5 Key Field Sales Conversation Components for Any Product or Service

There’s a reason we know it as the “art” of conversation — it’s a living work. It’s a dance. It’s a give-and-take between people. And it’s extremely important to successful sales calls and the in-home sales process where a rep’s opening line could potentially make or break the deal. Because, like art, successful sales conversations can be quite subjective.

Business doesn’t happen on the golf course or in the boardroom; business happens in sales conversations. Between nouns, adjectives, and verbs. And the best reps (and managers) know that sales success begins — and ends — with building trust.

With the right tools (like Rilla), sales managers can help reps turn customer insights into a sales strategy. And with the right techniques, reps can turn these strategies into sales conversations that close deals. Discover how through Rilla’s own data, and learn five keys (and three bonus tips) to productive sales conversations for any business.

1. Build Rapport and Trust Early On

The most important element in any relationship is trust. And the only way to build trust is with open communication and by developing a shared understanding of common goals. 

One way reps can get the trust ball rolling is by establishing rapport with sales prospects. This means icebreakers or small talk: planting the seeds of connection by discussing shared interests and common ground. Reps can then water these seeds by asking open-ended questions to find out more about potential buyers’ wants and needs. 

The optimal talk-listen ratio is 50/50 — that’s the sweet spot. See the evidence for yourself in our research below.

But of course, not all customer interactions are textbook examples. If reps can keep their talking percentage no higher than 65%, this will help them close more deals and increase ticket sizes.

The goal of optimizing the talking/listening ratio is to not only develop personal relationships with customers but also discover their current pain points with regard to your industry. Then, reps can tailor their communications to illustrate how they can help relieve prospects’ pain points with your products and services. 

One way to make sure reps are building rapport, leading with your value proposition, and addressing customer pain points effectively is with virtual ridealong software. Managers and sales leaders can review reps’ field sales conversations and analyze the tone, pacing, and topics that resonate with customers and potential clients. They can also determine if reps need to begin addressing customer pain points earlier in the conversation or if they need to establish more of a foundation prior to discussing specific issues. Reviewing sales professionals’ in-home conversations with customers can help you provide personalized coaching to build trust.

2. Ask the Right Questions Through Active Listening

Half of being a good speaker is being a good listener. If reps want to discover customers’ acute pain points, they need to ask the right questions. And the best way to figure out the right questions is by listening with purpose.

When reps listen carefully, they’re able to uncover deeper insights about a prospect’s needs. Imagine one of your sales reps speaking with a customer about upgrading their HVAC system. The customer says they’re interested in energy efficiency. Instead of jumping into product features, the rep asks open-ended follow-up questions and paraphrases the customer’s responses. 

This uncovers a deeper issue: The customer is concerned with energy bills during the summer. Now, the rep can tailor their sales pitch to focus on the cost-saving benefits of your system, not just energy efficiency.

The rep took advantage of two active listening techniques: asking follow-up questions and paraphrasing customers’ responses to clarify and confirm understanding. And our research shows that top-performing reps ask more open-ended questions. 

Here are two other techniques reps can add to their active listening repertoire: 

• Stay present: Focus fully on the customer without distractions to catch subtle cues.
• Practice non-verbal cues: Reps should nod, maintain eye contact, and mind their body language to convey openness and understanding.

Now, of course, these tactics may not work as effectively if you’re cold calling, so your reps would have to rely strictly on “verbal” elements in these settings. But in both remote and in-person sales scenarios, active listening and asking open-ended questions help reps develop a back-and-forth dialog that keeps customers engaged. 

Consider that average sales reps ask around five open-ended questions per customer interaction. Top sales reps ask around 25. So, the more your reps get to know your customers (and their pain points), the more easily they can provide solutions that meet your customers’ needs.

3. Stick to the Process

Successful teams come prepared for field sales meetings. They have a plan and a predefined structure in mind, and they often have a script that they follow during customer interactions. In fact, script compliance is the leading contributing factor to higher close rates and increased sales tickets.

A plan that includes a script ensures rep consistency. It guides more introverted reps through the conversation and keeps more extroverted reps from going off-track. It maps out reps’ time in customers’ homes and allows them to cover key points effectively. This structure eases reps’ anxiety about what to say next and gives them the confidence to answer customer questions and add value during each step of the sales process.

When reps follow their plan to the letter, they can quadruple their success — script-compliant sales teams produce ticket sizes four times higher than teams that don’t follow a script. And when teams stick to a process, it’s easier to analyze their performance and pinpoint areas for improvement. 

Just make sure your reps are still flexible enough to pick up on customer cues. It’s important for reps to hit all the main sales points, but it’s equally important for them to not be so rigid that they overlook a customer’s bid for engagement.

4. Personalize Approaches With Data

Reps should use any potential customer or current customer data they have at their disposal to personalize their pitches. This means referencing past sales conversations, mutual connections, social media, and any information in your customer relationship management (CRM) system that helps reps get “in” with sales prospects.

Say your window sales rep is going out to speak with a customer in their home. Before the interaction, your rep looks at the customer’s data and researches the specific neighborhood in which the customer lives. Because of the historical nature of the houses there — and the typical forecast — the rep learns homes in that neighborhood often face high energy bills in the winter. So, during the customer conversation, the rep personalizes their approach by referencing local weather patterns and explaining how your windows can help them reduce heating costs by up to 20%.

Your sales reps’ goal should be to make customers feel seen and understood. Again, it’s about building trust. Customer conversations need to feel relevant, meaningful, and “human.” And the more your salespeople can discover about their customers beforehand, the better you can coach them to tailor these insights to meet customer needs (and close deals). Because the most successful sales training always comes back to data.

5. Boost Sales Opportunities With Strategic Follow-ups

Sales follow-ups should be continuations of the conversations reps had with customers in their homes — not just generic templates or “check-ins.” Instead of just taking customers’ “temperatures,” reps should dive deeper into customers’ pain points and offer solutions to previously discussed objections. 

Your reps’ follow-ups should provide value and address any customer concerns that weren’t covered during the initial sales interaction. These discussions should be timely and maintain the rapport they built during the face-to-face appointment — and this means more active listening. When executed strategically, follow-ups are opportunities to turn conversations into closed deals.

For example, let’s say your salesperson speaks to a plumbing customer who has concerns about installation time. The homeowner is worried that a lengthy water heater upgrade process will take up too much time and be too much of a burden on their household. So when your rep follows up after the in-home interaction, you can coach them to include a step-by-step overview and timeline of the upgrade process. This helps to address customers’ pain points and provides an “agenda” that the customer can refer back to as needed.

Another way managers can help reps optimize their follow-ups is by referencing data. They can coach reps using data that has been shown to convert similar leads within their sales funnel and tailor their messaging to align with this data. 

Bonus Tips for Successful Sales Conversations

Check out a few extra tips to help your reps have the best sales conversations of their careers.

• Bonus tip #1: Save price for the end. It takes time to build up product value with customers, especially when it comes to major purchases for homeowners, so reps should wait as long as possible to talk pricing. Our research shows that the longer reps wait, the better the outcome — without diminishing returns. For the best results, reps should wait more than four minutes to mention price.
• Bonus tip #2: Use promotions strategically. When reps effectively leverage sales promotions, they can significantly increase a deal’s overall value. Our research shows that when sales reps from a major HVAC manufacturer mentioned a promotion during a customer interaction, ticket sizes increased by more than 92%.
• Bonus tip #3: Don’t forget financing. Leveraging financing is key to empowering homeowners to find the best possible solution for their needs. When financing options are available to customers, they’re a lot more likely to consider significant home renovation and home services investments. Financing options mean customers can often afford twice what they normally would without these options. Mentioning financing also increases close rates by an average of nearly 3%.

These are just three extra ways your reps can set themselves up for sales conversation success and build trust with customers.

The Ultimate Sales Conversations are Made With Rilla

Regardless of your sales team’s product or service, you can help your reps have more effective sales conversations using Rilla’s virtual ride along software and AI analytics. With Rilla, managers like you can analyze reps’ sales conversations in real time and provide timely coaching and feedback to improve their performance. 

With Rilla’s data-backed insights, managers can provide reps with actionable tips for boosting ticket sizes and closing deals. And combined with trust-building tactics like establishing rapport — and engagement strategies like active listening — managers can use this data to help reps personalize their messaging and craft intelligent follow-ups with customers. This not only strengthens your brand in your customers’ minds, but also drives revenue for your business.

Ready to get started helping your reps have more successful sales conversations? Contact us to book a demo today.