2 min readGet Prospects To Yes

by Guy Gage | April 11, 2016 | Uncategorized

Recently I read an article that being personable at the beginning of a job interview significantly changed the perspective of the interviewers favorably. The interviewers began looking for confirming evidence that their favorable view was accurate.

This same principle occurs when you are in discussion with prospects, which is nothing short of a job interview. So you talk about your experience, expertise and years in the industry; how passionate you are about helping your clients and possess all the traits they require, like being accessible and responsive, answering questions quickly and generally making life easy for them. You practice in the mirror how to say those things so they sound fluid and convincing.

Unfortunately, all of your competition say the same thing. You aren’t setting yourself apart. In fact, there really isn’t all that much that you can say or demonstrate that will make you a clear choice.

Except one thing.

We know from human interaction research that those who speak the most in a conversation consider the interaction more favorably. We know that people want to tell their story and be listened to. We know that when you try to give solutions when the other person doesn’t believe you fully understand, you are discounted.

These truths were confirmed recently when someone was interviewing a prospect. He decided that in order to position himself better, he needed to put aside his normal spiel and ask questions, listen and let the prospect talk. So he did.

About 35 minutes into the introductory discussion, that’s all he did—ask, listen, confirm understanding, repeat. 35 minutes! He didn’t once talk about himself, how good he is, what he has done, what he could do in this situation. Then an interesting thing happened. The prospect began changing their language from “what we want from our consultant” to “if you were our consultant” and finally to “you and I have our work cut out for us.” The prospect was answering the question favorably, “Can I work with you?”

In the end, that’s the ONLY thing that makes any difference. It’s a question that every prospect is asking and if you don’t answer it to their liking, you will be passed over. If they believe they could work with you, you will get the work.

As you enter into discussions with prospects, develop the discipline to shut up. While you may be the smartest person in the room, you definitely aren’t the most important person in the room. So why do you spend so much time talking about yourself, your firm, and your success? Instead, ask, listen, confirm understanding. Repeat. And get the business.

This approach takes a different set of skills than what you may be using and is a dominant theme in the courses in the Partner-Pipeline. Contact me to discuss various training solutions for you and your firm.

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