I’ve been experimenting with how to build relationships when limited to online meetings. I find that reserving a few minutes at the end of the formal meeting is yielding excellent results!
Prior to COVID many sales calls were made face-to-face and often included time with the prospect after the formal business discussions had taken place. These interactions ranged from getting coffee/tea/water in a break room or cafeteria, to lunch or dinner off-campus, to tours of your prospect’s facilities.
This extra time enabled real relationships to develop where you learned about your prospect’s company culture, personal interests, intriguing stories, and more.
How do you accomplish this online?
While it is still very important to establish rapport at the beginning of a call, if you want to develop a deeper relationship with your prospect, try doing so at the end of the business discussion:
- What’s that intriguing object on their shelf behind them?
- What’s going on at their location (weather, events, etc.)?
- What are they using for their online setup? How have they adapted?
- How has their company culture been changing since before/after COVID?
- How have their personal practices changed, similarly?
Of course, make sure to track on the time so that you can invest in this non-formal-business conversation towards the end of the call!
And please let me know your results!
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