Communication vs. Sales Communication:  What’s the difference?

There is a difference between communicating and communicating to sell.  Becoming effective at sales communication is critical to every salesperson.  It’s the skill that gets us to the heart of what we do; help customers.

In their self- assessments, many salespeople will often tell me that they are good at communicating with prospects and customers.  They feel comfortable meeting with customers, striking up a conversation, and building relationships.

Yet, then they tell me they find it difficult to ask high value questions, closing style questions, or uncover needs.  After recognizing this pattern with many sales teams, it struck me as odd.  How can you be good at communicating and building relationships, but be bad at asking high value sales questions, and closing style questions?  If you have a relationship and you are a salesperson, then isn’t that the purpose of why you are on the farm in front of this producer?

So, I began digging into this issue with every group that has this contradiction.  We have a discussion around communication with customers versus sales communication.  Often, salespeople say that, “I don’t stop out on the farm to sell them anything, I just stop in to visit.”  While I get what they mean, I really wonder if the customer does.  I mean, do they really think a producer is out there doing nothing?  Plenty of time on his hands to just stop what he’s doing and chat with you for 30-40 minutes.  It’s as if the salesperson is afraid to bring up the purpose of why they are there.

If this sounds like you, then here are two thoughts to keep in mind.  First, the minute you drive down that driveway, the producer knows exactly what you are: a salesperson.  To me, it seems a bit disingenuous to be evasive or indirect.  To go on for 20 or 30 minutes of small talk before you get to the topic of why you are there.

Secondly, we think that communicating about subjects other than selling our products makes us less salesy or pushy.  Salespeople will say, “I want to get to know the producer.  I don’t want to just show up and be pushy by trying to sell them something.”  Again, I think the opposite.  Think about the last salesperson that cold called on you.  Did they ask a lot about your personal life?  Did they seem truly interested?  Or, were they just trying to connect so they could then begin telling you about their products?

Don’t get me wrong, I know we need to shake hands, connect on a personal level and get to know our prospect/customer.  However, this should not be the majority of the conversation unless you truly are friends or have a Trusted Advisor relationship with the customer.

Sales Communication:  What is it and how do I develop those skills?  Here are four methods to improve your sales communication skills.

1. Learn DISC and how to communicate with each style:  This is by far the most important skill you can develop as a salesperson.  Too many are out there communicating in their own style instead of their customer’s style.  Wordy, chatty salespeople drive the D profile crazy.  After meeting a prospect once, he told me, “Your sales to me will be inversely proportional to the number of times you call on me.”  Ask this guy about his wife and kids and he would stand up and walk out of the appointment.  A bit of an extreme example, but real world.

2. Learn your segments: The first step to this type of sales communication might be actually doing the customer segmentation.  In every market, you need to segment your customers in several ways.  The first and most common is the acreage or number of animals they produce.  The next might be by the dollar amount or quantity that they buy.  A third method is based on a set of criteria established by you.  This might be the Technology Adoption Curve:  Early Adopter-Early Majority, etc.  Or it might be by your company’s market segments.  The whole idea of communicating specifically for the segment is to reflect that you understand them.  You realize they are a specific group with a specific need.  Your products are either designed or custom made to fit their exact needs.  In a sense, you want the customer to say, “Hey, you get me”.

3. Quit using your selling process and start asking about their buying process: This is in line with the old saying, “Nobody likes to be sold, but we all love to buy.”  Instead of viewing the selling process as going out to the farm to get the customer to do something or to put them in your selling process, focus on asking about their buying process.  Seek to understand.  If they are in crop production, then they have a seed, fertilizer, chem buying process.  If they run a dairy, then they have a process for buying feed, animal health, milk house supplies, etc.  They might not think of it as a process, but it is.  Ask them about how they made the last few choices in your product line.  If they changed suppliers 2 years ago or 20 years ago, those are very different buying processes to dig into with that customer.

4. Check their RAP Sheet

See last week’s article: Check your Prospect’s RAP Sheet          Also in  Podcast version

This is one more way to take the conversation from socializing to selling.  It uncovers their experience with your company, your products and your competitive advantage.

If you struggle to take sales conversations from socializing to selling, you are not alone.  This is a frequent struggle for salespeople.  Hoping your prospect will eventually tell you something helpful in the selling process can take a long time.

Effective sales communication has a lot to do with the confidence of the salesperson.  Those that are confident in their ability to help producers, will typically get to the point faster.  They have done a better job of segmenting their customers, customizing their approach to that segment and understand the value they bring to their customers.  They focus in on those areas early in conversations to save everyone a lot of time.