This article was written our valued partner ClientPoint, who empowers our members with an innovative solution to engage with prospects and secure new business relationships.
Click Here To Register for ClientPoint’s brand new video training series, called “Selling through COVID-19 and Beyond.” This series brings you the mindset, skills, and knowledge to optimize your selling approach. Using ClientPoint as a selling tool, in a time when remote selling is rapidly becoming the status quo. In this article, we’re going to be talking about how to create real human connections while being remote and selling through video.
Create connection through preparation
Oddly, one of the best ways to create human connection on a sales call is through preparation. The more prepared you are, the more space you have to be mindful and truly connect with another person instead of thinking about what you have to say.
If you have a big presentation, with a lot of people on your remote call, make sure you get sign off in advance from a few of the stakeholders on the call. When you’re selling digitally, the last thing you want is to have confusion in a meeting of 10-12 people. This can be very hard to manage and recover from.
Create openness by slowing down
Now that you’re prepared, you’re going to have the mental space to start creating a more transcendent sales experience, even when selling remotely. There are ways to cultivate a mindful energy on the call where people start to feel more open, more comfortable in their own skin and freer with their ideas. You can do this by slowing the call down, by being neutral, and by being relaxed yourself.
Because of the nature of a camera, a lot of people feel like they’re on the spot when they’re selling remotely. They feel like they have to just keep speaking and keep filling the air. Typically, what you’ll see when somebody first starts public speaking is that they’re going to be speaking way too fast. The same thing happens when you’re on camera. You feel like you have to fill every single moment.
Make sure that you are comfortable and have the discipline to slow down. When you slow down, the more your words get emphasized and the more the listener can hear you clearly and truly process what it is that you’re saying. It creates a new energy on the call and a new level of openness and trust that can’t happen remotely, unless you do this.
If you watch great interviewers, like Oprah, you’re going to notice that they are allowing things to slow down. The more that they slow down, the more emotions start coming forward. The tears on an Oprah show are coming after long pauses. Those moments create magic and you can create and replicate those moments on Zoom meetings.
Talk about feelings
The next thing you want to do to create a real connection on your remote calls is to start talking about real human things. You want to talk about how you’re really feeling right now or how other people might be feeling. When you’re selling a product or service, you want to be willing and able to talk about how the problem that somebody is facing is impacting them as a person, on a human level.
If people are not talking about their human experience with you, then they are more likely to look at your product or service as a commodity and you as a transactional relationship in their life. By sharing openly with them how you’re feeling, about who you are as a person and about who they are, you’ll develop a relationship with them that’s far more than transactional. You might even find yourself closing that sale much more easily with that individual or team, and you’re also going to find them to be friends long-term. So, make sure that you’re very open with who you are and welcome other people to be open with who they are on these calls.
Don’t have all the answers.
The next way to build trust and connection is to make sure that you don’t have all the answers. It’s so tempting in sales to say, “I’ve got all the answers. Yes, I know how to solve that problem.” Especially when times are tough, and every sale is so important to you. But the more you get wound up like that and act like you know everything, the less people actually trust you and the less that they feel close to you.
To cultivate real connection on a call it’s more important to have an air of curiosity where you’re setting the tone. It isn’t about you having all the answers, it’s about exploring something together. You want to be facilitating a journey on the call where you’re starting with curiosity yourself. You’re curious about their situation, about their problem, and about who they are as a person.
The more you cultivate curiosity versus certainty, the more curious they’re going to be about you, about the things you’re saying, and about how this could really help them. You want them to be in a curiosity state of mind versus a defensive state of mind of, yes or no, agree or disagree. The more curiosity you create, the more collaboration you’re going to create. When people are collaborating because they’re curious, they’re persuading themselves versus you having to persuade them.
Don’t focus on winning, over the skeptic.
If you’re remote selling to a large group, it can be really tempting to try to win over every single person on the call. If one person is skeptical, you can sometimes fixate on that one person and try to win them over. The best thing to do is not to focus too much on that person. If someone says something skeptical, everyone else is going to be watching to see how you respond to it. The best way to respond is with non-defensiveness and allow other people to weigh in. Just say, “Yeah, that’s an interesting point that you brought up there. How does everyone else feel about that?”
What you’re going to find is that not everyone on the call feels like the one skeptical individual. A lot of times the skepticism from the other team members about that person starts to outweigh that individual’s point of view. It’s more powerful coming from a team member’s point of view than it is from you as a salesperson.
By following these tips, you’re going to create something totally different that people aren’t used to. You’ll be creating an experience and a journey when selling remotely. When we’re in person, it’s easier to not have to use all these skills. A lot of that energy of being together, starts carrying that feeling forward. When you’re selling remotely you’ve got to be mindful about facilitating and creating that experience intentionally.
With these tips, you’re going to find yourself much more powerful and effective. You’ll be more connected to who you are and more connected to who they are. Make sure that as you go into these calls, you’re doing it with a mindful energy and cultivating that authentic human connection. You can’t do this without being prepared. Get prepared, be prepared, and then get authentic on these calls and you will be a successful remote seller.
Want to learn more?
ClientPoint’s enterprise solution can help your independent community management company be more prepared and authentic when remote selling. Contact us to learn more about Innovia’s exclusive partnership program.
