June 26, 2013 \ Geoff Birmingham
Sales Tips from Jill Konrath and Mike Schultz

June 26, 2013. This guest post is from Matt Ferrucci, who is a student at Boston College. He’s spending the summer at Reflection Films, learning a little about video production and marketing. 

In a recent webinar, Jill Konrath and Mike Schultz offered a few tips to businesses looking to increasing their sales. Much of what they suggested focused on improving collaboration with clients and buyers.

There are three crucial “levels” of selling.  These are:

• Connect: Listen and develop a complete understanding of the customer’s needs.
• Convince: Be professional, persuasive, and demonstrate why your specific service is of superior value.
• Collaborate: Interact with the customer. Show him/her that you are more invested than someone who simply wants to sell something as quickly as possible. Think of yourself as helping a client, not marketing to them.

Work together to find the best solution. Ask “facilitative” questions that allow you to demonstrate your knowledge and expertise.  Working with your client will help you to be a valuable asset that your client wants to return to.

Expect “curve balls” near the end of the process. People often change their minds and decide they want to take a different approach.  Rather than immediately trying to convince them to revert to the original plan (which may seem aggressive), opt instead to play Devil’s advocate.  Illustrate why you would recommend against the change, but don’t forget to show that you’ll provide your support no matter the path they choose.

Bring “half-baked” ideas to the table. Don’t be afraid to include clients before an idea is fully fleshed out.  Make them a part of the idea-sculpting process.