By Tibor Shanto

We often hear expressions that sales is all about this, or all about that, and it is true that there are some cornerstones of success in sales; few would argue that the ability to communicate and facilitate communication between seller and buyer are crucial to winning and keeping clients.

This article deals with three communication components that when mastered will help you rocket your sales. Applied consistently they will give you the foundation for fully engaging with buyers and creating the environment and flow to keep your sales moving and your conversations powerful. The key is to apply these consistently and not to abandon them when things get tough. It will take planning, practice and persistence in application; but once you master the process you will wonder how you could have sold without applying them in the past.

1. Use the Mirror – It’s the Force:
We have all heard about “mirroring the client”, this first component has its roots in the same concept, but approaching it from the opposite end. Rather than doing what the prospect is doing, for instance leaning forward when they do, or crossing your legs when they do, this is more about leveraging the mirror factor to set the flow for the conversation. Here we take full advantage of the fact that in more than 90% of scenarios it is likely that the seller initiates the conversation or discussion. Whether it is an initial cold appointment setting call to a brand new prospect, or call well along the sale with a more familiar buyer, it is usually the seller that starts things off. This gives you the seller, a tremendous opportunity to set the flow for the conversation.

Because people do tend to mirror, that is they respond in a way consistent with the way, the style and tone of the person asking the question, this allows the questioner to dictate the flow for the conversation. As long as the question is in context of the situation, the buyer will usually answer, and in a fashion that is consistent with the manner set by the question and the person asking it, this is just something we were trained to do since youth .

This is where the planning comes in, not rehearsing or memorizing, but planning. Planning how to set the flow using the right questions to discover facts, objectives and issues the buyer is dealing with. Quantifying to ensure relevance and opportunity, helping you and the buyer see what is relevant and what is not; all too many sales people spend time on issues and things that are not really relevant. If you ask the wrong questions and set the wrong flow, you’ll never get to the things that will move the sale forward. You need to stay in control of the flow without controlling the buyer (or making them feel controlled).

This now extends to taking the things you discovered to establishing the impact of those things. That is the impact on the buyer’s situation, the impact of your solution on the issue; and the measure of the impact now and in the long term. All key foundations of a sale, all things you have to lead, and you can do so by setting the flow and the tone from the get go and have the buyer follow the flow you set. Again one of the cornerstones of this is the planning.

2. Know In Advance – Use the Force:
Part of the planning is knowing what the buyer is likely to say. No we are not looking for you to become The Amazing Kreskin or clairvoyant, more like a chess player or good lawyer. You have all heard that a lawyer should not ask a question he does not know the answer to; every chess player is encouraged to think two three steps ahead.

Well it is not that different in sales. While each buyer and circumstance is different, they tend to fall in predictable and well traveled parameters. No matter what you are selling, if you have been out there any more than a month, you have likely heard the gamut of scenarios, questions, responses or objections that buyers are likely to pose. The 80/20 rule works well here, while you may not be able to predict all the answers, and certainly not the specific answer in a given circumstance, you can confidently predict some 80% of the POTENTIAL ANSWERS. Especially if you have put point 1 above in to practice, set the flow with a planned question.

Again we are not talking about boxing the buyer, but knowing your market, knowing the challenges, the competition, the realities in a way that allows you to respond to what the client is saying by knowing the potential answers so well in advance that rather than manipulating or hoping, you are prepared and able to listen and deal with the buyer’s response.

For example, when you initially approach a prospect, and propose a meeting, you know that it is likely that they will say they are busy, taken care of, not interested, send some stuff or had a bad experience in the past, at least 80% of the time. You may not know which one, but you know it will be one of these. When you ask a specific question about their process, you cannot with any certainty know exactly what they will say, but you can be sure that you can predict 80% of the potential things they may say. What you do with their response will differentiate you from the pack, be prepared for it allows you to deal with exactly what the buyer is saying, and continue to fully engage with them rather than hoping they say one thing that fits you product. We have all seen reps that continue down a single track regardless of what the buyer responds, because they are not ready to engage, they are there to dump.

3. Engage and Involve – Share the Force:
We often assume that a given buyer sees the world the way that we do or the way that we hope they see it. Most of the time this is just not realistic or the case. While there are some common experiences based on role or function and the product we sell, the fact that they are practitioners or users and we are sellers of what they use, creates a difference. They speak a different language, they see the issue from a different perspective, and most importantly they define and measure success in very different terms from the seller.

But that’s alright as long as you can create an environment where you can create a bridge between the two realities and build a bond that makes the sale. To do that you have to encourage them to engage and involve you in their view so you can then present your solution. You have to encourage them to tell you their reality, you have to get them to tell you the story of where they are, and more importantly, tell you the story of where they want to be. When you do that, you begin to create the bond; when you do that the gap between the two stories, where they are and want to be, becomes your opportunity to sell your solution.

Addressing the gap is the opportunity for your solution. To do that you need to paint a visual of exactly how that will happen, based on facts and real experiences. You have to involve them through stories of how you have been able to address the gap for others choosing your solution. The idea is to show them how you can help them bridge the gaps consistently with your solution, not just repeating that you can do whatever they ask.

Doing this will allow you to validate what you’ve uncovered, quantify it in a number of ways: value to client, impact on business; create urgency, overcome price. At times it will also allow you the comfort to move on when the gap cannot be addressed by your solution, letting you not waste more time than you have to.

These little things that when practiced create happy clients, happy selling and winning deals. So set the flow by taking advantage of human nature; know in advance the spectrum of potential responses and use them to move things forward; be prepared to paint a verbal picture that matches the issues in the buyer’s verbal picture, based on your questions and knowledge of possible answers.

Put this into practice, stick with it, improve it and profit from it.

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Tibor Shanto is a Principal with Renbor Sales Solutions Inc., and find out how he has helped dozens of organization to fill their pipeline with real prospects - - driving real revenue.

You can also read the blog edition of The Pipeline at www.sellbetter.ca/blog. For more information on helping your team sell better, write to: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , or call 416 671-3555.