Entrepreneurial Selling: How to Start a Conversation with a Prospect

It’s probably the most important part of the sales process. If you don’t get this right, the rest of the process will be more difficult. Knowing how to start a conversation with a prospect is critical to closing more deals.

If you’re an entrepreneur who wants to learn the art of sales, the initial interaction is essential. The first impression you give is incredibly important. The way you introduce yourself will have a tremendous influence on the rest of the conversation.

How to Start a Conversation with a Prospect

Fortunately, it’s not too complicated. It can actually be rather simple if you do it right. The introduction consists of 3 main components:

• Positioning your company.
• Explaining what your company can do for your prospect.
• Solidifying your claim with proof.

This tips in this post will show you how to start a conversation with a prospect in a way that causes them to engage with you. As you practice these tips when you’re speaking with a prospect, you will learn the best ways to handle the beginning of the conversation.

Positioning: Who Are You?

When it’s time to start a conversation a prospect, it’s time to establish your position. It’s time to let them know who you are, and what you can do for them.

So what do you do? Just tell them the name of your company and what product or service you sell?

Not if you want to actually close the deal!

You need to position yourself as the resource in your prospect’s mind. This is the part where you get to determine how they will think of your company, so you need to make it good.

Here’s an example:

Let’s say you’re starting a management consulting firm that specializes in the food and beverage industry. You wouldn’t just say “Hello Mr. Prospect, I’m with ABC Management Consulting and we’re a consulting firm that specializes in the food and beverage industry.” How boring!

Instead, how about “Hello Mr. Prospect, I’m with ABC Management Consulting and we’re the leading management consulting agency for the food and beverage industry.” Or how about this? “Hello Mr. Prospect, I’m with ABC Management Consulting and we’re the leading authority in the food and beverage industry.

See? Adding just a few words makes your firm sound much more interesting. If you take some time to write out a few different introductions, it’ll make it easier for you to figure out the best way to position yourself.

Why Do They Care?

Along with making your claim and positioning yourself, you need to show the customer why they should care about who you are. Sure, you’re the leading consulting agency for the food agency, but why does that matter to your prospect?

This isn’t where you start explaining what services your firm provides. There will be time for that later. First, you’re going to explain how these services help your customers.

For instance, you’re not going to tell them that your firm provides guidance on inventory management. You’re going to tell them that you help your clients save money on their food costs by managing their inventory more effectively.

Remember, you don’t want to discuss the product or service itself, you want to discuss the outcome of using that product or service. Doing this will help your customer understand how your company can actually benefit them.

Can you Prove It?

Lastly, you need proof. Great positioning and explanation of benefits are helpful, but they’re not enough. You need to bolster your claim with evidence. If you have a statistic, or a figure that can prove that what you’re saying is true, your prospect is far more likely to believe what you’re saying. It effectively cements the claim that you have made.

The great thing about this, is that you don’t necessarily have to have fancy numbers and statistics (although this certainly helps). If you have anecdotal evidence, that can work too. This is especially helpful if you have a client that is acquainted with your prospect.

If you use the example from above, you might tell the prospect about a situation where you were able to help someone lower their food costs. You could tell them that you helped Riley’s BBQ Joint save $500 per month by helping them manage their inventory more effectively. Easy peasy.

An Example

So let’s put it all together, shall we?

Here’s the example:

“Hello Mr. Prospect, I’m with ABC Management Consulting. We’re the foremost authority on restaurant management and we help make restaurants save money by increasing their efficiency. We just helped Jackson’s Diner save $300 per month by implementing a portion control system.”

Summing It All Up

There you have it. If you can nail all three of these components, you will have a great introduction that will help you give the best first impression possible.

However, it’s not just about reading these tips. It’s about putting them into action. You won’t master these skills overnight. The more you practice, the sooner you will learn how to start a conversation with a prospect.

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