Transforming Selling Conversations with David Kurkjian
How are you behaving and communicating with your prospects? In this episode, David talks to Marcus about transforming selling conversations especially in the early stages of your sales process.
David Kurkjian is a sales consultant and author of the book “6X Convert More Prospects to Customers”: https://amzn.to/440tP8o The book focuses on helping salespeople construct high-value discovery calls and build conversations that rightly communicate value to prospects.
We explore the Importance of Early-Stage Selling Conversations and the reason they are critical because they set the tone for the rest of the sales process. If you can’t build rapport and establish trust with your prospect during these early conversations, it will be very difficult to close the deal.
How to Master Early-Stage Selling Conversations
There are a few key things you can do to master early-stage selling conversations:
- Focus on the prospect’s problems, not your product.
- Use contrast to show how your solution can solve the prospect’s problems.
- Ask questions to get to the root of the prospect’s concerns.
- Be honest and trustworthy.
We discuss why compensation plans that reward salespeople for closing deals, regardless of outcomes, incentivise the wrong behaviours. And why leadership sets the culture of the company.
David also offers a powerful litmus test for founders considering taking investment.
Additional thoughts:
- I agree with David that salespeople talk too much about their products and not enough about the value that their products can provide to prospects. This is a common mistake that many salespeople make, and it can be a major obstacle to closing deals.
- I also agree with David that leadership sets the culture of the company. If the leadership team is not supportive of sales, it will be very difficult for salespeople to be successful.
- I think the advice to ask VCs how they would handle real-life employee issues is very insightful. This is a great way to get a sense of their values and how they would treat employees.
- Finally, I think the advice to pay attention to the words that you use when talking to prospects is very important. The words that you use can have a big impact on how prospects perceive you and your product.
Connect with David via linkedin.com/in/david-kurkjian-1891901
Website: mastermessaging.com
