Part of what your prospective client is trying to gauge from your sales interactions is what it’s going to be like to work with you and your company. You can help them feel what that’s going be like by giving the experience of engaging with your operations team early in their buying cycle.
Sharing Situational Knowledge
You may have an excellent command of how your company creates value for your clients, but your operations team’s knowledge can make you look like a neophyte. Talk about situational knowledge. The people that do much of the real work delivering whatever it is you sell have been on the receiving end of every problem, every challenge, and every unique request. They have a profound understanding of what it takes to give your clients what they want.
Listening to you talk about what your company does can be persuasive. But if you want to give your dream client the experience of working with you and your company, bringing the star players from your operations team can give them an even more convincing experience.
When your prospective client asks about some not-so-hypothetical situation, your savvy team member’s deep knowledge can create an equally deep connection. They won’t share theory; they’ll tell your prospective client a story about what they’ve actually done.
Much of the time, your star operations people can shape the client’s needs by sharing ideas about what’s working for them in serving other clients with similar needs. They can also warn your prospective client about the dangers and pitfalls they’ll run into by making certain choices. This situational knowledge can make them seriously effective salespeople.
Your dream client is going to be working with your team, and allowing them to see, hear, and feel what that is like can build confidence and trust.
A Deeper Understanding
The other benefit of bringing your team on early buying cycle sales calls is that they get a chance to hear the client explain what they want. Your team doesn’t get your version (in some cases, half forgotten) of what they client needs as their outcome.
Engaging with your dream client in the early stage of the client’s buying cycle allows your team to help build the right solution. You hear what your client wants as a salesperson; your operations team hears it as the people charged with executing.
Bringing your operations team in early eliminates some of the problems you encounter once you start implementing your solution by giving them a jump on what’s it really going to take to take care of your prospect once they become your client.
Taking your operations team on sales calls can give your dream client the confidence to choose you over your competitors. It can also give your team a running start on executing for your clients once you are chosen.
Questions
What value can your operations team create during sales calls?
How do they benefit from hearing your client talk about their challenges and expectations?
What are the risks of bringing your operations team on your sales calls with you?
How do you minimize any risks?
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