3 Ways to Crush Your Next Sales Conversation

By Jeremy Kenerson

Do you hate sales? Often the struggle is because you aren’t having a good sales conversation. Maybe because you don’t know what to say or how to close a sale?

Let’s make it SIMPLE! If you make a friend, you make a sale. But what do I mean by that?

When you make someone laugh, you create a bond with an emotional attachment. There’s a certain level of know, like, and trust in this building of the relationship.

But it feels hard when you are on the phone, right? You don’t want to screw it up, nor sound stupid. There is so much going on in your head that you block the opportunity to have an emotional connection with a potential client.

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What Are Your Intentions in the Sales Conversation?

When you go into a sales conversation expecting to close the sale, your focus will continuously think about what to say next. Your focus won’t be on what your prospect is saying, and you will come off as inauthentic.

This will cause your prospect to feel like they are being sold to. And you will leave the talk feeling salesy.

You want to go into the call with the intention of being of service to that person. If you think of it being a talk with a friend, you won’t care if they buy anything, right? So talk to them as a friend.

Don’t Sell Them Something They Don’t Need

Also, keep in mind that if the product or service you are selling isn’t a good fit for a friend, you’re not going to sell it to your friend. Because you will hear about it for the rest of your life. You sold them some crap that they never forget.

It is also good to just tell them at the beginning that you are not going to sell to them and tell them why. That sets you up with a level of integrity.

They will love that so much so that they will direct their friends and family to you (the ones they think do need your product or service). And, they may even decide they do need it themselves. That is way more powerful than you telling them they need it.

3 Ways to Crush Your Sales Conversations

#1 The 80/20 Rule

The 80/20 rule when it comes to sales conversation is you should only be doing 20% of the talking. The person you are talking to should be speaking 80% of the time.

I know what you are thinking. How can you educate and give them all the information they need to make a purchasing decision when you are only talking 20% of the time?

What happens is we end up just info-dumping all over people.

Here’s what I do.
This is what it does.
It’s going to be amazing.

You know, what is happening while you are doing all the talking? They fade out, right. They’re like, “Sure, it sounds good. I’ll let you know.”

Because what happens is most people don’t have great listening skills. While you’re talking, they’re sitting there identifying in their head.

Is this right?
Is this wrong?
Is this good?
Is this bad?
Is it real?
Is it fake?

They have this whole conversation in their mind to try to determine what they think about the conversation versus just listening. So if you do all the talking all the time, it isn’t going to help.

How do you do this? That is my second way to crush your sales conversations.

#2 Ask Open-Ended Questions

What do you do to get them talking? You ask open-ended questions. The difference between an open-ended question and a close-ended question is the answer. A close-ended question creates a one-word response.

Examples of Close-ended Questions

Do you like baseball? No
What’s your favorite color? Blue
Do you like seafood? Yes

They feel awkward, like the light is shining on them. But when you ask open-ended questions, it creates a conversation.

Think about how a conversation goes with a family member or friend. That is what you want to recreate. An open-ended question allows the prospect to provide a potentially long answer that may reveal some clues as to how you can help them and approach them with your product or service.

Also, open-ended questions help you stay on track with the 80/20 rule. Here is a List of 100 Open-Ended Questions you can try.

#3 Taking Control of the Sales Conversation

Think about a conversation as a dance. Someone always has the lead. When you are selling without “selling,” it allows your prospect to feel like they are in the lead.

Because they are doing the majority of the talking, they feel they are in control. But in reality, you are in control because you are asking the questions.

If you’re able to have these open-ended questions, it makes it feel like an authentic conversation between two friends. As they answer, ask them to tell you more about that.

Because what I’m doing is when I tell what else about “blank”, I’m actually using the words that they’re using in their answer.

When I use the words they are using in their answer it:

It lets them know that I’m listening.
It relates to them because it’s their own words.

And what you’re able to do is dig deeper into something that will relate to either their need for your product or service, or it will help with objections.

You don’t want to sound like you are having an interrogation. So you should always have a transition into the next question.

Examples of Transitions

That reminds me
Remember when we were
That made me think of

Then boom, next question.

Then, you will get to a point where you’ve asked all the questions, and they are motivated to purchase. Now you are ready to tell them a little about why you are different than “all the other guys”. This is what sets you apart.

That’s the simplicity of crushing your next sales conversation. Here is a List of Transition Words you can try.

#4 Bonus Strategy

Always talk with a smile on your face. Even on the phone, people can hear the smile in your voice. You will sound more confident.

Additional Resources for Your Next Sales Conversation

What do you struggle with in your sales conversations? Drop those in the comments below.

Here are additional resources to help you with sales:

Watch the Youtube video where I go into greater detail with examples:

Jeremy Kenerson

I help people overcome the everyday pains of being an entrepreneur, to ensure they have plenty of leads and deals, feel like they have an abundance of time in each day, have marketing funnels that are seamless and perform well, and increase their revenue to bring on extra staff and surround themselves with the best team.

Jeremy Kenerson

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