Sales Skills: Close More Sales With Your Opening

Ever heard the phrases ‘start strong, finish strong’ or ‘begin with the end in mind’? Both speak to the idea that the power of your beginning determines your success at the end. Nowhere is this truer than in your sales presentation.

Far too often salespeople become overwhelmed with perfecting all of the necessary sales skills. My advice? Practice, prepare, and perfect the first five minutes of your sales presentation before mastering anything else. If you get the first five minutes right, everything else tends to fall into place. Get the first five minutes wrong and good luck recovering – you’re probably already done!

To keep your opening strong and strategic, zero in on these three main goals that you want to accomplish in your first five minutes with a buyer:

Be Coffee Worthy

How fast do people decide whether or not they like you? No, really, what do you think? How long?

Would you believe that research out of Princeton University shows that we decide whether or not we like someone in the blink of an eye or one-tenth of a second? Crazy, right?

But think about what we are able to process in just one-tenth of a second. We can take in a person’s nonverbals, energy level and appearance, and these are the primary tools we use to decide if we like someone.

At Shore Consulting, we use the term ‘coffee-worthy’ to describe an approachable, likable salesperson. Think about the traits and attributes of a person with who you would want to sit down and have a cup of coffee.

What would those traits and attributes be? Those are the qualities you want to portray when meeting a buyer for the first time. Your goal is to be coffee-worthy, quickly!

Permission to Question

Only after becoming coffee worthy do you want to jump into your discovery questions. And even then, there is a mini-step between being coffee worthy and asking discovery questions that you want to implement to increase the quality of answers you get from your buyer during discovery.

Using “permission to question” is a short, simple technique that lets the buyer know what you are doing and why you are doing it when you start asking them questions. It sounds something like this: “Do you mind if I ask you just a few quick questions to best help you today?”

“Permission to questions” gives the buyer a sense of control, it’s respectful and it lets them know this won’t take very long and that these questions are in their best interest. Once they’ve said yes, now they’re committed and the law of commitment kicks in. This means that they will be inclined to give you deeper and more honest answers – win, win!

Motivation Clarity

Now you’re set up to find out why they are interested in purchasing a new home. What has motivated them to pursue a buying decision? What has changed in their life that has prompted them to seek you out?

Once we have a deep, true understanding of their motivation, then and only then are we able to help them achieve their goals. The sale should never be about the new home (or what you have to sell) until we understand the buyer’s motivation.

I guarantee that if you have a strategic focus on these three main goals in the first five minutes, you will radically change your interactions with your buyers. And you will be miles ahead of any other salesperson who is still stuck on the same, tired opening questions they’ve always used.

Remember, start strong, finish strong. By putting these ideas into practice you’ll set yourself up for success and dramatically increase your chances of closing the sale and changing someone’s world.


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About the Author: Amy O'Connor

As one of the most in-demand sales training consultants in North America today, Amy O’Connor brings a decade’s worth of industry experience and knowledge, along with a fresh female perspective on leadership, to her impactful and enlightening seminars.