At some point in your life, you've had one. I've had one. Everyone's had one.
I'm talking, of course, about a really awkward, torturous, embarrassing first date.
You misread a cue and leaned forward for a kiss when your date was just reaching forward to grab their laptop bag.
You find yourself with nothing to say for a full ninety minutes, and sit in agonizing silence as you get increasingly desperate looking for a way out.
The agony of a bad date for most people is matched only by the agony of a really bad sales call. Thankfully, I've got a few methods that will help you avoid both.
Just like customer relationships, selling and dating have some striking similarities:
- If you really, really need a sale (or a date) the likelihood of you getting some action drops significantly
- If you have the thought "I have to make this one work," in the first interaction, you will crash and burn
- Self-confident individuals who enjoy the process have the best outcomes
Early on in my consulting business, I had the good fortune to work with Skip Miller, experienced sales trainer and author of ProActive Selling.
Skip helped me to get over my own fear of selling by teaching me the natural steps in the sales process that totally match the needs of your prospective customer.
Step One: Initiate
This is the very first time that you meet a prospect. It could be an in-person meeting or an online one. Maybe you ran into this person at a networking event, maybe you're looking at their website, but this is the first impression each of you is making on the other. During that time, there is only one important question you need to answer:
Is there a reason to keep talking?
If you and your prospect have a lot in common or complementary interests and needs, it's likely one or both of you is interested in taking things to...
