Sales Skills Development Blog

Sales Interview - The First Step

  

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Begin your interview by confirming the amount of time the prospect said they could spend with you.  Then let the prospect know what you want to accomplish during the interview by stating your objectives.  Tell the prospect you want to listen to what they have to say and learn more about their business.  Remember, this is an interview, not a sales presentation.  You want to listen more than you speak.

Break the ice with a comment or two about the general state of their industry.  Then transition into a discussion about their company. Ask a few open-ended questions and probes about them and their company.  These general topics of discussion will be easy for people to talk about.  All four behavioral styles (DiSC) will have something to say.  This is the warm-up portion of the interview and these questions will be easy for the prospect to answer.

You can greatly enhance your credibility by doing some preliminary research about their company.   Show the prospect you’ve done your homework and ask them to confirm and expand on the information that you gathered previously.  This will help differentiate you by showing the prospect you are a professional.  Why?  Because you have taken the time to learn something about them and their business.  Get the prospect to open up to you by using probes and open-ended questions to gather additional background information.

Be creative and ask a few thought-provoking questions that will provide you with information about this person as well as facts about their company.  Differentiate yourself from other salespeople by asking what important challenges the prospect is facing this year and how they differentiate their company from the competition.

How to Learn More
Our free whitepaper entitled "Sales Strategies: Creating Interest" provides additional information to help in your sales process.

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