“I don’t know; you left me a voice mail yesterday and I’m returning your call.”
“Oh yeah. Sorry, I called a lot of people yesterday (insert uncomfortable silence while you frantically search for the reason you called Lisa Henderson). Oh right! Lisa, the reason I called is…”
Obviously, this call did not get off to a good start. Unfortunately, this is not an uncommon occurrence.
A conversation similar to this took place a few days ago when I returned a vague message that was left on my voice mail. Needless to say, the person who called me did not make a positive first impression, especially when he made me wait for the better of 90 seconds until he figured out why he called.
I didn’t know if he was a potential prospect looking for sales training or someone trying to sell me something. As it turned out, it was neither.
But that’s not the point.
When you place a call and leave a message the person you called expects you to be prepared when they return your call. That includes recognizing their name.
This is particularly important when contacting new prospects.
You have exactly one opportunity to make a great first impression and if you answer an in-bound call anywhere close to the above example, you run the risk of alienating your prospect which means it will be more difficult to earn their respect and move the sales conversation forward.
If you want to succeed in sales you need to be completely prepared for every call back to ensure that a rocky first impression doesn’t kill your business.
Planning a sales meeting, conference or training session in 2012? Give me a call and we discuss how to get the most from it. 905-633-7750, kelley@fearless-selling.ca.
Bring up the subject of cold calling with a group of sales people and you are assured of a lively conversation as they lament about the challenges associated with this task.
There is no question that it is difficult to connect with the right person in a company. It can be frustrating dealing with gatekeepers, receptionists, and executive assistants. Not to mention that decision makers seldom return voice mail messages. And, if you happen to connect with them, they often brush you off before you get a chance to tell them about your product or service.
A few months ago I wrote an article called Why Salespeople Hate Cold Calling that prompted a lot of feedback. Many of the comments were from sales people who offered their personal hesitations about cold calling. One of most common complaints was the lack of return calls they received and the way they were treated by their prospects.
However, let’s turn the tables for a moment and take a look at cold calling from a company’s perspective. Many companies hate sales people who cold call. Here are six reasons why.
1. The sales person is uninformed.
While people in sales will argue that one purpose of a cold call is to gather information about the company, employees in that organization will tell you that calls like this only demonstrate that the caller is uninformed and ill-prepared. Very few people in a company have time to answer basic questions that could be found on the company’s website.
2. The call is an unwelcome interruption.
Virtually every cold call is an interruption and because most employees are extremely busy, the calls are unwelcome interruption. Certainly, some people will say that if you don’t want to be interrupted that you should not answer your telephone. However, when the call originates from an inside extension, the natural impulse is to answer the call. This leads us to our next point.
3. The sales person uses manipulative tactics to make contact with the decision maker.
Because of the challenges associated with cold calling many sales people resort to using a variety of tactics to connect with the key decision maker. These can include asking for a different department and then asking to be transferred or misrepresenting who they are or the reason for their call. It may also include how they represent themselves. Here are two examples.
a. An executive once told me that a sales rep called and told his executive assistant that he was a close personal friend of the decision maker.
b. A sales rep called my office inquiring about one of my training programs only to pitch me on his products.
These types of approaches may work—once or twice—but ultimately they cause decision makers to become more skeptical about accepting receiving calls from people they don’t know.
4. The company has no use for the product or service that is being pitched.
Some sales people will say that the purpose of their call is to determine whether or not their product or service is applicable to the company they are calling upon.
5. The sales person refuses to take no for an answer.
Certainly persistence is an essential sales skill. However, hanging on like a pit bull and refusing to take no only serves to piss off the other person. And any chance you had of meeting or connecting with that person goes down the drain. You need to know when to let go and when to hang on.
6. The sales person is rude to the receptionist, gatekeeper or executive assistant.
Although this is the last point on the list, it is one of the most important. Too many sales people treat the gatekeeper with disdain or like a second-class citizen. These individuals fail to realize that many gatekeepers can influence who the decision maker meets with.
So, what does this mean for you as a sales professional?
It means that you have an uphill battle.
It means that cold calling is becoming increasingly more difficult.
It means that you need to avoid using the tactics mentioned above. Cold calling is not easy but you can stand out from the crowd and separate yourself from the competition by doing your due diligence before you make your calls and by acting like a true professional.
Planning a Sales Meeting or Training Program?
I help sales people master sales conversations so they can win more business and increase their sales. If you’re planning a sales meeting, conference or event and need an engaging & informative speaker, call me at: 905-633-7750 or Kelley@Fearless-Selling.ca and we can discuss what type of program would help you achieve your goals and objectives.
Prospecting is a key selling skill and a critical skill to develop if you want to increase your sales and achieve long-term success in sales. Yet, most sales people don’t invest enough time to this integral sales strategy. Part of the problem is that very few companies teach sales reps how to prospect.
Here are five prospecting best practices to consider.
Allot a specific amount of time every day/week or month.
When my wife first started her software training business, our accountant said, “Devote a certain amount of time every week looking for new business.”
Prospecting is not a fun activity, at least not for most people. However, the more time you consistently invest prospecting for new business the more likely it is that you will never suffer from a sales slump. That’s why it is imperative that you block time in your calendar each and every week to prospect for new business.
Do you schedule prospecting time into your calendar every week?
Use a variety of methods to prospect for new business.
Too many sales people take the same approach week after week. Although they may generate good results it is critical that you use multiple methods and approach to uncover new business leads. Here are a few strategies you should consider:
- Cold calling via telephone
-Door to door cold calling - Asking for referrals - Networking - Speaking at conferences - Writing articles - Trade shows - Conferences
Are you using enough prospecting methods to generate ample sales leads for your business?
Develop a powerful introduction.
The majority of sales people fail miserably at this. I recall talking to a person I met at a networking event and after a fifteen minute conversation, I still had no idea of what she did or what service she provided to her clients.
Jeffrey Hayzlett, former CMO of Kodak suggests that you have 18 seconds to capture someone’s attention and an additional 100 seconds to convince them why they should continue a conversation or schedule a follow-up call or meeting.
Is your introduction powerful enough to capture the attention of new prospects?
Master all types of media including; telephone, email, text, direct mail, social media
Today’s business offers many more ways to communicate with prospect which makes it easier AND more complex to connect with new prospects. This means you need to be able to communicate effectively in more mediums than before.
- Does your voice mail message help you stand out from your competition? - Can you send an email that compels your prospect to respond? - Do you know how to write an effective sales letter? - Are you utilizing social media to connect with your prospects?
Are you using all forms of media to connect with your prospects?
Create a compelling value proposition.
The vast majority of sales people simply do not create a compelling reason why someone should do business with them or buy their product or service. Their voice mails messages, emails and sales pitches sound like everyone else’s and do little to compel a prospect to return their call, respond to their email, or call them back after a sales presentation.
Is your value proposition valuable enough to compel your prospect to want to talk to you?
Consistent and effective prospecting can make the difference between average sales and great sales results. If you are serious about increasing your sales, make the effort to apply the strategies into your daily and weekly sales routine.
Planning a Sales Meeting or Conference?
I help sales people master sales conversations so they can win more business and increase their sales. If you’re planning a sales meeting, conference or event and need an engaging & informative speaker, call me at: 905-633-7750 or Kelley@Fearless-Selling.ca. Here’s a short video clip of a live presentation: http://bit.ly/ef5P5l
Are you finding that prospects seldom return phone calls? How frustrating is this?!?!
Getting someone to return your call is challenging at the best of times. Think about your own situation for a moment. How many calls do YOU return? I receive many calls from people trying to sell me a product or service but I rarely call these people back.
Decision makers are inundated with people calling trying to sell their product or service. A typical executive in corporate America receives dozens of calls everyday. Most of them get 150 emails in their in-box every day. Plus, they spend the bulk of their 12-14 hour days in meetings.
Try this approach.
Make sure your message focuses on a specific problem they may be experiencing and allude to a way they can resolve it. For example:
“Mr. Prospect, Kelley Robertson calling. I read in today’s newspaper that you are merging with XYZ Corporation. Our research has shown that employee sick days increase by as much as 38% during a merger; however, one of our clients was able to reduce this to just 9%. Call me at 905-633-7750 if you want to discuss how they did this.”
Most voice mail messages focus on the seller’s product or solution. But this doesn’t show your prospect how you can actually help them solve a problem. Change your approach and improve your call back ratio.
BTW: You can get more ideas on how to get prospect’s to return your calls during my next webinar. Get the details here.
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.
