How can Business Partners / Channel Reps start prospecting? [Part 3 of 3]

Finally - we're at the third point on how Business Partners and Channel Reps can work on converting their calls to meaningful leads.  While this is by no means the last - expect that there may be additional posts!

I’m alone - where do I get the technical help and assistance from if the customer is interested?

Usually working for a Business Partner / Channel - there is no doubt your resources are VERY limited to the point that you have to ‘fake it’ in many ways.  Many times, you’ll have a customer on the phone who is interested but the hardest thing you’ll be facing is how do I continue this conversation forward?  What if they start asking me a lot of technical questions - how do I respond to them?  You’ve only been trained to a certain point - but you need a bit of help in trying to convince them to go to the next step - but how do you do it with limited knowledge?

A little trick...

Your best bet is to keep the conversation as business oriented as possible.  How do you do that - when the customer only has knowledge on the topic that you are interesting them.  At that point, do whatever you can to sound as interested as possible.  This would mean that you keep your full 100% attention on the phone - looking at no one or paying attention to anyone - the customer is right now ‘KING’  (or ‘QUEEN’)!  Start writing down everything they are saying - whether you think it’s important or not - keep writing down what they have to say. Once they stop talking - instead of moving the conversation forward, just regurgitate everything they said to you - this will give them a lot of relief that you really listened to what they had to say.  If there was any form of misunderstanding on your end - don’t worry - they’ll correct you.  Keep in mind - people prefer correcting than not being heard!

As you’ll start to do this, you’ll become a better note taker - keep taking them.  Another trick to use on them, is to pick something from the notes and ask them to elaborate on it.  So, you can take a line and say, “you mentioned that you need ______, may I ask why that has become so paramount in your organization to look into?”

Always remember to try and keep the end goal in mind - which is to develop a connection with the customer!

Good luck and enjoy!  Please share your thoughts, I look forward to hearing from you!