Friday Rant – Baby Steps in Phone Sales

I hate air travel.  There – I said it.  After 5 years selling in a remote territory, I enjoy commuting to work…not traveling to it.  So more of us are required to do more selling over the phone.

A blog post related to Successful Telemarketing found its way into my inbox, and after reading it (admittedly a little skeptically) – it actually has a little meat between the fluff.  What follows it the Readers Digest “Condensed Version”:

The Opening – Pretty basic – Who – What and Why…but TRY to make the Why pertinent:

• Good – Good Morning.  This is Derek Grant with Pardot, a Marketing Automation vendor that dramatically improves the effectiveness of your online marketing efforts by individually tracking anonymous visitors and prospects.
• Bad – Hi.  This is Derek with Pardot – Calling to see if your firm is interested in implementing marketing automation
• Ugly – What up?  This is Derek. Do you want marketing automation?

Author’s note – I know this isn’t great technique, however I like to get all the pertinent information in before pausing, so the person has enough information to work with and doesn’t have the opportunity to barge in during the introduction.

Engagement Stage – Match your product’s features to their needs in order to show Benefits to their organization.  This requires sales people to do something many are not good at – Listening to the customer.  It also requires thoughtful questioning, and probing once the conversation begins to lull.  If, after you’ve spoken, you haven’t learned what their pain is, then you have wasted your time and theirs.

The Close –This isn’t necessarily the deal closing, however you should always understand next steps.  Not Interested?  “Since needs change quite frequently, would it be appropriate for me to call at the start of next quarter”.  Want a Demo?  “Do you utilize MS Outlook?  If so, I’ll send you a meeting request for the time and date we discussed.” (NEWS FLASH – not everyone utilizes Outlook, so this should be something you confirm prior to getting off the phone and blindly sending a meeting request – Perhaps iCal is more appropriate)

At the end of the day, if you excel at the three steps above, you’ll be able to spend more time at home, and less time in the airport.