Conversation

Conversation is the stage where you find out what the customer needs, what budget they have and by when. Usually it is a call or a meeting, sometimes a long thread in a messenger. Selling comes later. Here you learn enough to make an offer that fits, or you see there is no fit and tell the customer so.

In a CRM a deal moves to Conversation once the first real talk has happened. After it, three fields should be filled: need, budget and timeline, in the customer’s words. A note like “good call, interested” tells the next person nothing. A note with a room count, a budget and a month is enough for anyone on the team to prepare a proposal.

For example, after a call the record says: three rooms, a $9,000 budget, by November.

In a small team the seller who answers the inquiry usually runs the conversation too. A deal leaves this stage when need, budget and timeline are recorded and the customer has agreed to receive a proposal by a named date. Where it usually stalls: a pleasant call ends with “I’ll send you something,” nobody names a date, and a week later both sides have forgotten the details.

In the weekly pipeline review, the head of sales opens the deals that have sat in Conversation longer than usual. Start with seven days as a hypothesis and test it against your own sales cycle. For each deal, ask the seller one question: what is missing, the need, the budget or the date? The answer decides whether the deal gets a proposal, another call or closes with a reason.

Qualification happens inside the conversation: the short questions about need, budget and timeline. The conversation ends with a next step, a specific action with an owner and a date. Two conversions are worth watching here. Inquiry to Conversation tells you whether replies are fast enough. Conversation to Proposal tells you whether sellers ask the right questions. If that second number drops, sit down with the seller and listen to two recorded calls before you touch the script.

• Writing impressions instead of facts. Nobody can check “warm client.” Record the need, the budget and the date the way the customer said them.
• Skipping the budget question because it feels awkward, and then guessing the price in the proposal. Ask for a range, not one figure: people find it easier to answer.
• Hanging up without a next step. End every conversation with a date for the proposal and put it in the CRM before you dial the next number.
• Talking only to a user who cannot approve the budget. Ask who else takes part in the decision and how your offer will reach them.

By Friday, each seller opens their five most recent deals in Conversation and checks three fields: need, budget, timeline. Every empty field becomes a task with a date, a short call or a message to fill it. On Friday afternoon the head of sales goes through the list. As a starting rule, close a deal with a reason after two weeks of customer silence, then test whether that fits your cycle.

Six areas of the job on one map, with a self-assessment and a plan for your first month.