卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 video.
with sarah dobek and ty hendrickson
inovautus consulting
everyone fears rejection on some level, which is why so many professionals hesitate – or even fail – to ask a prospective client for that first meeting to introduce a new service.
the key is to think about the meeting as an honest conversation and shake the mentality of “cold-call selling.”
when you learn the right questions to approach a new contact and focus on helping them meet their needs, you’ll create a natural connection that will make stepping out of your comfort zone easier.
transcript
ty
welcome to our second video in the sales fundamental series, i’m ty hendrickson again cpa and consultant with inovautus joined by our president and founder sarah dobek and in this video today we’re going to talk a little bit more about how individuals can get into that sales role and how they can really get started contributing through sales and really get over that first scar thing and which is getting a meeting and getting in front of your prospective client, so sarah, i’ll turn it back over to you again.
why do you think that asking someone for a meeting is such a hard transition for most people?
sarah
well, because we’re scared of rejection that’s humans.
nobody likes to be rejected. the biggest hurdle you have to come overcome in getting the details is realizing that’s not about you it’s literally about the client or the timing, or you know, or a million other things that are going on.
and that was the hardest thing for me when i started in my firm at 22, you know, going out and doing this was i was afraid of rejection too.
i don’t want to do that right.i don’t want to be rejected because what if they don’t like me, right?
and so it took a long time for me to detach and i’m still human, so there are still moments where i get a rejection and that feels personal and i have to remind myself.
it’s not personal, it’s not about them or it’s not about me it’s usually about them or the timing and situation and maybe i didn’t do a great job of selling something right.
maybe i failed to deliver on a piece or a component of what they were making their decision on right?
and that responsibility is on me, but it’s not like, hey, i don’t like you as a person.
and, and that’s such a big part of this fear of rejection, whether or not you get the sale. get the meeting, whatever it is.
ty
but you know, i think so many people are scared of asking someone for a meeting because of that fear of rejection, but also because it puts you just out of your comfort zone right and so many people think that getting a meeting with someone is about just essentially what they’re calling sales cold calling, right?
so just saying, hey, i’d love to meet with you on xy and z.
can we find a time?
well, that is a hard approach to asking someone for a meeting.
i think they say they talk about the phone.
you know when you’re starting to dial in sales, it’s so hard to pick it up the first time, but once you start doing it, it becomes a lot easier.
and so i think as people start to get into a position.
where they’ve made some contacts they’ve met, maybe a referral source?
first, they’re scared of asking for a meeting because it seems out of the blue.
so one of the things you can do to help this.
ty
to build a relationship, we keep coming back to that word, right?
relationships and it’s not just with clients, but prospective clients referral sources.
all that you have to build that relationship so it is a natural transition in conversation to say, hey, i’d love to get together and talk a little bit more about what you do, can we find some time.
if that’s you walking up to someone in a networking event and never spoken to him before?
that’s going to be awkward, but if we’ve had a conversation and we’ve connected.
asking for a meeting makes a big difference.
so what are some things that that you do when you’re trying to get a meeting with someone or try to make a connection with a prospective client?
sarah
one of the things that i do is: i just have an honest conversation with them about their challenges in their business.
it’s not feeling like you’re selling somebody or you’re forcing something is when there’s a natural dialogue about that challenge, and so, of course, if you say, hey, do you need tax or audit services and they’re like, uh, you’re going to feel like you’re selling too.
be like hey can we have a meeting. and i’m going to pitch it that way we’re going to say, hey, tell me
about your business and you know where your goals this year you know? are you meeting them right and also making it go?
it’s good for us and we’re going along and could really use some extra funding.
well, tell me about your funding, right?
well, what, what are some of the challenges there that you’re having, right?
you can dig into that and then you can go, you know, hey did
you know, our firm helps with some of that. it seems like this is really important to you.
would you want to find a time to talk about it further?
that’s a natural conversation.
right now they’re like, hey, so you need tax services
i’m your guy or underground. or whatever it is, right?
that’s not what we’re trying to do, and i think that’s the fear in their mind.
if you’re playing something out and that’s kind of like what you’re seeing.
is that latter example, not the former example i gave, which is just a conversation with somebody, and i think when you recognize it, and takes practice.
when you recognize that it feels less like you’re that you know, like grungy salesperson like pushy or something on them that they don’t need ’cause it’s not.
that’s just not true.
ty
well, and i think you gave an example without even really knowing you were giving the example.
we talked so much about open versus closed questions, right?
and if you’re trying to have a conversation with someone and you’re trying to connect, you have to ask open questions.
you know the different open questions or anybody.
then no right open questions or questions where you get someone talking and closed questions are really a one-word answer. ty
so if you’re like hey, do you need tax service?
this is no, that’s a closed question, but like you said that hey, tell me about your business.
you know that’s an open question and that really goes in like consultative selling is figuring out how to ask those open questions.
those can be intimidating too though because you don’t know what the other person is gonna say and so how do you?
how do you prepare for some of these conversations?
what types of questions do you like to use to open the conversation?
sarah
you know, i think it depends on what i’m meeting.
like, if a prospect is signed up or reached out to us and says i want to meet with you, they usually give you something, right?
like i want to meet with you on your marketing services sometimes. if you even more than that when they reach out and sometimes they’ll give you nothing.
and if i’m going in and i’ve got nothing other than they wanted to schedule a meeting with us, or they were referred to this will be like, well, tell me what landed you here today, what would you like to learn about us?
what can we share with you right and make it about the prospect and what they want not i don’t go in pitching anything.
well, let me tell you about every service that we have and you know, tell you what’s a good fit. i want to learn about them first and understand why are we landing in this conversation? how did we get here? because there is always a story.
there is always a reason and, usually, you’ll find out very quickly what triggered it.
they’re typically open and honest about it, and then once you know it, then it’s easy to ask follow-up questions about that and talk more about it and at some point, the conversation will turn and come back to you.
it has to ’cause they want to meet with you now they’ve already done their research on you so there’s a little bit that they already know. but that it’ll turn back to you and they’ll say, well, how do you help with this?
or you’ll naturally go there and say, well, we’ve done this a lot.
let me tell you a little bit more about how we’ve helped some of our other clients with this.
ty
yeah, it’s so much less scary when you take a consultative approach to it.
it really is, and i think me being a cpa i still remember i went from public accounting into software sales.
i want to say how long ago, but i still remember, you know, the first thing was ok just go, so how am i supposed to sell things?
i don’t i’m not that type of person and then as soon as it was just asking questions, find out what they need. the light bulb went off.
ty
i was like, oh, i did this anyway. like that’s normal right?
and so it really just is about asking questions.
so just to kind of pull this all back together.
you know we love that phrase eat that frog pick up that phone get the process started. that doesn’t mean go out and say hey singer, i’d love to talk to you about our tax services. can we meet later next week?
no, it’s hey, you know sarah, i’m so interested in your business. tell me more about what you guys did.
that’s how you start the conversation, which will naturally turn into if you find a need.
if you find a good fit, then that’s when you can, you know, ask for the meeting and move it along in a sales process.
sarah
absolutely, and you know the same works true.
i mean a lot when you’re new to all of this.
the best place to begin is your existing clients and so many times, but they’ll mention something and you might think to yourself, oh, i think we could do something, but then you’re not quite sure how to raise it with your client.
and so it’s just the ask is the same.
so hey, you know i think we can help you with that problem. i’ve got somebody in my firm that’s doing that for some other clients, but you want to learn more about that.
right, and put the ownership in their part and they might say, yeah, let’s do it. or say yes and i need to wait for three months.
so don’t miss those opportunities and just try it and you’ll find some of us are more direct.
some of us are like a less indirect approach, is what we call it.
find something that works for you.
if there’s not an exactly perfect way to do this.
it has to feel natural to you, so you’ll find your language and your phraseology that will feel comfortable to you and natural to you.
ty
i couldn’t agree more and i’ll tell you though, the longer you do it the more direct you become.
sarah
that’s true, that is very true.
i ask, you know, i usually put it on the table.
when i’m going to close the deal now, not everybody gets there right away.
you gotta get comfortable doing that, but for sure.
ty
well, i think you just tied us up perfectly.
you want to join us for our next video to learn how to get more across the finish line.
we’ll talk a little bit about the end of the sales process and negotiation strategies and stuff like that.
so join us next time.