What do you do if a prospect answers the phone?!
What’s a typical morning’s cold calling like for you?
If you are like many other sales people, you need to prepare yourself for the endless phone pickups that you are going to have to make. Firstly, that means lots of strong coffee. Then means surfing the Internet pretending that this is prospect research. You are putting off the moment when you have to pick up the phone for as long as possible.
There’s a good reason for putting off making your calls. After all you are going to have to deal with a lot of rejections. The average set of responses goes something like this:
- Not in
- Not in
- Not interested
- Doesn’t take calls
- Not in
- On holiday
- Not interested
However, every now and then, something unexpected happens. Your prospect answers the phone. And they are happy to speak to you.
When the prospect answers your call, you have a problem
How do you get your prospects to talk to you when you get through to them?
You now have to grab their attention. You have to come up with something that makes them interested in your products and services. Worse still, you have about twenty seconds before the prospect starts losing interest in you.
During my years as a buyer I have received a lot of phone calls from printing companies. A lot of sales people seem totally unprepared for the fact that I might answer the phone and talk to them. It is as if they are expecting to fail to reach anyone they are calling. They seem lost for words. But having to speak to a prospect is something that we should expect to happen.
Why don’t more sales people practice their introduction pitch?
Sales people who have prepared an effective elevator pitch are more likely to strike up a good relationship with their prospect. It will allow them to control the conversation more effectively. These sales people are more likely to achieve good sales results.
Those who have not prepared what they will say to prospects will struggle to achieve good sales results. They won’t control a good pipeline of sales calls because they will have failed to create the right level of relationship.
How do you create the right introduction?
Let’s look at what I say to prospects when I speak to them for the first time:
I’m the Champion of Print at Profitable Print Relationships. I work with printing companies just like yours. Many of my clients are frustrated that all their sales conversations focus on price. They struggle to make themselves stand out from the competition. I help companies like this with a range of sales mentoring and training services. Why choose me? As a buyer, I have received over 1,400 sales pitches from printing companies. I know what works and what doesn’t.
(Naturally, I make this part of a conversation rather than make a prospect listen to all of this without a break!)
My introduction covers the following elements:
- I have an interesting job title that makes me sound different
- I state that I work with similar companies to my prospect
- I highlight the typical pains that my clients suffer
- I state briefly how I help them overcome these issues
- I tell people what makes me different from the competition
Why don’t more sales people practice their introduction pitch? https://t.co/Wsrl2zgqZd
— Matthew Parker (@PrintChampion) June 12, 2017
What happens if you approach lots of different types of prospect?
The answer to this is simple: have more than one introduction. I have a number of introductions according to what type of prospect I am talking to. Even though nearly all my prospects are printing companies, I have different introductions for different types of printing company.
Your introduction will be much more effective if it is targeted at a very specific type of prospect or company.
How do you create an introduction like this?
My structure of introduction is based on the TPD Principle. It focuses on target audience, pain and difference. Find out how to use these elements to create a powerful introduction that gets results in
Using this system will help you avoid the typical cold calling morning that so many sales people suffer from.
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