Lauren Schwed: Let's talk about the interview. The interview is one of the most important parts of your call. This will either make or break your sale. I know there are a couple of different struggles that you can run into with your interviews. Sometimes they're too short because it's really hard to get the prospect to open up or they're too long. And the prospect just rambles on for 30 40 minutes at a time, then they're too tired at the end of the call to actually make a decision in your sale. But the interview is so important. This is where you're making a connection with your prospect, especially being just a random voice on the phone. You want to stand out amid all the other calls that they've taken that week or that month. The aim of the interview is twofold. The first purpose of the interview is to gather the necessary information that you want to have about your prospect. All the questions that we have on the page, the stuff you fill out in your admin profile, you get them talking about themselves in their career, things, they know very well and they love talking about, get them all buttered up and excited about their accomplishments and how they deserve to be recognized for it. The second aim of the interview is to get them thinking about what could be different about their career. This will prime them for the presentation. So if you ask them questions that they don't have answers to or they say no to, for example, have you published any articles or books? And they say no, that's OK. That gets them thinking about what could be different about their career if they think they're so solid where they are and they don't need to change at all. The benefits in the presentation are not going to land very well and they're not going to be inclined to make a decision to change their career or modify in some way by pursuing this program. Keep that in mind as you're developing a relationship with them and you're building this conversation, you're having a genuine conversation with them. This is not an interrogation. So how do you build that genuine conversation with your prospect through a scripted interview? I want to give you a three step conversation technique to add to your interviews. This will do two things. It will lengthen the interview if you struggle with getting your prospect to open up, but it will also give you the control over the interview to handle those really heavy talkers. The conversational technique is three steps, you're going to ask a follow up question deliver a one or two line story or anecdote and then laugh with them after you ask the question that's on the page, ask a follow up question pertaining to the answer that they gave you, then bring in a one or two line story that you can connect with them on. And then the third thing you'll do is make a little joke, laugh with them. Move on to the next question. Layering this into your interview will give you the length you're looking for that sweet spot about 10 minutes. But also give you the control over the interview that you need to make the sale happen. If you struggle with finding that one or two line story or that special anecdote to share with them, you can pull from previous calls and different prospects that you've talked to in the past. For example, on the real estate team, there was a sales rep who didn't really have much experience with real estate agents. So she pulled from a call that she had a couple of weeks ago with a different agent. The question she asked from her interview was, do you have an area of specialization? The prospect said, yes, I do residential. Then she said, OK, do you do a lot of open houses? Then that's the follow up question. The prospect said, no, I actually haven't done a lot of open houses lately. And then her story was, you know, I talked to someone recently who said that she did five open houses her first year and sold three out of those five open houses. Her first year of doing real estate. It was really cool. And then the prospect will respond with either a story from their career or just some agreeance. And then she makes a little joke about like, I just think that's so amazing. Oh, cool. And she laughs a little bit and then moves on great way to bring in a story from a previous conversation with the prospect. If you don't have any experience with the demographic, you're talking to implementing these conversation techniques and treating your interview. Like you're getting to know someone personally for the first time will help you connect with your prospect on a deeper level. They will trust you. It will build your credibility and establish a lot of warmth and connection with them. So when it comes time for the sale, they trust you. They feel like they know you, you stand out from everyone they've talked to that week and you're special to them. Go forth and develop wonderful connections with your prospects and happy selling.
