March 30, 2023
Strategies of Effective Business Interviewing
Especially when dealing with cold prospects, it's important to know how to approach these conversations.
During a conversation with a business owner, you want to uncover potential problems, pains, or predicaments the owner may be experiencing. They might not even be aware of these, so successful identification relies on your skillful questions and communication to open the door to understanding and then potentially help them solve the problem through our products and services.
Interview Basics
It doesn’t matter whether you are interviewing a business owner, employee, or other individual, people tend to make decisions based on fears and concerns. Your questions aim to identify their motivations, which inform their buying patterns. Cold prospects require more effort to build a relationship. In order to demonstrate your commitment to their financial success in retirement, schedule a time to follow up with the lead, regardless of whether it is warm or cold.
Credibility and Trust
People like to do business with people like themselves, with common interests, who travel in the same circles etc. The key to success is making connections! To make a difference in your prospects’ lives, you must convince them that the time they spend with you is valuable and that your skills can help them or that your organization’s intellectual property can be used to help them.
Important: Emotional information is as important as factual information. Remember that people tend to buy on emotion and justify with logic.
Check out some helpful tips on how to approach these conversations
- Be a listener – just the mere act of listening helps to build trust. You should be listening 20% of the time and the prospect talking 80% of the time.
- Referrals from strong sources can make a big difference.
- Be able to explain the intellectual property of your organization
- How long has your organization been in the community
- How many lives have been protected
- The amount of claims $$
- Assets under management
- What compelled you to work with your current organization
- What charitable work your organization supports
A) internal in their decision-making, in other words, go by their gut to decide if something is right or,
B) external, meaning they look for outside influences to help them determine if something is in their best interest. It is important to match and mirror the person with whom you are interacting in order to establish a strong connection.
Examples: Trying to tell someone what they should do won’t get you very far, but asking their opinion about something will get you much further.
In order to be best equipped with the tools you need to show up to these conversations fully prepared, it’s important to stay vigilant about checking for upcoming training opportunities!
