The Compelling Conversation™: The Smart Approach that Inspires Buyers to Change

Is the status quo bogging down your sales?

Feel like it’s taking forever these days to close the deal? Your gut is right—buying cycles are indeed stretching out. In fact, more than two-thirds of buyers say their purchase efforts are taking longer than just a year ago.[1] More people are involved—an average of 11 stakeholders these days[2] – and the number of buying interactions is also climbing.[3]

Longer, more complicated buying cycles with more people and interactions involved are not a surprise, given that solutions are becoming more complex and cut across more functions. The stakes of making a wrong decision are higher than ever. But the resulting glacial pace of decision-making often strengthens prospects’ commitment to your greatest competitor: the status quo.

Consider this: four out of ten B2B purchase attempts end in no decision.² That’s the status quo at work, shutting down nearly half your prospects’ efforts to buy something new. How are you going to enable your Marketing and Sales teams to break through the status quo and change the minds of your prospects?

Tackle the status quo with the Compelling Conversation™

Breaking through the status quo requires acceleration of the buying experience with value-added interactions that are immediately relevant, make your case, consistently tell your story, and provide insight . At Visible Impact, we call this the Compelling Conversation™—a unique, proven approach that activates the buying mindset. The Compelling Conversation™ is rooted in the fundamentals of the well-respected insight selling method.

The Compelling Conversation™ distills the fundamentals of this proven sales methodology into five simple elements:

• An Icebreaker consisting of relevant, up-to-date trends
• A Breakdown outlining buyer pains
• The Turn painting a promising “What If?” reframing of obstacles as opportunities
• The Breakthrough featuring the benefits your prospects can achieve with your solutions
• Proof Points demonstrating your proven ability to solve challenges and bring the benefits and vision of your solution to life

Applying the Compelling Conversation™ to Marketing and Sales

Every element of the Compelling Conversation™ provides the opportunity for your prospect to experience an “a-ha moment”—a flash of realization that shakes up the status quo. That’s because those five elements are effective, distinctive, and valuable—and the resulting message promotes the sense of urgency you need to drive prospects to make a change. The Compelling Conversation™ can—and should—be leveraged across every content format, from an elevator pitch, social media post, or website to webinars, solution videos, eBooks and sales presentations to ensure you are telling a consistent story.

This type of interaction can also accelerate a sluggish sales cycle. Marketing materials can jumpstart the conversation, encouraging buyer discovery and evaluation – and even conversations among the buying group. Sales enablement and conversation tools can help sales interactions with prospects and opportunities found through intent tools, targeted listed, funnels, etc.

The Compelling Conversation™ works across the buying experience in the moments both big and small. By following its structure, you can craft highly effective buying encounters that guide your target customers to those insight-driven moments that shake up—and break through—the status quo. 

Get started with the Compelling Conversation™

Want an even deeper dive into why and how the buying conversation must change? R ready to start having the Compelling Conversation™ with your customers and prospects? We are ready to help. Connect with us by scheduling a meeting at your convenience.