Many of you have asked me to talk more about selling over the telephone, so that's what I want to focus on for a moment here today.
I found a really interesting article by sales trainer Art Sobczak, who specializes in training sales professionals to sell over the phone. Here's a tip from Art on something not to do when you are talking to a decision maker on the phone:
I've decided to not be shy about dispelling some of
the myths and bad suggestions being perpetuated
out there--things that are causing salespeople to
run into brick walls. I've been a bit hesitant to
focus on this stuff too much, since occasionally
I'll get an email saying, "Don't write about negative
things. Don't tell us about what to avoid. Tell us
what to do." (Hmm, upon close scrutiny, those notes
do exactly what they don't want me to do!)
Well, I feel that one of the best ways to improve is
to first cut out the mistakes. That's why I'll cover
more of these in the future.
Let's start with this one: Finally getting a decision
maker on the phone and then starting a prospecting
call with,
"Hi, I'm Pat Seller with ABC Company. Are you the person
there who would handle the decisions regarding your____?"
I can hear the reactions now from some readers: "So what's
wrong with that?"
Here's what's wrong: You might as well start off the call
with,
"I'm selling something. Are you the person I should be
selling it to?"
And again, I know that most of you see the problem with that,
but yet someone might still be asking,
"OK, we ARE trying to sell something and we want to be sure
that this is the person we should be talking to, right?"
Right. But that IS NOT the way to do it. Here's why:
- people would rather not talk to salespeople they don't
know. It's natural, like the way we typically avoid the
salespeople in retail stores who stalk after us and ask,
"May I help you?" People like to buy, but don't want to
be sold. This announces your sales intentions, triggering
the defensive posture.
- you have about seven seconds to move a person into a
positive, receptive frame of mind on a prospecting call.
If you're not doing that, they're creeping into a negative
frame of mind, moving into a, "How do I get rid of this
salesperson?" frame of mind. Again the question about "Are
you the person...?" solidifies that before you have even
begun to create interest.
- you should already KNOW that they are the decision maker
for what you sell, BEFORE you ever hear their voice. That
comes with good preparation and asking questions of other
people within the organization. Even if you don't know for
sure, after delivering your opening--without this question--
if you're not in the right spot, they'll let you know. And
if you are in the right place, you haven't jeopardized the
success of what you want to accomplish: getting them into a
positive frame of mind, and moving them to the questions.
OK, so what should you do? When the decision maker answers,
go directly into your opening:
"Hi Pat, I'm _____ with ________. We work with ______,
helping them ______. I understand that you're now in the
process of _______, and there's a possibility we may have
an option that could help you to ______. I'd like to ask
a few questions to see if we should talk further."
That's very generic, and I always suggest that you
tailor and customize your opening with information you
collect before the call, and on the phone by speaking with
others in their company so that you touch on results they
would have interest in. And you can see that after that
opening example, if you indeed were not in the right spot,
they'd let you know.
Plus, if you still want to ask, "Am I in the right spot
for what I just explained?", you could do it after you've
piqued their curiosity, since you've presented a possible
benefit.
Art offers a lot of good resources and teleseminars for sales professionals looking to improve their sales skills. For more information on Art's services, go to www.BusinessByPhone.com.
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