We asked Cássia Salomão, SDR Manager at LeCupon, for a best practice that’s changed the way her department operates. She highlighted the importance of the pre-sales experience, and how the first contact is critical to a potential customer’s decision. Read on to get her tips –
To set yourself up for success, make sure the client is heard during the pre-sales (or prospecting) process.
The first contact the customer has with the company is one of the most important moments of the customer experience. It’s vital to demonstrate that your genuine intention is to help him throughout his experience. And in turn, create a bond and relationship with them.
Build a relationship through expectation alignment, active listening, and avoiding communication noise during the initial prospecting process.
Communication noise happens when the message you want to give is distorted or interrupted in some way. Typically, the distortion is due to poor transmission of information by the announcer (SDR) and is misinterpreted by the receiver (client).
Once communication noises are generated, it’s hard to recover. So, carefully choosing your messaging is key.
Countless are the customers and relationships that have already been generated and created during the experience process that I have personally found in sales from this mindset which I started and I’ve been applying with my team.
Even before I became a pre-sales coordinator, I created personal friendships beyond work, based on good service and services based on real attention to my clients’ needs and wants at that time.
We should not create customers, but partners in our sales process. As we generate a relationship with our customers, we generate new automatic sales through referrals of our good work. It’s a two-way street. Studies indicate that the conversion of sales through referrals is faster and more effective than when initiated from a conversation of anonymity.
Satisfied customers generate automatic sales for our company. Meaning that when a customer is satisfied with your product, they spread the good word and indirectly sell your product through referrals. When new customers come to me thanks to a referral, the chance of converting the purchase into a sale is much higher.
I weave this theory into coaching my pre-sales team. When the bond and relationship is created from the first contact, there’s a bridge built between the company and the customer, creating an experience. A deal closed with a satisfied customer, based on a relationship built on customer needs, is the reflection of my pre-sales team’s incredible work.
I advocate active listening and building a lasting relationship with all the clients who my team serves.
I’m passionate about people and the way they think.
Our mindset and the way we think reflect in our results, paths, and our perspective of the future. Obviously, this is an immense challenge because it is directly linked to understanding yourself.
Maximized sales results are a consequence of how we channel our energies and thoughts towards our prospects. I bring all these perspectives and initiatives to the day-to-day life of my team.
Want more SDR Manager’s advice and insights on the pre-sale experience? Get 10 actionable tips in our full guide for modern sales development.
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