The sales community is very fortunate. We have a universe of experienced sales professionals constantly posting information and advice about how to be a better sales person. I find this hugely informative and immensely useful and it made me think that perhaps I should contribute as well. So here’s some observations on getting started. Hope you find them helpful.
- Don’t ask the prospect how they are on your first cold call. You don’t care and they don’t care that you asked. It’s insincere and does nothing to differentiate you. Try this instead: “Good morning Mr Smith, my name is Paul Streeter and thank you for taking my call” Sound courteous and confident and way better than “How are you today?”
- Very few things are actually “fantastic”. You may be delighted that the prospect has answered one of your questions but does the response really deserve that? Or the double header version that I often hear – “excellent, excellent”. It’s filler stuff and suggests that the mouth is independently delivering vocabulary that the brain hasn’t commissioned. A simple – but effective – “thank you” is much more powerful in response.
- Use an elevator pitch. Concise but powerful, it demonstrates your credentials and starts the “what’s in it for me” process for the prospect. All sales people should be able to deliver their elevator pitch with real passion and enthusiasm. Set up the opportunity to present it with the question “How well do you know xxx?” It doesn’t matter if they do or don’t know your product or have never heard of it, your answer is always the same – the elevator pitch.
- Don’t overuse the prospect’s name. They don’t need to be reminded of it throughout the call and if you continue to repeat it you run the risk of sounding insincere. For excruciating examples of this listen to any politician of any party being interviewed by a radio or TV journalist.
- Do name-check your product or service. Take every opportunity to use the name to reinforce awareness. I monitored a sales call recently and listed each mention of the sales person’s own product versus the number of times the main competition got an airing. And the competitor won. Referring to his product as “we” but constantly saying the full name of the competitor didn’t help.
Someone told me once that, in sales, a good finish is the result of a good start. Happy endings!
