Rethinking What a Good Sales Conversation Really Is – No PowerPoint allowed
Early in my career, I thought a good sales presentation meant showing up with a polished PowerPoint, confidently talking about my company, our products, and our services—and doing it all flawlessly. I believed that impressing the client with information was the key to closing deals.
It took me a while—and a lot of missed opportunities—to realize that the opposite is true. A truly effective sales conversation isn’t about showcasing your knowledge; it’s about creating space for your client to share theirs. It’s about connection, empathy, and discovery.
Building Connection First
Before you can even think about pitching solutions, you need to build rapport. This isn’t about small talk for the sake of it or trying to be liked. It’s about establishing trust so the other person feels comfortable sharing their perspective, their challenges, and their goals.
Once that trust is in place, you’re given permission to explore their side of the house. But here’s the challenge: many of us come into meetings overprepared, eager to share everything we’ve prepared. That’s where the problem lies. If you dominate the conversation with your slides, your talking points, and your proposals, you leave little room for the client to speak—and that’s when discovery suffers.
Discovery Is About Questions, Not Presentations
A great discovery call is less about talking and more about listening. It’s about asking questions that go beyond the surface—questions that make your prospect comfortable enough to open up about the real challenges they’re facing. This is only possible if you’ve taken the time to build that initial connection.
When you ask thoughtful questions and really listen, you gain insights that a presentation alone could never provide. You learn what matters most to your client, where the gaps are, and what outcomes they truly care about. And that information becomes the foundation for creating solutions that actually fit their needs.
Besides, in sales, you should not answer an unasked question, and having a fully populated PowerPoint is giving your client the opportunity to start having lots of questions that may not be the time to bring up.
What to Do Differently in Your Next Meeting
So, here’s my challenge to you for this week: if you have a meeting scheduled with a prospect, try leaving your PowerPoint behind. Come prepared with your best questions instead—questions that will help you empathize, understand, and uncover the real needs of the person in front of you.
The goal isn’t to have all the answers right away. The goal is to listen more than you speak, to understand before you propose, and to create a foundation of trust that makes your next presentation—or proposal—truly relevant. Because if you talk too much, you listen too little, and that’s a problem if you want to solve real problems and provide real value.
If you’re unsure how to conduct a discovery call that digs deep and builds trust, let’s connect. We can exchange ideas and approaches that will help you uncover insights, build stronger relationships, and ultimately, deliver solutions that actually make a difference.
If you don’t know how to do a discovery call properly, asking deeper questions, just connect with me. We can bounce back some ideas and discover something that is going to help you.
Talk soon,
Tati
