A person with a title that gives them the authority to make a buying decision will receive dozens of emails, several voicemails, and the occasional phone call. All of these communications There is no doubt all these communications can be overwhelming and bothersome, but what is worse is their content.
If a salesperson wishes to capture their prospective client’s attention, they will need to follow a set of rules for everyday communications in B2B sales. These rules provide guidelines that will improve your sales results.
Rule 1: Choose the Best Medium for the Communication
Never email if you can make a phone call. Never make a phone call if you can have a face-to-face meeting. Never use a video meeting if you can meet a client face-to-face.
Several young salespeople have confessed they have no interest in meeting their prospective clients in real life. These salespeople will not have the relationships they need to succeed. Moreover, their competitors will schedule meetings that will prove they care about their clients. These shy and sheepish salespeople will fail to communicate in a way that would help them succeed in sales.
Rule 2: Avoid Answering “Why Us?”
Most emails are guilty of answering the question “Why us?” and “Why our solution?” Don’t send an email that starts by introducing your company, your existing clients (with links to a case study), and the results your solution has provided other “companies like yours.” Such communications will find their way to wherever emails go to die.
May God have mercy on the people who design these pure pitch email communications. (They might come from marketing.) There is no reason for a busy decision maker to spend three seconds on this poor attempt at communication. You will do well to avoid this awful approach.
Rule 3: Create Value in Every Communication
This may be the most important change you can make to improve your communication and your results. This rule applies to emails, phone calls, text messages, mail, face-to-face meetings, and, should they be necessary, virtual conversations. To capture a prospective client’s attention, and perhaps, their imagination, you must provide something valuable. One way to do this is to share an insight that will cause them to ponder what it means for them.
If the communication doesn’t provide something of value, it isn’t likely to be read. Often, your marketing team hopes the information on your company website can easily be turned into sales communications. The problem is that your prospective clients can find that easily on their own.
Recently, you heard more about the digital buyer’s journey beginning without a salesperson. You are better off initiating their journey by proving you have something important to say.
Rule 4: Prove You Belong in the Room
Most sales communications are so transactional that they create no value. This gives the impression that the salesperson sending them will not be able to help the contact improve their results. Instead, your communications should prove you are One-Up, a concept that suggests that you have knowledge and experience your contact lacks. This emphasizes that, when you transfer this information and insights to your contacts, they can count on you to help them succeed. See Elite Sales Strategies: A Guide to Being One-Up, Creating Value, and Becoming Truly Consultative.
Your contacts are not interested in a conversation with a salesperson, but they are interested in a conversation with a person who has expertise and authority. When salespeople fail to get a second meeting with a prospective client, it is strong evidence that the salesperson could not position themselves appropriately.
Rule 5: Patient Persistence
One way to project that you need the deal more than the client needs you is by banging away on a contact. One salesperson who needs me to buy from him calls me every day. My phone is only a few inches away, making it easy for me to watch the phone number appear and disappear a few moments later.
It is clear that this person needs me to buy more than I need his help. You don’t want your contacts to believe that you need them to buy what you sell. Playing the long game isn’t easy, but it prevents you from begging for a meeting or a deal.
Rule 6: Candor and the Truth
At some point, some salespeople decide to lie in their communication. This is especially common in email and InMails on LinkedIn, where recently I ran into one of these disingenuous messages. An entrepreneur contacted me via InMail saying he had a prospect for me, only to pitch me on his service. There is never a reason to lie in sales. Strategy comes from what you don’t do as well as from what you do with intention. This contact could never be a trusted advisor because he lacks the trust of his word.
If you can’t do something your prospective client needs, you must tell them the truth. If your contact is wrong and likely to fail, you must tell them, even if it stretches the bounds of your diplomacy. Your communications must be true for your clients to trust you with their business. Your strategy should place you in the role of a trusted advisor because of what and how you communicate.
A Set of Rules for Everyday Communication
This list will give you a good start on transforming your communications from being a nuisance to creating value, positioning you as a person who can help your prospective clients change and improve their business results.
Selling is a set of conversations and commitments. What and how you communicate are variables to your success in sales. By following the rules here, you will increase your odds of getting a meeting and winning your client’s business. You can add any other rules in line with these rules for everyday communication.
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