In this Expert Insight Interview, Justin Cunningham discusses how deep connection delivers maximized sales. Justin Cunningham is on a mission to create positive change. He works to empower people, revealing what stops us, what unlocks us, and what we can do about it to unleash our gifts to the world.
This Expert Insight Interview discusses:
- The difference in the sales approaches of small businesses and large companies
- How to connect with prospects on an emotional level
- Showing interest in enabling the customer’s future
Small Business vs. Large Company
Justin has worked as a sales trainer with small businesses and billion-dollar companies like Coca-Cola and Mercedes Benz. During that time, he has learned that a lot depends on the type of sales role you’re in.
For example, if you’re in a small business, it is much easier to get into relationship selling, and you can rely on that. On the other hand, if you’re employed in a large company, you typically have a quota to hit with your sales. This means there’s often a disconnect regarding what is most important, depending on where you’re employed. Smaller businesses tend to favor forming deep relationships, while larger companies try to maximize the value received from each customer.
Maximizing Customer Value
Whether small or large, every company would like to maximize its customer lifetime value. We’ve all heard that people buy emotionally and defend it logically. The only way to truly connect with somebody on an emotional level is to ask them a lot of deep questions and establish more than a basic rapport.
To make a premium sale, you probably need to ask the customer more than 20 questions to get anywhere near understanding what their problems are. Justin decided to take that methodology to every level at which he worked with people. He discovered that salespeople don’t generally spend the time forming a deep connection with the prospect.
Forming a Connection
You need to understand your customer’s past. Once you know that, it is much easier to match their values. This leads to the prospect feeling like you understand them on an entirely different level compared to most salespeople.
The idea is to show the client that you’re interested in enabling their future, rather than simply giving them a sales pitch. This leads to a more-than-optimal opportunity to maximize your sale. However, it doesn’t come from the mindset of winning the sale but from a mentality of forming a deep connection.
Our Host
John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist, he has conducted over 1500 video interviews of thought leaders for Sales POP! online sales magazine & YouTube Channel and for audio podcast channels where Sales POP! is rated in the top 2% of most popular shows out of 3,320,580 podcasts globally, ranked by Listen Score. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.
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