It’s been said, “Prospects don’t want to be sold. They want to buy.” To buy, prospects need to trust the person from whom they are purchasing. If you use the approach I’ve created through the following acronym, you will help your prospects trust you. The acronym is LEAD©. Listen…Empathize…Add…Develop©. Let’s develop what each of those words mean to you in terms of helping prospects to buy.

One absolutely critical method for building trust is through the powerful use of the skill of listening. Listening effectively is a learned skill. However, as sales people, we tend to think if we’re listening we’re losing control. The converse of that being by talking we maintain control. Nothing could be further from the truth! The fact is to help a prospect buy you have to truly listen to what s/he is saying. The more you effectively listen…the more you know…the more you know the greater your control over the outcome of the sales conversation. You have to turn out and tune in, so to speak. That requires focusing your full attention on the buyer. It means being silent and taking the time to listen.

Listen for the real message. Listen for content, the facts, ideas or feelings. Take notes when receiving a lot of information. Avoid judging or evaluating while listening. If you’re doing either of those things it means you’re really thinking about how you are going to respond.

Along with the verbal is your responsibility to pay attention to the non-verbal cues your prospect is giving you. Listen with your eyes, so to speak. The other person’s body language can help you hear a great deal of what they are thinking.

Listen actively by nodding; looking at the speaker…after all, our eyes were made to communicate with people not the wall behind them.

As you really listen to your prospect, it’s key that you help them through the sales conversation by asking them appropriate questions to assure a productive discussion. There has to be a logical, non-threatening progression in the flow of your questions. You don’t want your questioning to raise the ire of your prospect. I have a very simple questioning method to avoid doing that. The method uses the acronym, IRE©. It gives you a three level sequence to your questioning. The first level is to ask Issue/Occasion questions. The next level is Result questions and the last level is Explore/Hear questions. Let’s take a deeper look at each level of this questioning strategy.

First, are Issue/ Occasion questions. Here, you are beginning to delve into the prospect’s situation to begin to understand issues they may be confronting or occasions that may be presenting them with an opportunity to improve their situation. Examples of these kinds of questions could be:

“What is the biggest issue impacting the bottom-line of your business, right now?”
“What occasions have occurred recently where you missed out on a real business opportunity?”

Listening intently to the prospect as they answer will tell you where to go next. Probably, the logical progression in your questioning will be to ask a Result question. Examples of these questions could be:

“If you don’t overcome that issue what do you see the result to be?”
“How has not being able to take advantage of that occasion impacted your business?”

Here, again, by listening intently to your prospect you will be able to lead the conversation to the next level by asking an appropriate Explore/Hear question. Some examples:

“Would you like to explore some ideas that could help you resolve that issue?”
“May I offer you the opportunity to hear some ideas I have to help you not miss such an occasion in the future?”

Leading your prospect through the logical progression of the IRE© questioning method, maximizes their comfort and the amount of knowledge you gain about them. Through truly listening it allows you to effectively increase the trust your buyer is feeling by empathizing with him or her… the next element in the acronym, LEAD©.

What’s seems hard about empathy is it requires us to identify with and understand another person’s situation, feelings, and motives. As hard as empathizing might be perceived to be, it is as simple as ABC. I’ll use the example of asking questions of a prospective client to explain what I mean.

Whenever you talk with prospects, it is important to build rapport—to earn the right to continue the conversation. If you ask question after question, but never explain why or relate one question to another, your probing is more like an interrogation. When buyers think that they are being interrogated, they may feel that you are meeting your own needs while ignoring theirs. In this situation, prospects usually become reluctant to answer questions and may become resistant and defensive about their answers. On the other hand, if you actively involve prospects and show interest in meeting their needs as well as your own, they will usually grant you the right to continue. Three communication skills that will help you earn that right are acknowledging, bridging, and confirming…ABC.

During the sales conversation, acknowledge the prospect’s comments, opinions, and ideas. When you acknowledge, you let the person know that you’ve heard and understood their remarks. In other words, you provide feedback before talking about a related or different subject. For example: “That’s an interesting point.” Or ”Yes, I can understand that…”

If you’re changing direction, or if you’re trying to tie different topics and needs together, use the technique of bridging. When you bridge, you let the prospect know where you’re headed. You also demonstrate that you haven’t forgotten or overlooked his or her needs, opinions, and concerns. For example:

“We’ve talked a great deal about…There’s another aspect that you might want to consider.”
“Earlier you mentioned…I’d like to address that more fully.”

Finally, to make sure that you really do understand, use the technique of confirming. State your understanding of what the person is telling you and then ask for confirmation. Once again, some examples:

“If I understand correctly, you’re telling me that…Is that accurate?”
“Do you mean that…?”

Using the ABCs for Empathy©, can truly help you build trust within your buyer. They’ll know you care and then, they will want to know what you know that can help them. They will be ready for the next concept in the acronym, LEAD©, which is the A, Add.

Add to the mix of the sales conversation your ideas on how you can help them meet an opportunity or solve a problem. Once again, though, the focus has to be on the prospect. You do that by relating your product’s or service’s features to relevant benefits that will help the prospect.

Most buyers don’t understand how the features of your product or service will help them. They are probably asking the question in their minds, “What does that mean to me?” Let’s take digital cameras, as an example. The key feature of those cameras is that they are digital. What does that mean? Digital doesn’t necessarily tell us much. But if you were to say something like, “The digital feature of this camera will allow you to instantly view the picture you have just taken which really means that you can immediately know whether you have a quality shot of a major life event. If not, you can retake the shot while the moment is still at hand.”

Following that process with each of the benefits that tie to your prospect’s stated needs will create a compelling picture. As a consequence, the time is right to develop a strategy with the prospect for taking advantage of those benefits. Develop is the D in the LEAD© acronym.

If you have properly practiced the other principles outlined in the LEAD© acronym, developing a strategy to achieve a solution to the buyer’s needs is the easiest part of the process. It is a natural culmination to a consultative sales conversation. The strategy is a simple, conversational addition to the sales discussion. It, first, includes a reference back to agreed upon needs. The conversation continues with a review of how the benefits of the recommended solution meet those needs. Then, you develop an understanding of what your buyer would like to do, at this point. You ask them an appropriate and conversationally relevant question. Questions like: “How does that sound to you?”…
“What questions do you have?”…“How would you like to proceed?”

I began this article by making the point that prospects would prefer to buy rather than be sold. Buying requires trust. You gain that trust by following the sales principles prompted by the acronym, LEAD©.

© 2008 Gary Greenfield, Performance Alliance, L.C. All Rights Reserved

Author's Bio: 

Gary Greenfield is a speaker, author, trainer and business coach/consultant who helps people and their organizations “Profit Through Performance.” His areas of expertise are performance improvement and inspirational leadership skills. He provides expert solutions for ten business challenges:
• Performance Improvement
o Driving productivity
o Languishing sales results
o Public speaking skills
o Impacting accountability
o Productivity Improvement solutions
o Need for keynote speaker
• Inspirational Leadership
o Employee job performance
o Clarity in business direction
o Innovative solutions to company growth
o Customized training solutions

Gary had three decades of experience in the financial services industry when he made the leap from the corporate world to the life of professional speaking. Now the real life skills he learned—while rising from an insurance agent to an Executive Vice President managing thousands of sales managers, sales representatives and a multi-million dollar budget—are brought to bear in helping many clients reach their performance goals.
As an author, he is very excited about his soon to be published book, Life’s Ride or Fall…You Make the Call. He describes the book as being a series of thoughts, stories, lessons learned and actionable ideas to help people create the ride of their life. It provides a focused, multi-dimensional approach to help people searching for motivation and direction so they can connect where they have been and where they are to where they want to go in life.
Gary is a professional member of the National Speakers Association, The Florida Speakers Association and the International Federation for Professional Speakers. He is currently the President-Elect of the Florida Speakers Association. Gary is also an Executive Club member of the Greater Naples Chamber of Commerce.