25 Easy Ways to Impress Your Sales Prospect

Put on your buying hat for a moment. When was the last time a sales presentation really impressed you? Or you were wowed by a company during a shopping or buying experience?

Are you straining your brain to think of an example? Most companies get busy with their business and forget to focus on creating memorable moments for their buyers.

Here are 25 quick and easy ways to impress even the most cynical sales prospect…

1. Remember their name(s). Basic, right? Easy? Not really. But remembering your buyer’s name is more powerful than you might think. Being able to use their names and even the names of family members or beloved pets goes a long way in a sales presentation. A tip for doing this? Take notes during your sales presentation.
2. Focus on the buyer’s mission not your commission. Make sure you always keep the buyer’s best interest in mind. Don’t have what’s best for them? Tell them! Your honesty may lose you that one sale but the gain will be building a strong reputation and the referrals will start pouring in.
3. Listen. And listen some more. The best advice on this comes from Stephen Covey “Listen with the intent to understand not with the intent to respond.”
4. Take notes during your sales presentation. I mentioned in point number one that taking notes helps you remember critical information like names. But it does so much more than that. Taking notes shows the buyer that you care about them, that you are a professional, and that you take your job seriously. When you are taking notes, you listen more and talk less.
5. Ask strong discovery questions. Buyers don’t want to see everything you have. They only want to see what you have that works for them. How do you show them what fits their needs? Discovery!
6. Use (appropriate) humor. Make the buying process fun. Lighten it up a bit and make your customers laugh.
7. Do the unexpected. The status quo is boring! Buyer’s buy the experience as much as the product or service. What could you do that would delight and surprise them?
8. Show empathy. For some buyers, the process is overwhelming and confusing. Put yourself in their shoes and remember to express the appropriate empathy for what they are going through.
9. Change it up. Any time a sales person says to me “I always do this…”, I cringe a little. I don’t believe we should “always” be doing anything. Each situation is different and each buyer is different. Change it up!
10. Help the buyer make small decisions throughout. When making a big, high priced purchase decision, the buyer can panic when it comes time to ask for the sale. Help alleviate their cognitive strain by asking small closing questions throughout the conversation.
11. Pick up the phone. In our techie world, we like to send emails, texts, Google alerts, or Facebook messages – and sometimes that’s absolutely appropriate. But there’s no substitution for a voice-to-voice conversation.
12. Keep your promises. Do I really need to explain how important this is?
13. Be happy for them. When we’re not excited for the buyer, we steal some of the joy of the moment.
14. Ask for the sale. Show respect for your buyer by assuming they can and will make a purchase decision.
15. Follow-Up. Buyers want to feel important. Follow-up lets the buyer know you are thinking of them and truly want to help in their buying process.
16. Keep it simple. Don’t overwhelm you customer or make them feel stupid by using industry jargon. Keep your presentation simple and clear.
17. Be the authority. People want to buy from people they trust. Displaying the appropriate authority puts buyers at ease.
18. Be the expert. Do your homework. Know your product and know the competition’s product. Don’t make the customer do the heavy lifting by trying to figure everything out when there’s an expert in the room!
19. Listen (without judgment) to their objections. All real buyers have objections. So, take your salesperson ego out of the equation and truly listen to their objections. Then do your best to objectively and genuinely address them.
20. Show excitement for your job. 
21. Be creative. Devising unique solutions for individual buyers goes a long way.
22. Stay positive. Even when things are going badly, you must always remain positive and upbeat.
23. Be respectful. Be respectful of the way others communicate, feel, process information, etc. We are not all the same, and that’s a good thing.
24. Be transparent. Don’t try to hide details or facts. Be 100% transparent on the specifics of your offering.
25. Connect emotionally. Buying is an emotional process. Don’t shy away from being relational with your buyer.

Impressing the buyer doesn’t take much time or effort, and the rewards are enormous. How will you impress your next sales prospect?