Customer-Centric Selling to Close More Deals with Carole Mahoney

With a decade of experience as an author, speaker, coach, and trainer, Carole Mahoney helps entrepreneurs, founders, and salespeople grow their businesses with a collaborative and science-based sales formula.

In this episode, Carole shares how to make an engaging and collaborative sales conversation that makes your potential buyers feel valued and heard. In doing so, you transform your sales conversations into positive and fruitful interactions.

What you will learn from this episode:

• Learn about this exercise called 'Questions and Periods Game', how to go about it and how it works with your clients
• Discover the step-by-step process of doing the 'Questions and Periods Game' through a role play demonstration of Carole and Mark
• Find out the essential principles you need to know about the art of selling

"Selling isn't something we do to other people. It's something we do with them. And I think that's a fundamental shift that we need to start making in sales."

- Carole Mahoney

Topics Covered:

01:17 - Synopsis of her book 'Buyer First'

03:34 - The best way to look at sales

06:03 - Carole coaching Mark on sales

11:57 - A sales conversation role play between Mark and Carole

16:05 -What is the 'Question and Periods Game' that she used to throw phenomenal questions at Mark?

20:30 - How to do the sales call without having to 'sell you' but to 'help you'

22:55 - Carole's valuable thoughts on Mark's sales technique

26:18 - How to handle a reply to a client's question at the end of the sales call, 'What do you think the next step should be'?

27:15 - What you should not fail to ask towards the end of the sales conversation

Key Takeaways:

"Selling isn't something we do to other people. It's something we do with them. And I think that's a fundamental shift that we need to start making in sales." - Carole Mahoney

"The more you drill down into a specific answer, the more you make them think and the more they start to wonder, maybe I don't know the answer to that. And then you find the opportunity to be able to offer an insight to them when you find out what insight matters most to them." - Carole Mahoney

"When we talk about what we think, dopamine gets released in our brain. And so dopamine is that pleasure center. Like, we want more of that. That's why so many of us tend to get into talking about what we know instead of asking more questions. If we can get our buyers to talk more than we do, they're getting the dopamine released in their brains and they feel good about the conversation." - Carole Mahoney

"Knowing who else can say no or who else can say yes and who else is going to be impacted by this [decision] is a critical question to ask towards the end of a call for your next step." - Carole Mahoney

People/Resources Mentioned:

• Buyer First: Grow Your Business with Collaborative Selling by Carole Mahoney: https://carolemahoney.com/books/buyerfirstbook/

Connect with Carole Mahoney:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolemahoney/
• Website: https://www.unboundgrowth.com/

Connect with Mark Stiving:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/
• Email: mark@impactpricing.com