Ben Wright explains how to spark buyer interest on the first call with trade and construction leads. Ask questions like "What does a great result look like for you?" to get prospects talking about their goals, then listen and repeat back what they say. This turns qualifying into a way to build excitement before you ever pitch.
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In this episode, we are going to unpack how you can get customers to instantly want to buy from you before you even meet them in the trade sales landscape. Welcome to Sales Growth Made Simple, the show helping 7 to 8 figure trade, construction and industry sales and business leaders finally end the stress of inconsistent sales by simplifying your sales systems so your team can close more deals and grow faster. I'm your host, Ben Wright, a leader who has been building businesses and sales teams just like you for the last 20 years. In this episode, we are going to go through the one thing, yes, just the one thing that you can do when first talking with your customers or qualifying them to get them to instantly want to buy from you in your business. Big statement. One thing that you can do to help customers want to instantly buy from you within your business. Of course, there are lots of one things we can do within a business to help us really grow. However, for me, I like to focus really intently on some of the smaller, you know, progress over perfection ideas that we can roll into our business that make significant impacts in moving the dial or growing our sales. And what gets often overlooked is the first contact. So that first phone call communication that we have with a customer after they make a lead. Of course, that's the time when we're qualifying our customers. But for me, what so often gets missed here is this beautiful option or this beautiful chance to have customers wanting to instantly buy from you. So what does this look like? Well, in a word, it comes down, or in two words, it comes down to your qualifying questions. So what we're asking our customers to not only decide if they're a fit for us, but to get them thinking really positively about us as a fit for them. I've spoken a couple of times, particularly over the last week or so, around customers often making their supplier choices, particularly in your residential business and your smaller business settings, how they often make their decisions in the first moments that they meet with a supplier or before they even receive a quote. And what I love about the opportunity with qualifying questions is that we're able to not only decide if a customer meets who we're looking for, right? If they're our ideal customer, is the business the right size? Is the home in the right location? Are they looking to spend the right amount of money? Do they have the appropriate lead time requirements? Are they realistic in what their budget might be? We're going to ask those questions, but we're also getting to generate some excitement at the other end for the customer. So the businesses that we see do this really well, and to repeat, we've worked with thousands now, sales and business leaders over the last few years and certainly dozens and dozens and dozens of businesses across that time. Anyone from sole operators through to the largest sales team we've worked with has just under 60 people and we've worked with quite a few teams in the 30s to 60s. So a real diverse spread of businesses we've worked with, but the businesses that absolutely nail this part ask qualifying questions that really get the customer thinking about what they want. And these are not just questions about where do you live, what are you looking for, but these are questions like, what does a great result look like for you? What is something that you're going to look back on for the next 10 years, raise to mind for you? What are the type of things that when you complete this project, you're going to think, wow, that's really made the difference? What's a result for you that is going to help you think this is the best project, or I'm so happy we've got what we've gone with? Is there anything that's so important to you that it's going to impact the quality of this project and how you think about after it's completed? Are there things that you really don't want to see happen in this project that we need to try and avoid? So all of those types of questions there are around getting the customer to think and articulate what is special for them, what's important for them, what are the things that are going to really move the dial in their minds. And essentially, as the partner in this instance, across that sales period, you're the one that is there helping them quantify this. And often when we can be meeting with people, and you can think about perhaps examples in your own life or with your children or with your friends, when you get them to think of the idea or come to a conclusion or assist them along a process, you get dragged along with the positivity of that part. You know, if we're able to help our children— my daughter just wanted to do her first triathlon, she's 6 years old. She woke up on a Wednesday, said, Dad, I want to do one. By the afternoon, I'd set her up a little course, we'd punched out a 50-meter swim. I think she did about 3Ks on the bike and 400 or 500 meters on the run. And she had so much fun, but she associated me with that journey. And, and when she talks about triathlons now, it's conversations that she has with Daddy, which is great, makes me feel really good. But also I know that I'm now part of a fledgling triathlon career, and I hope she's a better athlete than me. But I think the message I'm trying to say here is that when we can help our customers along their journey to clarify what they're looking for, we get swept up with that positive emotion. And the way we can do that, of course, is to repeat back to our customers what they've said to us. So repeat back to them some of the key takeaways, repeat back to them some of their key goals. So if they're looking to have some new flooring laid down in their house and they decide that the color of the flooring as well as perhaps the sound it makes, and yes, I've certainly heard plenty of customers in the flooring space where they're actually quite keen, particularly with floating floorboards around the sound that it makes as you walk on it. Is for these customers to articulate, hey, we're looking for a light color and what type of color, you know, what is it? Is it a light brown? Is it a whitewash, right? Is it a really light kind of tan color? What are the types of colors that you're looking for that are going to make this really work for you? And then you're showing samples, for example, or the second piece here around the type of sound it's making. Okay, well, what are you wanting it to sound like? Right, and for some people they want whisper quiet floors and for others they want that beautiful sound of wood when you walk on it. So by having those conversations with customers to be able to help them articulate and then repeating it back to them, that's when we're seeing businesses, really good businesses we work with, get that instant connection with their customers. So that's it for today, all around qualifying questions when we first meet a lead and making sure we're unpacking what's important to customers and helping them through that journey. Very grateful for you listening today. Thank you. I hope you're leaving this podcast today with your curiosity well and truly spiked around how you can help talk walk your customers through that process. It can be a little bit tricky. If you're in any doubt, please get in touch with us. Otherwise, we're dropping episodes 3 times a week. Really looking forward to the next one. That's it for today. Bye for now. Are you frustrated spending hours of wasted time on sales quotes that you keep losing? Without changing something now, you'll continue to get these same stressful results over and over again. My free quote audit will pinpoint exactly why you're not winning more jobs and what you need to do to increase your close rates quickly. Click the free quote audit link in the show notes to get started now.
