How to Engage Any Prospect with Confidence and Competence

Three powerful principles combine to guide your ability as a sales professional when you first engage a prospect. There is little doubt that much has been written, taught and applied as it relates to this critical step of the sale.

What are the essential first steps? Prospecting, positioning and pre-call planning. Your ability to prospect effectively, position yourself and your organization well and invest sufficient time in pre-call planning are a critical part of laying the foundation of credibility for your prospect. Fail to give adequate attention to this preliminary stage and you will, in effect, have your chances for success in the face-to-face phase of the sale neutralized at best and totally destroyed at worst.

Given that reality, let’s take a look at the three powerful key principles that guide, determine or destroy your effectiveness when face-to-face with a prospect:

1. You only have a matter of 19-34 seconds to establish your credibility and convince a prospect that time spent with you will be valuable.

2. Without trust you can only sell price. With trust you can sell value.

3. The prospect’s first ‘fear point’ in any sale is when you first approach them.

Let’s look at the ramifications of each of these. In today’s highly competitive marketplace, it is essential that people and organizations maximize their time. This includes time invested with salespeople. That is why it is so crucial for you to be well prepared – knowing precisely what you’re trying to accomplish, what to say and how to say it early in the sales process. We teach salespeople to approach in neutral, be non-threatening and issue what we call a statement of intention – why you’re there and what you’d like to accomplish. This is followed by a primary bonding statement – a declaration of the type of experience and buying environment to expect. The latter technique is, of course, specific to each buyer’s emotional agenda but is quite easy to learn.

With regard to the second principle, it is worth noting that far too many salespeople worry about being liked at the expense of being trusted! Remember, you are not selling yourself or even your product or service. Instead, you are selling your sincere interest in your prospect coupled with a solution to fulfill a need, solve a problem or help your prospect improve their circumstance. All of this is accomplished much more easily through an attitude of trust than through any other way. What that means to you is that you need to understand how essential it is to be an authentic voice for what you are and what you represent. This should be accomplished early in the sales process. Fail to do it soon enough and all is lost – including your sale.

In dealing with the third principle – the prospect’s initial, fearful reaction – you must first understand that this reaction does, in fact, exist. You need to do your best to neutralize it. Never forget that prospects, no matter how sophisticated, have several things that cross their mind when you first approach them. Thoughts like, “What is this person going to try to sell me?” or “Will I be pushed into a corner?” and “Will I be forced to make a decision today?”

It is essential that you appear as non-threatening, non-confrontational and as helpful as possible. This can be accomplished by making certain you are (a) sincerely interested in your prospect’s welfare, (b) willing to walk away if the prospect cannot feel comfortable with you or your product and (c) capable of emotionally engaging prospects in a totally non-threatening way.

It is no secret that people buy from salespeople they trust and salespeople they are confident will provide exactly the product or service they need. Incorporate these three principles into your sales effort and you will sell better.

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