After weeks of trying you connect with a prospect. Woo hoo!
The conversation goes well and finishes with something like, “I’ll get that information to you by tomorrow and I’ll call you early next week to discuss it with you.” But when you call the following week, you get your prospect’s voice mail. After repeated failed attempts to connect with your contact, you move on to another opportunity.
Sound familiar?
Here’s how you can prevent this situation from happening. Pinpoint and nail down a specific day and time before you end your call. Here is an example of how you can do that easily and without sounding aggressive or rude.
“I’ll get that information to you by tomorrow and I’ll call you next week to discuss it with you. How does Tuesday morning work for you? Great, what time works best for you? Any time in the morning? Is your calendar open at 10:15? Terrific; l will send you an email invitation this morning so we can both confirm next Tuesday at 10:15 AM.”
This assertive approach is extremely effective for getting your prospect to schedule a specific time to speak with you which means that you increase the likelihood that you will actually connect with your prospect especially if you have the courage to ask them to mark the call in their calendar. Not only does it demonstrate your expertise and professionalism, it differentiates you from your competition, and in today’s crowded marketplace, it is essential to find little, yet meaningful ways to stand out from the crowd.
Sometimes, however, it is easy to get mislead by an unfocused prospect who simply says, “Call me next week.” The key here is to use the same approach and narrow down a specific day and time. Here is how you handle that conversation and the questions you need to ask:
“What day usually works best for you?” If they say, “Any day is fine” narrow it down with, “How does next Tuesday look?”
Follow this with, “Do mornings or afternoons work best?” or “Is there a particular time of day that works better?” The word ‘particular’ is key because it encourages your prospect to consider their typical day and think of the best time to call.
In some cases, they may still respond with a vague answer like, “mornings” so take a deep breath and ask one more question: “Does 10:15 work for you?” or “What’s your schedule like at 10:15?” I have found that scheduling an appointment on a quarter hour is more effective than a standard time like 10:00 or 10:30. Some other sales trainers even suggest that you request a time like 10:20 or 10:40. I haven’t tried that so I can’t comment on its effectiveness.
This approach requires a bit of gentle persistence and practise but it is not aggressive or offensive and people respond well to it because it shows that you respect your prospect’s time. One key to remember is to keep your voice evenly modulate and your tone conversational. Avoid allowing any type of frustration to creep into your tone because you will automatically be perceived as aggressive instead assertive.
Finally, when you do make your follow-up call, start the conversation by saying something like, “Mr Contact, I’m calling you as promised.” If you happen to get their voice mail, hang up and call three- to- five minutes later. If you get bumped to VM again, leave the above message. More often than not, you will get a return call. At least that has been my experience.
Resist the temptation to leave the next call or meeting unscheduled and you will dramatically improve your results. By the way, this approach works equally as well for face-to-face meetings.
Planning a sales meeting, conference or retreat? If I can help you or your company, please drop me a line and we can talk. 905-633-7750.
There’s nothing like real-life examples to point out the good, the bad and ugly about sales calls and how they can help or prevent you from increasing your sales. Here is a post-mortem of a sales call I received yesterday afternoon.
The call didn’t get off to a great start because I answered the telephone with, “Good afternoon, Kelley Robertson” and the caller said, “Hi, I’d like to speak with Kelley Robertson please.” Um, didn’t I just say that it was me?
Lesson: Listen carefully when your prospect answers the telephone.
She introduced herself and I caught her name but not her company. She even repeated her company’s name a few times during our one-sided conversation but I never did catch it. It wasn’t until see snet me an email that I figured out who she represented.
Lesson: Make sure that you clearly articulate your name and that of your company.
Anyway, she mentioned that she came across my name from the Top Sales World website and the series of webinars that were conducted last week. She asked if I knew one of the presenters and it turned out that it was one of few whom I didn’t.
Lesson: Attempts at building rapport need to carefully thought-out.
Like most salespeople she told me about her company and what they did. I have to admit that her approach here was because she didn’t spend a lot of time talking about her company and their services. This is rare.
Lesson: Limit the amount of time you talk about your company in the early stages of a sales call.
After she told me about her company she proceeded to ask me several questions about document production including workbooks for my training programs etc. Unfortunately, she made the classic error of trying to pitch a service that I had little need for. Here’s what I mean…
She asked how I review my workbooks after I submit them to my printer and I told her that I didn’t need to because I have been working that printer for almost 15 years and they have never misprinted a workbook. It appeared that pre-printing proofing was a hot button for her but it wasn’t for me.
Lesson: Never discuss aspects of your product or service that have little or no relevance to your prospect’s situation.
Finally, she asked if she could send me information and arrange a 20 minute demonstration of their service even though I said I had no intention of changing suppliers. After all, my printer has been doing a great job for more than 15 years, why would I change?
Lesson: Recognize low-value leads and move on to other sales opportunities.
Oops, I almost forgot. She did send me an email later that day but her opening line was “Thanks for taking the time to speak with me yesterday!” Plus, the email simply reiterated everything she told me in our telephone conversation.
Lesson: Make sure your follow-up emails include more information or a reason NOT to delete it and make the information is accurate.
I help sales professionals master their sales conversations so they can win more deals. Contact me if I can help you or your company: 905-633-7750 Kelley@RobertsonTrainingGroup.com
It seems that too many sales people fail to consider the impact of that first phone call to a new prospect. It doesn’t matter if it’s a warm lead generated by the other person, a referral from a trusted source, a contact form on website or a cold call.
If you don’t ace that first call, you won’t get the opportunity to move that conversation forward and increase your sales. Here are eight ways you can butcher a telephone sales call.
1. Hem & haw. I can’t count the number of calls I get from people who don’t seem to know what to say. They hem and haw and use too many filler words such as um and uh and ah. Think about your opening line. Determine ahead of time exactly what you’re going to say in those opening moments. Script it out and rehearse so it flows naturally and comfortably BEFORE you dial theat number.
2. Mispronounce their name. I wrote a post about this a few weeks ago. One of the quickest ways to alienate someone is to say their name incorrectly. Enough said.
3. Open with, “Uh, John Smith suggested I call you.” If you think an opening like that is going to compel the other person to continue the conversation you need to consider a career change. Before you make that call do your research just like any other sales call. Even though it’s a referral call, you need to demonstrate why the other person should listen to you.
4. Multi-task. A few years ago, a sales person called me and during our conversation I could hear him tapping away on his computer. I think he was capturing my contact info and recording details of our conversation in his CRM system but I found it very distracting not to mention annoying.
5. Immediately start pitching your product. Before you launch into a lengthy diatribe about your product, your company, your solution or anything else related to YOU, ask your prospect a question or two to get them engaged in the conversation. The one caveat to this: it is acceptable to open with a brief (VERY brief! Like 15 seconds or less!) success story or description of a potential problem your prospect might be facing.
6. Call from a cell phone. This one’s tricky because the vast majority of sales people make sales calls from their cell phone. However, if this is your first call to a new prospect, I strongly suggest that you call from a landline to reduce delays, echos, and dropped calls.
7. Open with a long introduction. The longer you talk at the beginning of a sales telephone call, the more impatient your prospect will become and the more quickly they will look for a way end the call.
8. Call late. In some cases, your prospect will ask that you call at a pre-determined time. Never, ever call late! Even if you call five minutes late you demonstrate a lack of respect for the other person’s time. Punctuality is essential!
It is becoming increasingly more difficult to get more sales and increase your business. If your telephone call to a prospect is your first connection with that person and you butcher the call, you will lose the opportunity to move the sales process forward, close the business, and increase your sales.
The other day I received one of the worst voice mail messages ever. While I don’t profess to be an expert on using the telephone for sales this person made some fatal blunders that hopefully, you will avoid.
The caller spoke so quickly I could barely understand her message let alone write down her telephone number. Her words ran together and it was difficult to decipher the company name even though I listened to the message twice. Although we hear information at two to three times the rate we speak (approximately 450 words per minute vs. 150 wpm), most people cannot actually process information that quickly especially if they need to write something down (see the next point). When you leave a voice mail message ensure that it is clear, articulate and easy to understand. Better yet, make sure you leave a compelling reason for your prospect to return your call.
This was obviously a sales call and the sales person wanted me to return her call. That didn’t happen because I didn’t want to listen to her message six or seven times simply to get her phone number. After all, it took two listens just to get the area code. If you make a lot of calls in a day, it’s easy to forget that rattling off your number in rapid-fire manner will make it difficult for the other person to record it. Slow down when you recite your telephone number. You may think that you are speaking too slowly but I can assure that your contact will appreciate. Better yet, leave your call-back number at the beginning AND at the end of the message.
She indicated that this was a follow-up call to a request I had made, but it was difficult to tell because her message was so difficult to understand. I think it was something about accepting credit cards for my business. However, because I already accept all major credit cards, I couldn’t think of a recent time when I may have requested information about this. This actually brings up a few points.
1. If I did make the request, the sales person should have referenced it by saying something like, “Mr. Robertson, on (insert date here) you requested information on our credit card solutions through our website and I’m contacting you to discuss the solutions we offer.” This would have caught my attention.
2. I don’t recall making a request which means if I did, it was several months ago. That means the timing of their follow-up calls needs improvement. How quickly do you respond to requests? I have found that there is serious lag or delay for companies to web forms and even voice mail requests.
3. If I didn’t make the request then the caller was using a deceptive approach. Never, under any circumstances, deceive a person in order to get a return call. Not only is it unethical, it’s highly unlikely that people will buy from you once they discover that you have taken this approach.
Here is another fatal mistake.
She couldn’t end the call quickly enough. As soon as she spewed out her phone number, she hung up. I suspect this person has a high number of calls to make every day and it is entirely possible that she simply makes them as quickly as she can to get them over with. It’s also possible that she was an inside sales rep and is paid a straight salary with little or no incentive to have her calls returned. If that was the case this person is not doing her company any favors. In fact, here approach is actually hurting their results.
In hindsight, I wish I hadn’t deleted the message so quickly—I’ll be the first to admit that patience is not one of my stronger suits. I would love to have played this message back to the person in charge of the sales team at this company and asked them if this how they really wanted their outbound calls handled.
If you own a business and rely on others to make outbound calls or sales calls, I strongly suggest that you record and audit their calls from time-to-time. If you make your own sales calls, take the time to record yourself and listen to your approach. You may be surprised what you hear.
This post is actually a request. I received a question from a newsletter subscriber and thought that it would be more effective to post his question here rather than provide my direct feedback. Please read his situation and post your suggestion, idea or comment afterwards.
Kelley, I’m in equipment financing and my prospecting is directed towards companies that sell equipment. The problem I’m having is that the people they refer to me for financing ALWAYS ask for rate quotes BEFORE they submit their application “just to get an idea what the payments will be”.
I don’t know anything about them and what terms they will qualify for, it’s not my decision. I really need the credit department to run the prospect’s credit report first and complete their due diligence. The conversations often become very confrontational and inevitably whenever I do give them a quote I never hear from them again.
I’ve tried not giving quotes, but then they won’t send in their application or they say “what rate did you give the last customer with good credit” or “the other companies I’m talking to all gave me quotes…why can’t you?” These “customers” just want interest rate quotes and don’t understand why I’d need any information to give them a number. I can’t establish any value because they consider financing a commodity
To make matters worse, I’m usually not dealing with the decision maker. It’s usually a manager or assistant “gathering information”.
What is the best way to handle this question when I really need them to do something for me first?
Readers, what suggestions do you have? Please post your comments…
