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.

Ranting Again – Dancing with the Customers

Two months is a long time to go without fresh material. Don’t worry; the writer’s strike currently afflicting the American television audience with re-run after re-run wasn’t to blame for my sabbatical. Interaction with potential clients, core customers and working to close deals kept me from communicating with you, the readers of this blog.

That’s what brings me to restoration of the Friday rant and subject matter that is near and dear to a sales manager’s heart: his or her time.

In a given day, you have only eight – 10 hours of time that you can work and dedicate to your clients and potential clients. With meetings with your marketing team, support team, etc., you really have only between six – eight hours a day where you can perform one of the most graceful dances known to mankind: the art of the sell.

Building a relationship with your client and working to convince them of the profits they will reap if they use your product; the demonstrations of the product you give to them; and then the follow-up sales calls to see when their ready to pull the trigger and make the purchase, can be as graceful as watching Emmitt Smith and partner dance on “Dancing with the Stars.” (Note: For those unaware, the former NFL star won the ABC show a few seasons back)

When you find the perfect client who is immediately sold on your product and its viability, the art of the sell is a beautiful dance that is beneficial to both of you.

There is no wasted time or productivity in this sales interaction. However, not all clients can be such a gracious dance partner.

How many times have you had a potential client that could never commit to you, but wouldn’t necessarily say no – a la the old duck and dive strategy employed by Muhammad Ali.

After the initial call and perhaps demo, you receive no concrete communication on the next step forward, which sends toppling over and tripping up the sales process.

Subsequent calls or emails go unanswered, taking up precious time that could be devoted to another client or prospect. Conversely, the person you’re calling and sending emails to wasting their time deleting your message and trashing your email.

All it would take is a simple, “Get back to me in 30 days, when we have a better idea of our budget,” or a simple, “No, we just can’t allocate funds to your product right now.”

Selling really is a dance, but when one partner refuses to go along with the right moves, it throws the whole routine out of sync.

I’m sure you remember going to your first school dance, and the awkwardness of being asked by someone for a dance. You could either say yes or no. If you were shy at first and non-committed, the person asking you to dance would think you were leading them on.

The interaction being the professional salesperson and client should – ideally – be just as simple as this analogy.

Building a solid relationship with a client requires both the salesperson and client to engage in honest discourse. When this happens it makes the deal go that much smoother.

Selling is always beneficial to both parties involved, and working to ensure a smooth deal should be priority number one.

Being non-committal and refusing to give a timetable for when you might be interested in making the deal only throws off the dance.

A “yes I’m interested,” or “no, I’m not interested,” is the best thing a professional salesperson can hear.