A stranger approaches you on the street and asks for some money.
A person wielding a clipboard (or an iPad) jumps in front of you as you’re walking down the shopping mall and asks if you can take 10 minutes for a survey.
A woman at a bar is approached by a man she doesn’t know, who asks, “Hey, want to have a relationship?”
What were YOU feeling as you read each of those?
Discomfort. Resistance. Maybe skin-crawling creepiness in the last example?
Why? Because an unknown-someone blindsided the target out of nowhere, asking for something without giving a reason for doing so. Of course the natural reaction is resistance.
Here are sales examples:
A sales rep calls a prospect he has never spoken with before and in the opening says “…I’m with ABC company and I’d like to set up a time to meet with you to …”
Or,
“…I’d like to discuss what it would take to do business together…”
Or,
“…I’d like to invite you to a webinar…”
When a sales rep who is unfamiliar to his/her prospect begins with asking for, or implies that he/she wants something from the prospect, without giving any reason why, the result is similar to the previous examples: resistance.
Yet, those sales-related examples are still widely used, and I’m assuming, taught by someone–or by many.
That blows me away.
So what should you do?
Make your calls about them, not YOU. Have something FOR them, instead of wanting to take something FROM them.
Here’s a simple opening template based on my Smart Calling™ system:
1. Identify yourself and company.
2. Mention what you know about them based on your research. Get information before your call by going online to their site, search engines, LinkedIn, Twitter, blogs, and free and paid information-aggregating services like InsideView and OneSource. You get it in real time by placing a “Social Engineering” call to the company to ask questions of people other than your decision maker, to gather information that will help you customize your call so you are able to say something relevant and on target.
3. Hint at your Possible Value Proposition. Talk about results, which everyone wants, and not a product or service which most people react to with, “We’re satisfied with what we’re doing.” Say what you’ve done for others so it is substantiated. Use numbers, dollars, and percentages to really make an impact.
4. Add more possible value, and move to the interaction. Get them answering questions quickly. Telling them you would like to provide information, or would like to run a few ideas by them is very non-threatening. You aren’t seeking a decision for anything other than moving to the questioning part of the call.
For example,
“Hi Pat, I’m Dale Stevens with Atlantic Associates. In speaking with Jolene in your marketing department, I understand that one of your initiatives for the year is strengthening the communication and collaboration between your account management and production departments, so you can increase your customer retention rate and order frequency. With another components manufacturer we were able to help them do exactly that and raise their retention by 55% in six months, and reorder rate by 34%. I’d like to ask a few questions to see if I could provide you with some information.”
It’s about THEM, not you. The first part of the call is not about throwing the long bomb at the first opportunity. Give them a reason to move forward with the call, engage them, ask questions, and you’ll find your calls progressing more smoothly.
By Art Sobczak
http://blog.salescrunch.com/
A person wielding a clipboard (or an iPad) jumps in front of you as you’re walking down the shopping mall and asks if you can take 10 minutes for a survey.
A woman at a bar is approached by a man she doesn’t know, who asks, “Hey, want to have a relationship?”
What were YOU feeling as you read each of those?
Discomfort. Resistance. Maybe skin-crawling creepiness in the last example?
Why? Because an unknown-someone blindsided the target out of nowhere, asking for something without giving a reason for doing so. Of course the natural reaction is resistance.
Here are sales examples:
A sales rep calls a prospect he has never spoken with before and in the opening says “…I’m with ABC company and I’d like to set up a time to meet with you to …”
Or,
“…I’d like to discuss what it would take to do business together…”
Or,
“…I’d like to invite you to a webinar…”
When a sales rep who is unfamiliar to his/her prospect begins with asking for, or implies that he/she wants something from the prospect, without giving any reason why, the result is similar to the previous examples: resistance.
Yet, those sales-related examples are still widely used, and I’m assuming, taught by someone–or by many.
That blows me away.
So what should you do?
Make your calls about them, not YOU. Have something FOR them, instead of wanting to take something FROM them.
Here’s a simple opening template based on my Smart Calling™ system:
1. Identify yourself and company.
2. Mention what you know about them based on your research. Get information before your call by going online to their site, search engines, LinkedIn, Twitter, blogs, and free and paid information-aggregating services like InsideView and OneSource. You get it in real time by placing a “Social Engineering” call to the company to ask questions of people other than your decision maker, to gather information that will help you customize your call so you are able to say something relevant and on target.
3. Hint at your Possible Value Proposition. Talk about results, which everyone wants, and not a product or service which most people react to with, “We’re satisfied with what we’re doing.” Say what you’ve done for others so it is substantiated. Use numbers, dollars, and percentages to really make an impact.
4. Add more possible value, and move to the interaction. Get them answering questions quickly. Telling them you would like to provide information, or would like to run a few ideas by them is very non-threatening. You aren’t seeking a decision for anything other than moving to the questioning part of the call.
For example,
“Hi Pat, I’m Dale Stevens with Atlantic Associates. In speaking with Jolene in your marketing department, I understand that one of your initiatives for the year is strengthening the communication and collaboration between your account management and production departments, so you can increase your customer retention rate and order frequency. With another components manufacturer we were able to help them do exactly that and raise their retention by 55% in six months, and reorder rate by 34%. I’d like to ask a few questions to see if I could provide you with some information.”
It’s about THEM, not you. The first part of the call is not about throwing the long bomb at the first opportunity. Give them a reason to move forward with the call, engage them, ask questions, and you’ll find your calls progressing more smoothly.
By Art Sobczak
http://blog.salescrunch.com/
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