Sales calls that drill down rather than wear down

Last week, I met with a home improvement sales person. His presentation wore me down. He talked so much that it was hard to ask questions. He also didn’t leave a business card with me. So instead of calling him back, I went to the store to see more samples on my own. Unfortunately the store doesn’t carry the same samples as their sales people. This disconnect lost the sale.

So as a reminder, a more effective sales technique is to drill down with questions rather than wearing down a prospect with benefits that may not be important to him or her.

An effective presentation answers those questions and then finds out what else they’d want to know to be comfortable deciding to buy. Drill down to gain a deeper understanding of what is important to the buyer before offering benefits.

Listen readily to any concerns or objections. These are your guide to the person’s process for making decisions.

Also, the first few calls are most likely to be educational for both you and the prospect. And through sharing information, you develop the mutual respect that builds trusting relationships. It is the sales person who makes the 5th, 6th and 7th call who is the most successful.

Take the time to drill down to learn what is important to the prospect and uncover the problems you can help solve. Once you’ve invested in educating each other and identifying the mutual ben