3 Simple Rules For Your Next Sales Call
August 7, 2008
The other day I received a call from a telemarketer selling a website “starter kit” for small businesses. If you are reading this right now, then you undoubtedly know that I have a website. Normally, I would quickly get the telemarketer off the line so I could get back to showing people how to make more money. But this call got my attention because I thought that this might be a potential service that I could recommend to my clients. So I decided to listen to this sales pitch to evaluate the offering and the approach that the telemarketer used.
Well the rep started by going straight into a sales pitch. She was using the age-old technique of trying to complete her benefits-loaded-sales-pitch before I knew what hit me. This technique is very similar to television, radio, or print advertising where if you show your ad to enough people with a pulse, then you will eventually find a few people who actually need the service.
Sales Success Step 1: STRONG SALES CULTURE
April 20, 2008
Big business who sell well embrace a sales culture. It is evident from the leadership that winning and keeping customers is important. Sales is not a “function” or a department with “CARE - Customers Are Really Everything” signs. Leaders in these businesses make it their business to keep in touch with customers, to personally engage on the big deals, and to assist the sales people with practical insights or support.
As a result big business often have the edge over smaller to medium sized businesses by having invested in multi-level relationships with a client over a long time. The value of this can be as simple as a phone call to suggest an account is at risk, or to smooth over a service failure, and even a nudge that a pencil should be sharpened on pricing.
Best practice sales organisations recognise that the role of the organisation is to support the sale. As a result there is a high level of alignment with marketing, and a genuine lack of “us” and “them” between sales and other functions.
Get Instant Rapport On Sales Cold Calls
December 11, 2007
Immediately establish rapport on cold-calls by matching your prospect’s voice qualities - tone, pace, and emotion. Matching the emotion, or mood, of your prospect is key. If you begin your call sounding excited when she is not, you will be immediately branded as a salesperson, and the prospect’s guard will be way up.
By matching her emotion, you immediately get her thinking “this person is like me”. And we all want to talk to people like us. Begin your call with a simple question to verify the prospect’s name even though you know who you are calling. This is your first chance to establish rapport.
Let’s say that the next name on your prospect list is Dave Jackson:
DJ - “Hello. This is Dave Jackson”
You - “Hello, is this Dave Jackson?”
DJ - “Yes it is.”
Repeat his name while matching his voice qualities - tone, pace, and emotion. You ask the name verification question, even though he stated his name, to break his thought pattern.
Then make a judgment about just how busy he is. If the prospect feels receptive go ahead and deliver your attention grabbing intro.
