The Native Americans had a beautiful definition of empathy. They said that you cannot know a person until you have spent at least 3 moons in their moccasins. The problem for many business people is that they haven’t walked in the moccasins of their prospects. They think like the person who owns the business, manages the business or works in the business instead of thinking like the prospect.
So what is it that prospects expect from you?
Well, when they do business with you the top 3 criteria by which they will measure you are:
1. Did you make me feel welcome?
2. Were you interested in me?
3. Did you solve my problems?
And of course the “you” referred to here is all of your team, whether they are members of your sales, admin, technical or service team. It doesn’t matter either whether it occurs at your place or theirs, or whether it’s a face-to-face encounter or by telephone, e-mail or mail.
So, how good are you and your team at making people feel welcome? Do they all know how to greet people and make them feel special or are you just leaving it to luck? Maybe you should spend some time with the team to ensure that your welcoming processes make people say, “Wow!” and become the “way we do things around here.”
Secondly, does each member of the team know the questions they should ask to build rapport, create confidence, gain information and set the prospect at ease? If not it’s worthwhile creating a script of the questions that could be asked depending on the prospect and the situation. In creating a script bear in mind that your prospect probably knows very little about your product or service so it’s worth asking, “How much do you know about widgets?”
Finally, the reason that most people become prospects is because they have a problem and they’re looking for a solution. So it’s always important to find out what their real problem (need) is… and ensure that you solve it! You’ve got it made when they know you, like you, trust you and take your advice.
The “how’s things?” call is one of those techniques every businessperson should use. It works beautifully for anybody who is serious about making their business successful. In fact, if you’re not using it you should be. Want to learn more? Buy Winston’s downloadable discussion on the “How’s Things?” call here. “Part of the Winno’s Wise Words series”.
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