Matching Customer’s language & Stream

I remember hearing this from one of my ex-managers,

“Communication is not what we say but what the other person understands”.

I see this being true in every aspect of our life and this stands to be a pre-requisite for a successful SG. As a willing to do SG, we most often do the best preparation for our meeting with prospects & clients. We initiate the presentation or discussion with an accustomed flow which meets our self-rating system.

Delivering several presentations & involving in discussions generally makes our skills work in a flow (Sales lingo, high level pitch, no breaks, straight to the point, etc.). Sometimes, this can intimidate some of our prospects who are probably good at their function and not so with meeting SGs and leads to two types of challenges i) Client calling for more number of meetings for presenting the same stuff ii) No meeting at all after the first meeting. Either of this is not welcome for a SG as it would push back the sales cycle.

One such example: SGs interchangeably use words: client – prospect, customer – buyer, agreement – in principal approval, etc. But for the customer, he is just an individual / company participating in a meeting to understand our offer without any commitment of business yet. If we call him as a customer, he might get offended.

Hence, we SGs should be flexible to modulate our pitch, if possible, include clients’ lingo so as to make them comfortable. If required, better to go slow, take pauses, park our self-rating system aside and make the offer is received well from the other side. Chances are very high that client appreciates this move and reciprocates by asking for more information on our product or service, puts objections to handle and clears the path for the next level in sales cycle.

Get going!