Sales Rep 101 – Chapter 18

Stay Conversational

I believe this is a very important topic to discuss. Because many new sales reps get so overwhelmed with information when they first start that it is impossible for them to just have a conversation with a prospect. They are so focused on what to say, when to say it, and how to say it that completely forget how to talk to people. And it is not your fault. Most managers just don’t cover this topic when they are training new sales reps. The last thing a prospect wants to hear is some sales rep saying something verbatim that they memorized as they are giving their presentation. Now, I understand that there is usually a lot of information during a presentation that you need to get out. And you will be saying the same things over and over and so it seems natural that you have your presentation memorized. But this is what separates the average sales person from a great sales person. A great sales rep has the ability to give an entire presentation start to finish and it just felt like you had just been having a conversation with them for 30 minutes. They are able to give information in such a way that the prospect stays engaged and is interested in the conversation even if they don’t end up being a client. It is hard to give examples of this in words but you will find a video on this topic in the Video section. The reason why this is such an important topic is because it is not an easy thing to do. And it will take practice to get really good at it. Unfortunately, the only way to really practice this is during your presentations. So some of your first presentations might not be very good. But here is the thing. No one is going to know how bad it was so learn more and more from each presentation and continue to get better. This also goes for cold calling as well. If you have taken my course on Cold Calling you will remember that having a script is essential to being good at. But the difference is after a while you get so good at the script that it all sounds like a natural conversation even though you are saying the same thing over and over again. Make sure to check out the video portion on this topic. It is much easier to show examples.