A discussion about sales, sales tips and advice, and about those who land the deal

Art Sobczak from BusinessByPhone.com, a phone sales training company, had a great piece of advice for sales professionals who are speaking to prospects over the phone and "pitching" their product or service:

By "pitching," in sales, I mean spraying and
praying. Data dumping. Talking about what
he wants to talk about, instead of what the other
person is possibly interested in.

And of course, that creates objections.

Think about how you react when, out of the blue,
a prospect says, "Tell me about your products,"
particularly when they call you..

I've concluded that the more skilled a salesperson
becomes, the more he or she is confused by that
question, not knowing exactly how to respond.

That's right. My reasoning is that sales superstars
only make a presentation when they know what
the listener is interested in. Making a blind pitch is
"pitching" out descriptions of products/services, and
hoping that something will be of interest to the listener.

Best Strategy: Turn around their question with a value
statement to justify your own questioning.

"I'll be happy to tell you how we might be able to help
you. So I can focus on what you'd likely be most
interested in, please explain how ..."

Or, "We have quite a few options here, and so I can
talk about just the ones you'd likely get the most value
from, let's start by talking about your ..."

Here's your very valuable lesson in this brief tip:

Right now, write out what you will say the next time
someone hits you with, "Tell me what you have."

Turn it around, giving them a good reason to tell
you what they're interested in. You'll create fewer
objections, and sell more.

Great tip, especially the part about writing out your response to a customer's questions ahead of time.