Unpacking the 4-Part Sales Conversation Model
There are many phases to building a sales relationship with a prospective customer. Understanding how to maximize the conversations you have is a crucial part of any business development process. However, if you’re starting to feel like this process is unproductive, it may be time to reevaluate your approach. According to 2Bobs (one of my go-to resources), there are four distinct conversations in a sales relationship. If you do this correctly, each one builds on the previous, leading to a comprehensive process that can help you close deals and win new clients.
The Discovery Conversation – It’s the early days. The probative conversation is all about proving your expertise in order to establish trust so that you can move from vendor to expert in the mind of the client.
The Qualifying Conversation – This is heavy vetting. Each party is qualifying the opportunity to work together in a more serious way. Your job is twofold. First, to ensure that this client/opportunity is the right fit for your business to succeed. Second, to match your qualifications, knowledge, and expertise, to the opportunity. This is where the details are documented: budget, decision-makers, needs, timeframe, etc. The lion's share of the work happens here.
The Value Conversation – Can you articulate your VALUE? This is often an intangible aspect of the project, but just as important as say, solving the problem or increasing sales. More importantly, what might that VALUE be worth to the client? If you skip this step, you miss the opportunity to engage at a higher level, increase the scope of work, and potentially charge more for your services. Once they see your pricing structure, that pricing will stick like Gorilla glue.
Show them your pricing before this step, and any chance to demonstrate your value is diminished.
The Close – Sealing the deal. The Close should not be where the actual sale happens. Instead, this conversation should focus on providing an overview of all the sales conversations and reinforcing to the client that you are the right fit for their needs, giving them the confidence to choose you.
I fully support this approach from 2Bobs. Let’s face it, these conversations are organic and can happen quickly or slowly depending on the complexity of the customer's business and their decision-making process. Following this approach can increase your chances of successfully landing that project and avoid leaving money on the table. I encourage you to do the hard work upfront and stay true to the course. You and your team will win new business so much more effectively.