To sell is a profession in itself. It goes much further than 'a smooth chat' and a clean-shaven appearance. As a salesperson you are THE point of contact for the organization and therefore crucial for its survival. Successful salespeople sense what is important during conversations. They also know that trust and non-verbal communication are much more important than the actual content of a conversation. Do you want more pleasure in your work as a salesperson? Do you want customers to choose you? And do you want to know how you can achieve this? Then our blog this week is really something for you!

Kameleon

A good salesperson is like a chameleon. He adapts according to the situation. Preparation is of course always important, but sales conversations often develop very differently than expected. It is therefore especially important to prepare yourself well for the conversation partners you will encounter, rather than the content of the conversation. Make sure that you have already gotten to know them through information available online, for example. As a seller, your main job is to demonstrate that the conversation partner you can trust. It helps enormously if you know the contact person and if you have the adaptability to gain that trust during the conversation.

Fight for a common goal

While far-reaching change processes, such as mergers or cutbacks, there is often a lot of stress and uncertainty within a team. Everyone has his or her ideas and interests. It is very important to remove this uncertainty by clearly reaching a common vision and objective together. Roda JC was recently relegated from the Dutch Eredivisie. Have they been able to optimally motivate themselves together to avoid relegation? Was the team spirit still sufficiently present? Relegation is a very drastic change within sports, and can only be tackled if the entire team is on the same page and fully focuses on the common goal. When the Dutch national team was successful at the World Cup in 2010, it was mainly due to the team spirit and the common goal that was clear to everyone in the team, the final! Even players who were not playing or had lost their place in the team did not rebel.

Suppose your conversation partner is stressed because of a campaign that can go live at any moment, and you quickly notice during the conversation that his mind is not ready to have a substantive lead conversation with you. Do you then continue with the substantive presentation you have prepared? Or will you talk to him about the campaign and thereby build trust? Before the appointment, you may have already noticed on Linkedin that your contact person is busy launching a campaign... you can use your previously acquired knowledge to adapt your approach and thus build a lifelong relationship. Selling isn't always about selling...as strange as that sounds!

Lessons from psychology

Sales has a lot in common with psychology. Only a small part of the award is based on content, the majority on the basis of personalities and trust. In short: selling is about people and therefore about psychology. As sales professionals, we can learn a lot from psychological research in the field of communication during conversations. We would like to share some of those lessons with you.

Listen instead of talking 

Salespeople tend to talk a lot. However, if you do a lot of the talking yourself, your conversation partner will develop a psychological feeling of imbalance and often dissatisfaction. Trust is not gained by talking, but mainly by listening. Be sure to let your conversation partner speak and ask open questions about their interests, challenges, and passions. You will see that it will be much more appreciated than your sales pitch.

Be vulnerable

Your vulnerability can provide relief to your conversation partner. Salespeople often think they have to appear confident and powerful. This is partly true, but if you make suggestions during a conversation and make it clear that you think 'out of the box' and are not completely sure of your case, your conversation partner will get the perception that you communicate on an equal level. . This in turn creates that crucial bond of trust.

Don't judge your conversation partner

As a seller, we mainly try to explain to the customer what we could do better! However, do not forget that you are indirectly indicating that the work of your conversation partner is not good. Even if you are right, it is not up to you to judge that because you do not know the full situation. In short: constructive criticism is very good, but never judge the work of your conversation partner.

Non-verbal signals are therefore of decisive importance in a sales conversation, but also in other result-oriented conversations. In the Non-verbal Communication training Kenneth Smit teaches you how to recognize such signals. You then learn to analyze and anticipate non-verbal signals. This creates more mutual understanding and trust among your conversation partners, allowing you to achieve even more success as a seller!