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Sales Call Tips

If you havent already, please ABOLISH the following from you sales calls: Hows it going! Just Checking in. How are you today? What you can say during initial stage of sales call.
Below are few suggestions from Sales training experts.

Hows it going? is NOT a Good Call Strategy

By Art Sobczak

Sales 101 tells us that it easier and more profitable to sell more to an existing customer than to try and get a new one, we should do whatever we can to nurture existing customers, and our good customers are our best source of referrals. But so many sales reps either neglect their customers, or make lame, haphazard half-attempts at really servicing their customers and therefore building profitable relationships. Case in point: The Hows it going? and Just checking in calls. What wastes of time. Worse, potentially damaging. Heres a personal example.

I had leased a vehicle from a local dealer. The young sales rep was enthusiastic, but didnt do a particularly good job of selling. I was in no hurry to buy, but he was in a huge, seemingly desperate rush to sell. As a result, he kept lowering his price, and finally hit a point that was too good to pass up. Over the next several weeks I received a few calls on my cell phone voice mail from the relatively new sales rep, each one pretty much the same: Hey, just wanted to be sure everything is OK with the car.Give me a call. Well, to me that is a worthless call, and I felt there was another motive. If everything was not OK, I would certainly have let them know. I never did return the calls. Finally, after a few more voice messages, I answered (I guess you can attribute it to persistence, or just wearing me down.) The call went the same as the others: Hows everything going with the car? Just fine, I replied. OK. Know anyone else looking for a car?, he then asked. Not right now, I told him. I did have a small issue though they were to arrange to get my license plates to me and it was past the time they had promised. So I asked him, By the way, I still have not received my plates yet. Can you check on that? He assured me he would. He never did get back to me, and I handled it on my own. Several sales points here: 1. Some people might say the Want to be sure everything is OK-call is good customer service. No, usually it is a thin disguise for a self-serving motive, which it was in this case: asking for a referral. Im not saying dont call. Do. But have something of value or interest as the reason. He had known the issue about the plates before, so he should have called with an update on them. Or some other news, or something of value like info on the free oil changes I was promised. 2. Im all for asking for referrals. The best time to do it is when you have just been told how good you are, or how much someone enjoys your product.

3. If someone is going to make the effort to place a call to supposedly find out if everything is going OK and then is told it is not (no plates yet), shouldnt they then follow through to give the appearance that they truly care that everything is OK? I believe so. Of course calling existing customers is your best source of additional business and referrals. The key is making someone feel that every time they speak with you they had gained by doing so.

7 Tips to Perfect Your Sales Pitch: Abolish How Are You Today? & I Think From Your Sales Call Forever
By Seamless Contacts

If youre like many sales professionals, one of the most dreaded aspects of your job can be making that cold call or sales pitch. While you may think you have crafted the most impressive sales script, when put into action, your demand gen strategy leaves you flat, wishing there were easier ways to capture new leads and close more meetings and opportunities. Instead of obsessing over defeat, think about how you can optimize the approach for your next sales call. More often than not, sales reps employ a number of trite expressions when making sales calls that almost guarantee failure. The good news is, there are some very easy ways to turn this trend around. From your greeting to how you ask a question or how you phrase certain statements can go a long way in taking your sales call to the next level. Below are some helpful and easy tips to keep in mind as you continue to tweak your sales script. While every salespersons style is different, the below are tried and true techniques that some of the most accomplished salespeople have had success with in their careers. Dont be clich by asking How are you? While you want to be inviting and cordial when conducting a sales call, using phrases like how are you to start the conversations actually turn people away. Conversation starters like this are just another way to waste your prospects time, which is the last thing you want to do. In our world of caller ID and overly busy executives, when you actually get your prospect on the phone, dont waste a minute with pointless small talk.

Get to the point: To further build on the point above, instead of rattling off a long-winded explanation as to why you are calling, just come right out and say it. To open, introduce yourself, say what company you are with and quickly get to your reason for calling. Your prospect will appreciate your directness and will likely be more inclined to listen to what you have to say.

Dont ask if you can ask a question; just ask it: This is a no brainer. Do not ask your prospect if you can ask a question. In an effort to be polite, many salespeople will ask for permission to ask a question. Instead of this, why not just ask your question? If your prospect has answered the phone, they have already given you permission to ask questions. In fact, they likely expect you to ask something. Referring back to the point above, make an effort to get to the point as soon as possible and stop wasting valuable time.

Dont ask to take anything from your prospect: In sales, your goal should be to provide value to your potential customer and do whatever you need to do to help them expand their business and hit their KPIs. When you ask to take something from them, especially their time, youll likely turn them away. Instead of saying something like: This will only take a moment of your time say, Ive been conducting research on X company for some time now and I we have an idea that will (Drop value prop / benefit here). The idea is to turn what will be construed as a negative comment (taking time) into a positive benefit for them (make money / save money / etc).

Be relevant: Before you pick up the phone to make your next call, make sure you have done your research. The most important thing you want to convey in your initial call is how your product or service can benefit your prospect. If you know nothing about their company, this is a major challenge. Therefore, make sure you have some basic information about them that you can draw from as the conversation progresses. Showing that you have done your homework will extend the conversation and hopefully lead to an in-person meeting.

Be confident: The more confident and enthusiastic you are about helping your prospect, the more they will get excited and eager to work with you. While you dont want to appear cocky, you do want to remain confident. If your prospect feels that you dont believe in your product or service 120 percent, why should they? Therefore, avoid using phrases like I think and instead say I know or I believe. The more confident you appear in your delivery, the more likely your prospect is to become a lead.

Be the aggressor: Too often, sales professionals become passive when channeling their prospects through the sales funnel. As soon as you put the ball in your prospects court, the sales process comes to a screeching halt. That is why you must act as the aggressor. Instead of asking them to get back to you if they have any questions, ask for a specific date and time to meet. By taking the initiative, you give your prospect fewer opportunities to say no and lessen the chance for them to make up an excuse.

While there is no silver bullet for ensuring every sales call is a success, the tips above are tested techniques that will positively impact your sales call. As youll see, how we phrase certain statements and questions can dramatically affect our prospects reactions and attitudes. Before you pick up the phone to make your next sales call, make sure you have made the proper adjustments to your sales script in order to maximize your level of success.

Crafting an Opening Sales Statement

You've got just eight short seconds to grab your prospect's attention and land an executive sales appointment. This sales expert shows you how. By Tony Parinello

Before you pick up the phone to make a sales call to an executive, I'd like to suggest you remember the following true story: A few months ago, one of my salespeople, Daniel, had some car problems, so I offered to give him a ride to work. Not wanting to pass up the opportunity to do a little one-on-one role-playing, I suggested we go over some appointment-setting phone skills. I've had a long-standing, wellproven statistic that you have just eight seconds to grab an executive's attention whenever they pick up their phone. Daniel was a bit skeptical about my eight-second standard. He looked at me and said, "Boss, eight seconds is too short a period of time! That's hardly enough time to take a deep breath, let alone make a meaningful opening statement." We happened to be waiting at a red light when he said this. As the light turned green, I kept my foot on the brake and started counting: "One thousand one, one thousand two...." People started honking. By the time I got to "one thousand four," Daniel was begging me to get moving. By the time we hit the sixth second, the guy behind us was starting to get out of his car, and Daniel was looking for a place under the floorboards to hide. When I finally hit eight, the intersection was a symphony of honking horns, "pointing fingers" and shouting mouths. I hit the gas.

Daniel's never questioned me again on how long eight seconds really is or whether you can make an impact in that length of time. If you've been reading my columns, you understand what motivates people to buy; you know the relevant specifics about your product, service or solution; and you have a good idea about the strategies at your disposal for contacting people who may give you new business. When you find yourself getting ready to pick up the phone to call an executive, what do you say? I'm going to assume that your goal for picking up the phone is to develop new business. I'm also going to assume that:
1. You've decided to use the phone to do this, either by means of a follow-up call on a written communication (see my prior article on this topic), or as your first contact with the target business. 2. Your aim is to get an appointment or create the next step with a top executive who is the person who can actually buy whatever it is you're selling.

You have three big goals when it comes to developing an opening statement that works. You want to:
1. Make it sound conversational. 2. Deliver it with confidence. 3. Get a favorable interruption--one that will put your prospect in control as soon as possible. Five Key Opening Statement Components

You're picking up the phone to call your prospect. For right now, let's assume you actually do get through to the executive. (You should read last month's column to learn exactly how to get past the gatekeepers.) Here are the five key ingredients your opening statement needs to contain: 1. An Introduction. Usually, when an executive (or anyone else) picks up a direct line, they say their name: "This is Jane Smith," or "Jane Smith speaking." Your first step will be to repeat this person's name. Keep things formal for now--use Mr. or Ms., then the contact's last name. Prospect: This is Jane Smith. You: Ms. Smith? Prospect: Yes. This first step will earn you Ms. Smith's undivided attention. Whatever she was doing prior to you saying her name, she's now stopped doing. She's paying attention to you, and that's a good thing! What most salespeople do now--despite ample and endlessly repeated evidence that they shouldn't--is say something like this: "Hi, Ms. Smith. This is Will Perish, with the ABC

Insurance Company." Unless your name is, say, James Bond, or your company affiliation is, say, the Prize Disbursement Division of Publishers Clearing House, I can tell you exactly what's going to happen next in the vast majority of such calls: The prospect will respond to this selfdefeating "verbal handshake" by tuning out, asking you to send written information, pretending the building just caught fire, or otherwise disengaging from the call. In other words, you'll have only been on the line about a second and a half, and you'll be done. 2. The Pleasantry. Here's an alternative plan. What I'm about to tell you will contradict what you've been taught. Do it anyway. When Jane Smith says "Yes," you're going to respond with something positive and enthusiastic, something that doesn't directly identify you, your company or the product or service you eventually want to discuss. It's too early in the relationship for you to pass along that kind of information. Instead, you're going to use a pleasantry, such as one of these:
1. 2. 3. 4. "It's an honor to finally speak with you!" "Thanks for picking up the phone!" "Thanks for taking my call." "Your time is important. Let me cut to the chase."

Get the idea? Each and every one of these pleasantries will do a far better job for you than simply volunteering your name and company affiliation at the outset of the conversation. Or saying something totally lame like "How are you today?" or "Do you have a minute?" 3. The Hook. Immediately after your pleasantry, you're going to catch the person's attention by using a hook that's keyed directly to something likely to be of interest to this prospect. "We've helped (three of the top five widget corporations reduce overhead costs by twelve percent this quarter--and they did it without laying off staff or sacrificing product quality)." Now there's a tangible benefit if ever there was one! Keep your hook focused and just one or two sentences long, and you can't go wrong. The Interruption. More often than not, here's where you'll get interrupted if your hook is doing its job. Your prospect is likely to cut in and say something along the lines of one of these statements:
1. "This sounds interesting--tell me all about it." 2. "I haven't heard of this before, but I must admit it sounds vaguely interesting." 3. "I have absolutely no interest."

(Don't worry. You'll be learning how to deal with any not-so-favorable interruptions in next month's column.)

As I said, you'll almost certainly get interrupted by this point. For the sake of completeness, though, you need to finish developing your opening statement, so you know what to say in those cases where you don't get interrupted at this point. 4. Naming Names. Once you've shared your hook, the other person knows the reason for your call--the cat's out of the bag. This is the perfect time to identify yourself and, if you like, your organization. If you choose to identify the name of your business, give it a brief "commercial." What you say will fit in one sentence. It should sound like this: "This is Will, Will Prosper, with ABC Insurance Company--the hardest-working company in the insurance industry today." 5. Your Ending Question. If you don't get interrupted by this point, you're going to conclude your opening statement with an ending question that incorporates some element of time. Try one of these:
1. 2. 3. 4. "Ms. Smith, does this touch on issues that are of concern to you this (month/year/quarter)?" "Are you wanting to accomplish something like this by the end of this (quarter/year)?" "Is this something you'd like to explore further?" "Who on your team would you like for me to continue this conversation with between now and the end of this business (day/week)?"

Putting It All Together

Here's an example of an opening statement that works. Yours shouldn't sound exactly like this one, but it should be about this long, and it should, like what follows, hit all the bases you've been reading about. Prospect: "This is Jane Smith." You: "Ms. Smith?" Prospect: "Yes...." You: "(Pleasantry) It was a pleasure to read that your company has successfully expanded into the European marketplace. By the way...(Hook) after studying another client's operation, we suggested an idea that provided revenue gains of more than $25,000 per year. The real surprise is that we did this without taking one bit of Acme's hard-earned capital. (Your Name) This is Will Prosper at Zenith. (Ending Question) Acme's impressive results may be tough to duplicate. But would you be open to taking the next step between now and the first of the year?" Again, you shouldn't try simply to insert your company specifics into the script you see above. You should use all the ideas in this article to craft an opening statement that is uniquely yours and that best fits the business you're pitching.