the process. Don’t go into a lot of detail about the deliverables or process yet. It’s the results and benefits they care about. Share case studies that provide social proof that your process works. Ask if they have questions.

Most likely they will have questions about the deliverables, the timeline and of course, the price. When you discuss the deliverables, always add the phrase “so you can” and then state the result they’ll get from that deliverable. For example, “we’ll do a full day, hands on sales training, followed by 5 follow up video trainings so you can better master the skills necessary to connect with high quality leads and close more sales.”

Price Objections

Price objections usually happen for one of 3 reasons:

1. They really have no budget—but you would already know that if you asked them earlier in the conversation.
3. You haven’t proven value. People need to feel like they’re getting more value than they’re paying for in order for them to say yes without hesitation. There are proven ways to build value, which we cover in our Social Selling Mastermind. But in general you can go back to reviewing their goal, your results with other clients, and how important it is to them to achieve it on their timeline.
5. They aren’t yet convinced it will solve their problem. This often happens because the trust factor hasn’t been established. The fastest way to establish it is with solid testimonials and an Automated Sales Funnel consisting of a “deep dive” webinar with a clear Call to Action. So if there is doubt you can send your prospect to view the webinar training and schedule a follow up call in a few days. Get them to commit to watching your webinar first. That increases the odds that they will become a client by as much as 80%!

At this point you can ask if they would like to move forward. There are many possible responses and for the sake of brevity I won’t list all of those. But if you’ve built trust, have conducted more of a strategy and relationship building call than a sales call, your calls will result in more new clients.

IMMEDIATE ACCESS TO MY FREE REPORT & WEBINAR TRAINING:
How to Get 3 or More Lucrative Clients a Month Using LinkedIn.