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Proven Sales Skills, Strategies, and Tips You Can Use!

Art Sobczak's

SMART CALLINGREPORT

July 2016Volume 33 Number 7

The Greatest Closing Question Ever

November 2016 Volume 33 Number 11

By Peter R. Adam

A few years ago I was selling medi-cal software to manage cases in vas-cular labs. I was working on a closinga $2-$3 million deal - the largest dealthe company had ever seen – and Iwas heavy in discussions with the cli-ent. The bosses back home had madeit clear this deal needed to close andsoon.

I’d set up a lunch meeting withthe chief of vascular surgery and theoffice manager to work on sealing thedeal. We’d had a large number ofphone calls and numerous demonstra-tions of our software in the previous6 months. I had spent the morningwith the entire vascular unit review-ing processes, features and functions,and concerns from the vascular team.

After some friendly chit-chat, wewere leading up to the defining mo-ment that I had been preparing toexecute. They fired multiple questionsat me as we munched on our sand-wiches. In between bites, I returnedtheir volley of objections with nearlythe skill of Serena Williams.

The conversation began to slow.So I leaned in, looked at both of themand asked the greatest closing ques-tion ever: “Do I have your endorse-ment to move forward with theproject?”

Simple and straightforward.

The office manager, who had beenmy main point of contact up to thispoint, looked down and away. Eventhough she had directed many of ourconversations and interactions in thepast six months, her body languagetold me the decision was solely in the

hands of the chief surgeon.

I looked at him and began contem-plating my rebuttals if he said, “No.”

What would it take?

What would you need to see fromus?

What is your primary concern?

What is holding you back from giv-ing your go ahead?

The chief surgeon sat there quietlyfor what seemed like five minutes, butwas probably closer to 45 seconds. Hewas deep in thought, and as the ten-sion built, the more intently I lookedat him and studied his face. But, I didnot break the silence. Tension in salescan be a powerful tool, and I wantedit to build as he contemplated my fa-vorite closing line.

“Do I have your endorsement?”can be a very effective commitment-receiving and closing question for thesereasons:

In complex sales, there is typicallymore than one influencer or key stake-holder. So asking “Can we get thisdone this month?” may be a difficultquestion to answer for your prospect,even if your prospect likes you and yourproduct/service - because that personprobably doesn’t make the final deci-sion or final call.

“Do I have your endorsement?”is geared toward the individual’s opin-ion, which in this case is really what Iwanted to uncover and a lot safer forthem to answer. If the prospect saysno or gives a noncommittal answer, Iask, “Why, what’s holding you back?”or “What would it take to get your en-

dorsement?” Once they answer thequestion and their concern is on thetable, I can work on overcoming theobjection.

My question does not have a dead-line or a timeframe. I’m not trying tohot box an individual into a corner (ormonth/quarter), which no one I’ve metlikes or appreciates. Once I get the“Yes, you have my endorsement” (ora “Yes, I like you, your company andyour product”), then I have permissionto advance to the “When, how, andwho else is involved?” questions.

Most professional salespeople getit out of order. They ask, “When willyou order?” and then try to determineif the buyer is sold on them, their com-pany, and their solution. In my experi-ence once buyers verbally say, “Yes,you have my endorsement,” they rarelygo back on their word. They may notown the final decision authority, butyou know they are definitely going tobe selling internally on your behalf.

Back to the chief surgeon. Afterwhat seemed like an eternity the ChiefSurgeon looked at me and said, “Yes,you have my endorsement.” Afterwardhe turned to the office manager andgave a smile that seemed more like asmirk. It took until nearly 4 weeks laterto receive the final purchase order; itwas worth the wait. But, I knew whenI jumped on the plane to go home thatI had a very solid commitment and itwas only a matter of time before thepurchase order was in hand.

(Peter Adam is an sales and market-ing leader focused on helpingsoftware, SaaS and technologyorganizations grow revenue. Contacthim at [email protected].)

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©Art Sobczak's SMART CALLING REPORT • (480)699-0958

The “Art” of Selling

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SMART CALLING REPORT(ISSN 0882-1461) is published 12 timesper year by Business By Phone Inc., and isa member benefit of the Smart CallingOnline membership program. To join, go towww.SmartCallingOnline.com. Sendcorrespondence, and change of address toSMART CALLING REPORT, 14005 E.Cholla, Scottsdale, AZ, 85259. Publisher/Editor: Art Sobczak; Contributing Colum-nists: Jim Domanski, Jill Konrath, TiborShanto. Subscriptions: ©Copyright 2016Business By Phone Inc. All rights reserved.Photocopying of this publication withoutpermission is breaking the law. Pleaseinquire for permission. (480)699-0958.Reprinting of articles in your publication ispermitted as long as we’re credited withaddress and phone number and a copy issent to us.

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Sales ObservationsLots of stuff in my "Observations"

file for you this month so I had to ex-tend this to the next page!

Just wondering… are any com-panies recruiting any of the college kidswho got so upset with the election thatthey can’t function any more and needto go hide in a “safe zone”? I’m guess-ing they wouldn’t fare too well in sales.There are no safe zones in the realworld—IF you want to be more thanordinary. In fact we need to go out andput ourselves in harm’s way every day.That’s how we excel and find opportu-nities that are not handed to us. I’massuming you are that type of person.Congrats fellow sales pro. Not every-one can do what we do, and even fewercan do it at the highest levels. By read-ing this and investing in yourself youare exhibiting that desire, and I’mproud to be with you.

At a recent training with a cli-ent we discussed the response at thebeginning of a prospecting call that youwill sometimes hear, regardless of howwell you structured your Smart Callopening: “Not interested.” Or, “We’reall set.” These are Reflex Resistant Re-sponses. It’s a reflex, not an objection.And these often cause sales reps to gointo complete shutdown mode. Why,is beyond me. After all, if you knowyou will hear it, why not have your re-

sponse all teed up.

And here it is.

“Not a problem.”

Or, “That’s OK.”

Or, “I understand.”

Or, “I hear that sometimes.”

And then ask a question.

“So what are you using for…?”

That’s right. You’re ignoring the nojust like a beach vendor in Mexico whohears it a thousand times a day. Andthen just continues with the conversa-tion.

By getting them talking you are get-ting their mind off their feeble attemptat resistance, and getting them thinkingabout answering your question. Try it!

Here’s a phrase and a belief thatholds people back from achievingamazing things: “I already know that.”Or, “Yeah, I’ve heard that before.” Or,“I’ve been through that training.”

Sure, someone might know some-thing, or have heard it before, but if theyare not doing it, the knowledge is worth-less.

I’ve heard that drinking beer willcause me to have excess weight aroundmy middle. In fact, I know that when Idrink too much beer too often I carryexcess weight, despite working out andeating very healthy. But there are spansof time where I do drink too much beer,and therefore, carry too much middleweight. Sure, I know the information. Ijust don’t always implement it. And theresults—or lack thereof—show.

It’s not what you know. It’s whatyou DO with what you know.

Here’s a suggestion for you if youreally want to work on YOU, and make2017 your best year ever. With everypiece of education you come across,

regardless of whether you are very fa-miliar with it, ask yourself this ques-tion:

“How WELL am I doing that?”

Then determine how short you areof ideal, and then DO something aboutit.

I used to be big time into gar-dening, before I really got into golfabout 25 years ago. When I had a cus-tom home built I spent countless hours“yardening,” putting in trees, bushes,flowers. It was a magnificent yard.Then the excitement eventually woreoff … probably because I got tired ofalso weeding. Anyway, I know thatwhen we put a shovel into the earth,the best soil is typically not right onthe surface. It’s when we dig a bit. Justlike questioning, and the resulting in-formation. The first answer you hearto a question is not the best informa-tion. It lies beneath the surface. Toooften sales reps get an answer, and thenjump in with what they want topresent. Wait. Plant the shovel andunearth more details. Here’s a simplefollow up after an answer:

“Tell me more about that.”

There. Easy, right? Just practicethat over the next week and you mightbe surprised how much more you’lllearn on your calls.

My lease is up on my car in acouple of months. I haven’t given a lotof thought to what I’m going to do,other than probably go with a differ-ent make. I’m not a car guy at all,other than I like to have a newer one,a nice one, and something that I don’thave to worry about maintenance on.(I’m the least handy male you will everknow.) And I prefer to lease, resigningmyself to the fact I’ll always have acar payment, regardless of the logicalfinancial arguments people have

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©Art Sobczak's SMART CALLING REPORT • (480)699-0958 3


Art Sobczak is President of Business ByPhone, and editor/publisher of SCR, andauthor of several books and audiotraining programs. He develops anddelivers results-gettingtelesales training andworkshops. To discusswhat he might be ableto do for you, call himat800-326-7721, or(480)699-0958.Email him at [email protected].

(Tibor Shantois a Sales Execu-tion Specialist,focused on helpingsales teams andindividuals securemore revenuethrough improvedprospecting, sellingand overall

execution of their process. You canreach Tibor at (416) 822-7781, orvisit www.SellBetter.ca)

Inside Sales Strategies

(Continued from previous page)

By Tibor Shanto

I get to listen to a lot of phonecalls made by a whole lot of B2Bsales people. Some are selling bleed-ing edge services to prospects withbleeding edge expectations, others areselling traditional products that areas exciting as watching paint dry, orlistening to call recordings. There arealways things we can change andimprove from a skill and techniquesstandpoint, in fact, I consider a weekless productive from a sales devel-opment success perspective when Ihave not learned some new thing toimprove my prospecting.

But the one thing no one canteach you is a zest for what you aredoing. A zeal for success, not justyour own, but that of your prospect.

Add to that all the silly and self-limiting things sales people do on thephone that throttle their message, es-pecially when they want to comeacross cute, overly courteous (to thepoint where it extinguishes anychance you had to begin with), non-threatening, and all the self-imposedbarriers to prospecting and sales suc-cess.

But it is the zest and zeal thatare lacking in most calls, and the re-sult is nothing short of boring. Themain reason clients hang up is theydon’t want to hit their head on thedesk as they fall asleep listening tothe drivel on the other end of the line.

Emotions are ContagiousOur state, our intent, our feelings

all are contagious, and are all in playwhen making a prospecting call,much more so than in other formsof prospecting. Which when donewell, telephone prospecting is STILLthe most effective means of engag-ing with a prospect other than a di-rect introduction.

The ones who tell you telephoneprospecting is not effective (for them),are the ones who can’t do it. Theyare likely the ones whose emotions

against leasing.

My current car (and previous one)is an Infiniti. I got the first one becausea buddy owned the dealership inOmaha. That was seven years ago. Hesold it, I moved, and I’m thinking I’lllook at something else.

So my sales rep from the dealer-ship here in Arizona called me a coupleof weeks ago, giving me a heads up thatthe lease will expire in February (smartmove on his part) and mentioned theyhave some nice promotions that couldget me out of the lease early, give a fewother incentives, and of course a goodprice on a new one. I told him I waslikely just going to go with another make,although I hadn’t given it a lot of thoughtyet. His reply? “I understand.” (Per-haps he has read my stuff.) Then hecontinued with a brilliant question youcan use:

“Would you be open to at leastlooking at some options”?”

Well of course! There is no riskthere. And who knows? So now, as Iwrite this, I am in the process of look-ing through a variety of options. Andwhat happens as a buyer when we lookat options? We go through a thoughtprocess where we put ourselves in theposition of possibly owning and usingthose options. Which is a prerequisitefor buying something.

Think about how you can use thatgreat question!

Make this your best month ever!

Maybe You are Just Boring

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and mixed bag of feelings--and by ex-tension everything they are projectingon the phone--cause them to fail.

And subsequently they draw thesecond most obvious conclusion:

“Hey this is not working for me.”

What's the MOST obvious one?That they don’t know what they aredoing.

It’s not all bad or sad. There arethings you can fix, practice andchange. You can think about leadingwith some solid and relevant outcomesfor prospects based on past experience.You can teach sales people to focuson clients’ objectives, not features, andwhat your company does. It does nottake much to help sellers to understandthat it is all about the end, not themeans, which erroneously most salespeople lead with on the phone.

The one thing that sellers have tochange on their own is to stop sound-ing boring (in fact stop being boring).All the steps many take to make them-selves more appealing, less threaten-ing, plainly said, more beige, justmakes them boring as, well you knowwhat. You have to pity the poor pros-pect who answers the phone, only tobe greeted by a series of inconsequen-tial words that sound the same as thelast 5,000 or so calls, I mean is therea faster cure to insomnia and no-sale?

So next time, ask yourself and behonest, is it the telephone that doesnot work for prospecting, or are youjust boring on the phone?

4 ©Art Sobczak's SMART CALLING REPORT • (480)699-0958

Jim Domanski

Do you want a fast, simple, costeffective and easy way to to stay intouch, build value and give yourselfan edge with your customers andprospects?

Sound impossible? Not in theleast.

One of the most effective waysto differentiate you and give your-self a competitive edge is a simpleprocess that I call the VAA: ValuedAdded Article. It’s a powerful strat-egy that works!

What is the VAA?On a purely literal level, a ‘value

added article’ is just that: an article,a special report, a white paper, anews clipping from a magazine, awebsite address, a journal..virtuallyanything that you provide to yourprospect or client so they might de-rive benefit, pleasure, enjoyment,knowledge, interest, and ultimatelyvalue.

On a deeper, more subtle level,a VAA is the little something extrathat you add to the relationship thatshows you were thinking of yourprospect or client. It’s somethingthat goes above and beyond thenorm in terms of selling. It’s some-thing that positions you as uniqueand distinctive. It’s something thatis seen as a positive and often per-sonable gesture that marks yourcharacter. It’s something that helpsget you remembered.

The 2 Types of VAAThe first type of VAA is business

related. A business VAA is an ar-ticle, journal, report etc. that relatesto a product, a service, the industryor the marketplace that may be ap-plicable to the client.

It might be something relatedspecifically to your product or ser-vice such as a white paper but thisapproach has a somewhat self serv-ing aspect to it. A more effective ap-proach is to provide a third party orindependent source of information

that educates your client. This is seenas an extra bonus and somethingthat the average run of the mill salesrep does not provide.

The second type of VAA is thepersonal VAA and there are twokinds. The first kind of personal VAAis something that reflects or relatesto a hobby, a passion or an interestyour client might have. For instance,suppose you learn that your Cana-dian client is a NASCAR fanatic.One day you see an article on aNASCAR event coming toMontreal. Clip it and send it off. Orsuppose you discover your prospectis sending her daughter off to NotreDame to earn a history degree. Yousearch for an article on the webabout the history faculty at ND andpass it on to your client.

Here’s the real point: it showsthat you listened and that you re-membered. It shows you took thetime. It shows the client that thereis more to the relationship than justa set of transactions.

The other kind of personal VAAis something that reflects a hobby,passion or an interest that you mighthave and would like to share withthe client. Suppose you’re an avidBBQer. You might send your clienta recipe of your favourite rub or anarticle on “10 Things Every PersonShould Know About SmokingRibs.” It’s a lighthearted gesture. Itreveals a little about you and ad-vances the relationship a step or two.

Either way, you are doing some-thing that isn’t typically done. Andthat usually gets remembered. Itmay not guarantee you a sale but itguarantees you an edge.

How to Build a VAALibrary

The trick to making a VAA strat-egy work for you is to have a libraryof articles ready and available atyour fingertips. From a business per-spective, one way to do that is to

scan industry trade journals, maga-zines, e-newsletters, web sites and thelike. Look for and keep copies of ar-ticles or sites that relate to your mar-ket or business.

In effect, you become a clippingservice for your client. Remember thatmost of your clients probably get thesame magazines but most do NOThave the time to read the material.By doing so, you save them time andeffort. You keep them apprised ofevents, ideas, trends and the like. Atsome level, the client realizes thevalue you create. (And as an addedbonus your scanning keeps YOU ontop of things in the industry. At somepoint, you become the “resident ex-pert” and are seen as such. Niceedge!)

Relative to your passions and in-terests, keep a stack of your favoriterecipes or articles or whatever handyso that you can use them if and whenappropriate. Of course, your clients’interests or hobbies will vary from in-dividual to individual. This meanscustomizing your VAA. For example,if you hear something that might beof value to your client, note it, andthe next time you read a newspaperor visit a bookstore or surf the webkeep it in mind. You might stumbleon something relevant and meaning-ful. Use it.

The Reactive Approach The reactive approach occurs

when you see something that mightbe of value to the client and you sendit along with a little note. Use phraseslike “Kathy, I thought of youwhen I read this article...” Or,“Janice, I remembered you saidyour daughter was going off toNotre Dame this semester and Ithought I would pass along thislink about freshmen at NotreDame.”

These are flattering statementsthat appeal to virtually anybody andeverybody. This ‘out of the blue’ ap-proach surprises and delights pros-

How To REALLY Set Yourself Apart andBuild Value-Based Relationships

5©Art Sobczak's SMART CALLING REPORT • (480)699-0958%

(Jim Domanski isPresident of

TeleConceptsConsulting, a

telesalesconsulting andtraining firm.

Contact him [email protected],

613-591-1998)

Jim Domanski

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(continued from previous page)

pects and customers alike.

The Proactive ApproachThe proactive approach is a little

more calculated. There are 3 stepsto implementing a proactive VAAstrategy.

1. Make a commitment to aVAA. When an opportunity arises (forexample, the client says somethingthat goes ‘click’ in your mind and youthink of a VAA) go out of your wayto make a commitment. Be bold andsay something like,

“Don, by the way, I saw an ar-ticle regarding...that I’d like tosend on to you.”

“Sarah, that reminds me, Ihave a website address that I’llsend to you that talks about...”

“Leah, let me send you a spe-cial report I just read...”

What’s important to rememberhere is that most of your clients haveheard promises like this before, butthen reps fails to send or transmit thearticle.

Now here’s the sad thing, but whatactually makes the proactive approachso effective: the client didn’t really ex-pect it to happen so he or she is notoverly disappointed when it doesn’toccur. I don’t mean to be cynical butthe fact of the matter is people breaksmall promises and commitmentsevery day in every walk of life. It isnot that they are bad people it justthat their follow up is weak.

Having said that, when someoneactually GETS the article, the link orwhatever, he or she is bound to besurprised and delighted. They think,“Oh, he remembered.” At somelevel, your stock or equity with thatclient goes up a notch. At a consciousor subconscious level it registers thatyou kept your word! This resonatesstrongly with your clients. It suggestsyou will keep your word in all aspectsof business.

2. Send the VAA within 2days. Of course, the next step inmaking the proactive approach workis to keep your word and send the

document within two days. Not a weekor two later. Attach a Post-It note tothe article if you send it by mail. Writea note in the margin if you fax it. Writea few words if you are e-mailing it.Don’t belabor the point. Simply state,“Leah, here’s that special reportI promised you.” Let the VAA speakfor itself.

3. Leverage the VAA. Don’t beafraid to leverage your VAA. Use it toyour advantage. That’s the wholepoint. When you make a follow upcall, don’t hesitate to reference theVAA. For instance,

“Ken, I just wanted to giveyou a quick follow up call regard-ing that Cajun BBQ rub recipe Isent you. I don’t know if you’vehad a chance to whip it up andtry it but I thought I’d check andsee.”

Of course, this statement can sim-ply be a pre-text to a business relatedmatter but when you remind the cli-ent that you did a little ‘extra’ some-thing powerful happens. It creates reci-procity. Reciprocity is the need for yourclient to do a favor or kind gesture inreturn for your VAA. This usually trans-lates into giving you a little extra timeon a call, listen a little more closely,provide you with better information,give more candid remarks etc. At thisstage, you’ve got the edge you wereseeking.

Summary

By no stretch of the imaginationdoes a VAA guarantee you a sale butit does contribute to the overall valuethat clients see in you and your com-pany. This is particularly true if yousell ‘like’ products and services. Some-times the little extras are all the differ-entiation you need. Start your VAAtoday.

Defining WhatSets You Apart

More than a few readers haveemailed recently saying they’re hav-ing a problem coming up with theirdifferential advantage.

Try this, fill in the blanks:

“What sets us apart is _______.”

“What we do differently is _____.”

I know that’s simple, but it doesn’tneed to be difficult. Then you can useit in your opening statements or voicemails. For example,

“Jane, I’m Pat Sellar with InfoIndustries. We specialize in help-ing companies protect their cus-tomer information from theft orviral attack, and what sets usapart is…”

“Allison, I’m A.J. Scott withMurano Consulting. We haveworked with a number of searchfirms, helping their recruiters cutdown on the number of days ittakes to fill their positions. I knowyou might get a lot of calls likethis, but what we do differentlyis…”

Forget About “Making/Saving Them Money.”

Look at those words again. Don’tuse them verbatim. Even bad sales-people say this in attempts to gener-ate interest. I’m not implying this isn’ta strong buying motivator—it’s thewording that is ineffective. Instead, getinformation about them first fromscreeners, and then customize youropening to appeal to them personally.

“I understand you’re now inthe process of remodeling yourorder entry department. Depend-ing on your space limitations, wemight have some ways to help youkeep your costs down during thedesign and installation stage ofyour office furnishings. If I caughtyou at a good time, I’d like to dis-cuss your plans in the area of ...”

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Top Tips


(Jill Konrath,author of SNAPSelling, Sellingto Big Compa-nies, and hernewest book,Agile Selling,helps sellers landbigger clients

and speed up their sales cycle. To gether free Prospecting Tool Kit, visitwww.jillkonrath.com/sales-resources.)

Jill Konrath

How to Create anImpactful Value Prop

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By Jill Konrath

So how does your value proposi-tion look? Can you describe what youdo in terms of tangible business re-sults? Do you have documented suc-cess stories?

Or do you need to do some workto enhance your value proposition?If it’s not strong enough yet, don’tdespair. Most people and companieshave a much stronger value proposi-tion than they realize.

Here are three ways you can un-lock the impact your product or ser-vice has on on your customers' busi-ness objectives:

1. Define YourTangible Value

Tangible value is directly relatedto your offering and highly measur-able. It's typically expressed in num-bers or percentages. Examples mightbe:

√ Reduce cycle time from 3 daysto one

√ Cut labor costs by 25%

√ Save $100,000 in energy costs

√ Increase market share 5%

√ Improving productivity 17%

Typically tangible value gains alsohave related intangible value gainsthat aren’t as obvious, but helpstrengthen an already strong valueproposition. For example, improvingproductivity means fewer workers.With a smaller workforce, the com-pany saves a significant amount inthe benefits area. Less money is spentin recruiting and hiring. These savingscan also be quantified as part of yourvalue proposition.

A well-designed web site may cutthe need for customer service staff. Amore efficient JIT ordering processdecreases the amount of warehousespace and its associated costs. A digi-

tal asset management system’s abilityto repurpose data reduces advertisingexpenditures. Always try to quantifythe indirect values as well as the directones.

2. Convert IntangibleValue into TangibleValue

Sometimes the value of your of-fering is not quite so measurable – suchas lowered risk, increased teamwork,improved marketplace image, or bet-ter morale. Intangible value doesn’t sellwell in today’s economy. Most deci-sion makers consider it a nice addedbenefit, but won’t spend money for asolution that only provides soft value.

To increase your sales success, takethese intangibles and make them tan-gible. Find ways to quantify their valueto customers.

3. Outline OpportunityCosts

Opportunity Costs can alsostrengthen your value proposition. Anopportunity cost is something yourcustomer can’t do now because of theircurrent methods of operation. For ex-ample, it’s what they could be doingwith the $500,000 savings they’d getfrom using your product. Or it’s thebusiness strategy and associated prof-its they can’t aggressively pursue be-cause of the internal conflicts that de-lay decisions.

For more information about howto strengthen your value proposition,download the value proposition kit:http://www.jillkonrath.com/value-proposition-kit/

Should You Send aLetter Before aProspecting Call,Or Just Make theCall?

Hi Art,

I’m setting appointments for an ITSupport company here in Australia andhave a question. Could you pleaseshare your thoughts? My Business De-velopment Manager employed twotelemarketers to gather information,then send out letters to prospects as away of ‘warming’ the prospect prior tomy call. Normally I’d gather the infor-mation via the receptionist then pro-ceed on to the decision maker. If there’sa fit then I’d ask for the appointment.

What are your thoughts about send-ing out a letter before calling for theappointment?

Kindest regards,

Danny Hampel, IXP3

Art’s Reply

Danny,

My stance is that letters are OK,and can take the chill off of a pros-pecting call. You can not, however as-sume too much, such as that they ac-tually got it, or read it. And please,please, do not start the call with, “Isent you a letter, didja get it?” And inthe letter, I suggest using a variation ofthe opening statement where you arenot telling the entire story, but ratherjust piquing curiosity. Then in youropening, you can use your value propo-sition, and preface it with "As I men-tioned in a recent letter to you..."

But, I like your approach better. Thereal benefit is that YOU are the onegathering the info, so you are collect-ing intelligence first hand. You mighteven speak with an influencer or userof the product or service. And then youcan use that information immediatelyin creating a great opening, voice mailmessage, and questions.

Art

Prospecting

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7©Art Sobczak's SMART CALLING REPORT • 480)699-0958

Prospecting

By Mike Weinberg

The single hardest part of telephoneprospecting is blocking out the timeand actually picking up the phone todial.

We are ALL very good at findingexcuses (and distractions) to avoidstarting a call block. But once ourbutt’s are in the chair and we startcranking out calls, the next hardest partis when our prospect answers thephone.

I know. it’s often a shock when theydo pick up because my clients’ sales-people get voicemail about 77% of thetime. That’s a big number and we’lldedicate an entire article on how toeffectively use voicemail in a futurearticle.

I head up…After listening to too many sales

reps stumble, bumble and getoutmatched by executive prospects veryearly in the call, I decided it was timeto upgrade the first few words out oftheir mouths. When prospecting, as JebBlount loves to remind us, we are in-terrupting the prospect. They aren’texpecting our call and, in most cases,aren’t thrilled to discover it’s a salescall. To both raise the prospect’s per-ception of the caller and to help re-duce their reflex anti-sales reaction, it’shelpful if we say this very simple, yetvery powerful, little line when introduc-ing ourselves: “I head up…”

“Hi Joe, It’s Mike Weinbergfrom Acme Consulting; I head up_____________.”

There are two helpful benefits fromusing “I head up.” The first is that itmakes us feel good. Has a nice ring toit, wouldn’t you agree? Kinda makesyou feel important and that you’d beworth the prospect hearing you out,doesn’t it? I certainly like the way itfeels and many sales reps agree. Theother benefit is that it sets us apart(temporarily) in the prospect’s mind.The immediate reaction is that some-one of importance is calling. And youmust admit, that’s a very different re-

action than the buyer might have whenimmediately concluding that somesales rep is interrupting their busy day.

Try “I head up.” You’ll like it. Inalmost every situation, we’ve been ableto find a way for a salesperson to de-ploy that phrase.

“I head up our agency busi-ness.”

“I head up sales in the westernUS.

“I head up distributor relation-ships.”

“I head up the XYZ client solu-tions team.”

“I head up ________.”

Let me take aminute…

Once we introduce ourselves, wemust acknowledge that we’re interrupt-ing and get some type of green lightfrom the prospect to proceed. For ob-vious reasons, I’m not a fan of the all-too-typical, “Do you have a minute?”or “Is now a good time?” I don’t likethose bridges into the call for two simplereasons. First, they’re overused – justlike “I’m reaching out” is overused tothe point of nausea. If everyone else issaying it then we don’t want to. Andthe second reason I’m not a fan ofthose questions is because I don’t likethe answers they often produce. Thetruth is that even if the prospect doeshave a minute or it is a good time (un-likely), why would they tell you that?Asking if it’s a good time or if they havea minute makes it way too easy for theprospect to simply say, “Honestly, no.”

My coaching is to try this verysimple phrase after your introduction(the "I head up" line): “Let me take aminute.”

I suggest saying this in the mostcalm, confident, executive tone. You’rean important person (who heads upsomething) calling another importantperson. You know you bring value topeople and companies just like this

prospect so you go into the call believ-ing it, and assuming that, of course,this person will grant you a minute.They’d be foolish not to :). Instead ofasking for permission, we simply statethat we’re going to take a minute.

“Joe, Mike Weinberg withACME Consulting. I head up_______. Let me take a minute…”

If it truly is a horrendous time, asin the prospect is running late for ameeting with the CEO or finishing upa package for the FedEx driver who’swaiting in the lobby, the prospect willtell you that. And in those cases, letthem go! Don’t even think aboutlaunching into your mini-story. Whenthat happens, just say,

“I’ll give you a shout on Thurs-day morning” and let them go.

Trust me. When you do that, younot only score a respect point, you’vealso set up your call back. When youcall back on Thursday the call doesn’teven feel as cold. You are more confi-dent because you’ve already spokenwith that person once and your open-ing is even easier:

“Joe, Mike Weinberg gettingback with you. I caught youscrambling to get that FedEx outthe door the other day. Let me takethat one minute now.”

I promise you that when yourmindset is right, your voice tone isgood, and you start off the prospect-ing call withsimple, effec-tive phrases likes u g g e s t e dabove, you willbe more confi-dent and moreeffective.

(MikeWeinberg,"The New Sales Coach," is author of"New Sales- Simplified." Read hisblog and contact him atNewSalesCoach.com)

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Two Messaging Technique for Prospecting Calls

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8

Use Multiple Forms ofMessaging

Here’s something sales reps oftenmiss: you are not your customer. Mean-ing that your prospects and customersdo not think the same as you. They donot know the same things as you aboutyour product or service. And they prob-ably have a different preferred mode ofcommunication than you.

So, when approaching someone forthe first time, let’s appeal to them withmultiple forms of messaging. For ex-ample (your order might vary),

√ a follow on Twitter, along withretweets

√ liking an update of theirs onLinkedIn

√ a LinkedIn connection request,along with some form of value for them

√ an email with some hint of value

√ an Inmail with some form of value

√ an initial phone (Smart) call

√ a follow up call

√a hand ritten note

√ an email with a video or audiomessage from you, with value

√ a fax

How many of these do you employregularly. There is no excuse for some-one saying, “They are hard to get aholdof. I left two messages and they didn’tcall me back.”

Are You SittingDown for This?

We’ve often suggested that youstand when you are speaking on a call,since it can help you be more ani-mated, as if you were speaking withsomeone face to face. Here’s an in-teresting idea a reader suggested: SITdown when you are listening. She saidthat this allows her to be more relaxedand focused on what the prospect/cus-tomer is saying, and less likely to jumpin with what she wants to say.

Go To Job Posting Sites toGet Great Sales Intel

When doing your Smart Calling re-search, if appropriate, go to the jobposting sites glassdoor.com andindeed.com.

1. Look at the jobs and de-scriptions they have posted, whichcan give you some insights based onwhat you sell. For example, staffingup for a big project could be an op-portunity.

2. Look at the reviews of thecompany by previous employees. Boththe good and bad reviews might giveyou some great intel.

3. You can search for pros-pects using key words for your busi-ness. For example, typing in “cold call-ing” gives us a list of job postings fromcompanies that do prospecting byphone. Further, using the previouspoint, we often find out that they don'tdo adequate training for the resultsthey expect.

Don't Think Out LoudWhen you're searching for what to

say, don't think aloud. Be sure your com-ments add to the conversation. Other-wise you might utter some randomthoughts you could regret later.

Questions That Get ResultsThe way you word your questions

has a huge impact on the quality andquantity of information you get in re-turn. Here are some good ways to be-gin questions.

“Please describe...”

“Please explain...”

“Compare for me how you...”

“To what extent...”

“In what way do you...?”

“Give me an idea of how...”

“What happens when...?”

“What do you do when...?”

“Help me understand the...”

Record the Time In YourNotes

If your computer doesn't do it auto-matically, always write down the timeyou spoke with a prospect or customer.This will help you for future calls, givingyou an indication of when they are avail-able. Better yet, ask the person, “Is thisnormally the best time to reachyou?”


Art Sobczak's

SMART CALLINGREPORT


Special Report: How to Get New BusinessFrom Your Best, and Easiest Sources

October 2016 Volume 33 Number 10

Want new business? Need new busi-ness?

Dumb questions, I know. Kudos tothe rare organization that has all it canhandle (or claims they do), but for mosteveryone else, we need new customersand sales to grow. Or to just stay evenby replacing the customers we lose.

As for getting that new business, I’vealways been amused by the argumentsof the “cold calling is dead crowd”andthose who jump on the bandwagon ofthe newest shiny, trendy salesenablement object or “social selling”or“Sales 3.0” system. They tend to ignorewhat has worked since the beginning ofcommerce itself: common sense, under-standing of basic human behavior, asound sales and messaging process, aplan, and the desire and commitmentto execute it.

You don’t need to go outside of yourcomputer (or file cabinet, if you still haveone) to get new business.

The potential business that resideswithin the existing database of most or-ganizations, and sales reps, is stagger-ing. There are dollars just waiting to beskimmed from opportunities where thefoundations and structures are alreadyin place. In the real estate world they’dbe known as “fixer uppers.”

Let’s look at where you can meetyour quota for new business, why it’swise to drill into this untapped oil well,and the wrong and right ways to ap-proach them.

Infrequent CustomersThese are the companies and indi-

viduals buying just a time or two per year,or whatever your company deems your“lowest level” customers by volume.

Keep in mind your lower-tier categoriza-tion of them is not a reflection of theirpotential, just their history with you.Read that again and let it sink in. Manyof these could be spending huge amountswith your competitors. Or with you.

Why are they buying just infrequently?Why are they not buying more of whatyou sell? Why are they not buying ev-erything you sell? Look in the mirror.It’s not their responsibility to ask youabout how else you can help them. Theylikely won’t take the time to explore thelayers of your product or service offer-ings to discover other things they can buyfrom you. That’s a salesperson’s job, andwhen they don’t do it, buyers go else-where. Just like water flows downhill,money flows to ease of buying, and per-ceived value.

To simplify this point, you and I dothe same thing with our personal andbusiness purchases. We all do, or havedone business with a variety of compa-nies that could have provided us withmore, and more regularly—even becom-ing loyal die-hard fans—if they took theinitiative to ask questions, make recom-mendations, let us know they wanted ourbusiness, and followed up.

Just over the past year I’ve done busi-ness with contractors for plumbing, airconditioning, my sprinkler system, land-scaping, outdoor lighting, electrical work,interior and exterior painting, major gen-eral outdoor contractor work, windowcleaning, housekeeping, and two handy-men jobs. (If you made the conclusionI’m not very handy, that’s an understate-ment.) I know as a fact that many ofthese people and organizations offer ser-vices other that what I used them for,that I bought elsewhere. But because theydidn’t make an attempt to find out aboutwhat else they could help me with—and

subsequently stay in touch with me—Ididn’t contact them. I usually go withwho is convenient, referred, or whocomes to mind as “the guy that I usefor my ___.”

Two strategies here for with thisgroup. First, don’t let customers becomeinfrequent unless they buy from you injust an isolated instance. But even thoseactually aren’t that common if you thinkabout it. I’m having a difficult timethinking of an example where someonewould buy from an organization butnever ever have the need to do so again.I bought a specialty, high-end digitalmeat thermometer (a Themapen...everyserious cook needs one) years ago. Ididn’t buy from them again until Iwanted to give a couple as gifts. I thoughtthat’s all they sold since they didn’t stayin touch in any way. I realized when Idug into their site that they sell all kindsof cool specialty cooking gadgets that Ibuy often, and am a real sucker for. Thepoint here is, a first purchase from youis your opportunity to begin a long-termrelationship so that they become a fre-quent, great customers. But YOU haveto get in motion after the initial pur-chase.

Ok, back to the ones you have nowwho ARE infrequent for whatever rea-son. What you do not want to do is calland say, “Yeah, just checking in withyou. You bought a gazmoda from uslast year and just wanted to see if there’sanything else you need.” That’s lazy, andineffective. The answer to that is likely,“You’re with who?”Or, “We’re all set.”

These need to be treated like a typi-cal Smart Call. Do your research, de-termine what possible value you canhint at to engage them in discussion,

(continued on page 5)



2

Art Sobczak is President of Business ByPhone, and editor/publisher of SCR, andauthor of severalbooks and audiotraining programs.He develops anddelivers results-getting telesalestraining andworkshops. Todiscuss what hemight be able to dofor you, call him at800-326-7721, or(480)699-0958.Email him at [email protected].


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Sales ObservationsIn researching for any new inside

sales and prospecting tips I might not befamiliar with, I saw a suggestion that isjust plain bad. It said, “...as often as ap-propriate, refer to someone else in yourpitch as being involved, even if it’s justyour boss—‘Hi I’m Jill with Company X,my supervisor is asking us to . . .’ Evenreferring to your boss creates a smallsense of relationship, because the pros-pect mentally relates it to their own rela-tionship with their boss.”

No. Just no. Why in the world wouldthey care what your boss asked you todo? All they care about is them, andthey are wondering what you can do forthem. As for the point about relating totheir relationship with their boss... well,what if they don’t like their boss? What ifthey don’t have a boss, like me, and otherentrepreneur/decision makers?

OK, I found a lot more. I actuallycould do an entire newsletter— or abook—about the bad sales advice outthere. Here’s one from an article called“5 Tips for Inside Sales Reps When onthe Phone with New Prospects.” One ofthe tips is to “Start Off Strong” with yourgreeting, icebreaker, and then purpose.Here is their suggestion for purpose: “Thepurpose of my call is to get an under-standing of how you are currently man-aging your network capabilities. Afterspeaking with a number of people in yourposition, I understand they are continu-

ing to evolve in your industry.”

That was it. No mention of, say, apossible benefit or value. Just that youwant to get an understanding. Seriously.To which I would justifiably reply, “Whyshould I answer your question?”

So what would salvage this?“We’ve been working with a num-ber of people in your position, help-ing them to expand their networkcapabilities, in some cases as muchas 30%, while also making themmore secure. I’d like to ask a fewquestions about what you are ex-periencing to see if you’d like totake a look at a recent whitepaperwe did on this.”

At a client training session thismonth with newer salespeople, I wasreminded of how so many reps fall intothe feature-dumping trap. They haveproduct knowledge drilled into theirhead, but not product application knowl-edge, meaning, “What does that meanto the buyer?”

Here’s an easy technique to imple-ment: When you are in your Recom-mendation phase of the call, force your-self to say, “...and what this meansto you...” when talking about yourproducts/services.

Here’s a social media techniquethat I’ve recommended, and now ampossibly the recipient of: Follow targetedprospects on social media so your namebecomes familiar with them, and per-haps they will also then view you favor-ably. For example, I have noticed thata couple organizations are making morethan a casual effort to follow me onTwitter, and like and retweet me. Thelist includes the CEO of one tech com-pany, various VP’s, sales reps, and oth-ers. It has made me curious, and I cer-tainly would be more inclined to take acall from them. However, no one hasreached out yet. Maybe they just likemy material.

A prospect called me. She iden-tified herself as a corporate VP of alarge organization. She spoke verymatter-of-factly and sounded intenseand serious. She very quickly said,“We’re looking for inside sales train-ing. Why should I use you?”

I paused, then replied,

“I don’t know. Let’s talk aboutwhat you’re looking for.”

She spent about the next twentyminutes talking. Giving me very goodinformation, which I then used to tellher why I’d be the best choice. Sheagreed. Of course she did—I prettymuch repeated what she had just toldme. How could she argue with that?

The key is in being prepared for thatquestion. Sometimes reps stumble andbumble their way through a ramblinglaundry list of features that might beof no value or interest to the listener.And in fact, an unprepared answer tothat question often provides the pros-pect with something to object to. In-stead, disarm them, and get them talk-ing.

This is a great roleplay activity.Practice placing a call with a partner.Have them throw the question at youvery quickly: “So why should I buyfrom you?” Be prepared to respond,and then go into questions.



Don’t Sabotage Your Prospecting By Tibor Shanto

We have all heard the expressionthat people make decisions based onemotion, then spend time rationalizingthe decision. This interplay between ourprimal instinct and our later-developedintellect impacts sales success in otherkey ways. Our beliefs on a primal levelhave greater influence than we often re-alize, and despite our intellect and edu-cation, our beliefs will either limit us, orempower us beyond what many givethem credit for.

Take telephone prospecting, certainlya real and often emotional thing for allinvolved. There are as many opinionsout there about cold calling as there areminutes in a day. Yet whether it works,or not isn't reliant on the techniques weuse and the times we live in. It insteadcomes down to your beliefs and the ac-tions those beliefs lead to, or more typi-cally, actions they prevent. And just likeactions having consequences, in sales,lack of action has greater consequences.

This leads to the question of whichbeliefs are interfering with your sales suc-cess, and can be recalibrated to changeyour beliefs, thoughts and actions.

Core BeliefsOne of my core beliefs, supported

by real world experience, and empiricaldata, is that my customers benefit in veryspecific ways when they follow my pro-grams. They regularly achieve objectivesthey set out to accomplish, and realizedirect impact on their business. I am aconduit to best practices, and as a re-sult, can help prospects even before theycommit to my programs. This allowsme to pick up the phone, and call some-one I have not met, but have the confi-dence that I can help.

Now if you don’t have that core be-lief, the belief that you can help yourclients, you are going to have difficultyprospecting, which equals difficultyselling. Even though I am a professionalinterrupter, realizing that I am disruptingthe prospects day, I both know and be-lieve that the ultimate positive impact Iwill have on their sales team will greatlyoutweigh the interruption.

What’s interesting is why people lackthe belief that they can help their pros

(Tibor Shanto is a Sales ExecutionSpecialist,focused onhelping salesteams andindividualssecure morerevenue throughimprovedprospecting,selling and

overall execution of their process. Youcan reach Tibor at (416) 822-7781, orvisit www.SellBetter.ca) %

How to Grab Anyone'sAttention

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Top Tips

Consultant, Voss Graham, says thatthis is the statement that is guaranteedto capture the attention of any humanbeing who is looking for a real solutionto their issue…Ready?

“I have an idea about how youcan grow your business.’

Graham says,

“If you are speaking to a high levelexecutive, whom growth is a very impor-tant issue to their company, division,business unit or subsidiary – then you willhave their undivided attention.”

Timo Rein, President and Co-Founderof sales enablement software, Pipedrive,says to skip the sales goals and set activ-ity goals instead.

“Imagine a bookseller who sets a goalto sell $1,000 in books each day. Whatif he sold nothing after talking to 17people? And worse, what if prospect num-ber 17 happened to be a very harsh re-jection? It would surely get you down andmake it harder to keep going.

“Take it from us, before we foundedPipedrive, we got our start in sales in ex-actly this way – selling books door-to-door and dealing with harsh rejections.

“Now what if the same bookseller hadan activity goal of talking to 20 pros-pects each day? Taking your focus offthe $1,000 result-goal and shifting it onthe activity goal meant that even if 17were to say no, it wouldn’t matter – hewould only have three prospects left totalk to.”

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Get Even More FreeGreat Tips at Art'sSmart Calling Blog:www.SmartCalling.com

Forget Sales Goals,Set Activity Goals

pects. Some tell me they sell a com-modity, and as a result it is all downto price. I get it. It is not easy, butyou and I both know that there arepeople out there prospecting in yourhen house and winning the businesswithout dropping their price or pants.

What they have going for them isfocusing on the outcomes they de-liver, not how they deliver them.

This allows you to concentrate themessage, avoid talking about yourself,and quickly have the prospect focuson the issue, not the product. Theprospectors we turn out never talkabout products, who their companyis, or any of that intellectually-rootedmessaging, it is all about outcomes.

Start by going back and havingstraight conversations with your cli-ents. Ask them why they continue todeal with you, and then listen--but notselectively. What you’ll find is thateven if it is a commodity, price is notin the top three reasons, usually notin the top five. Seems to me thosethree things that keep them with youthat are not price should be the areasyou lead a cold call with, even beforetalking about your company. Franklydear, no one cares that you are theMidwest account rep for a Fortune 500company. Well maybe yourmother,does but not your prospect.Go to the outcomes.

It will take a few interviews withclients, and with people where youlost, or they did not make a decision. But over time you will not only under-stand what you should focus on inprospecting calls, but as you get trac-tion, you will confirm your ability tohelp people and change to a healthierand more rewarding set of beliefs.


Jim Domanski

(Jim Domanski isPresident ofTeleConceptsConsulting, atelesalesconsulting andtraining firm.Contact him at

[email protected],613-591-1998)

Words That Can Kill Sales

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Art and I often have shared articleshere about how sales reps use words withclients/prospects that can actually kill ormaim any chance of a sale. This monthwe'll look at words reps use when speak-ing to themselves, their peers, or anyoneelse who happens to be listening.

Self Defeating TalkThe following example is taken from

a real life incident in a sales department.It is typical of many salespeople.

The rep explained to me in a coach-ing session, “We can never beat them onprice.”

So what’s already wrong? The rep hadnot even picked up the phone that morn-ing. Yet he had painted a picture of de-feat in his mind.

It’s tragic. Before they utter a word toa client or prospect they have alreadypolluted their minds with reasons whypeople won’t buy. With that type of think-ing, it's easy to see why reps feed theirclients a steady diet of “don’t-buy-from-me”-type feelings.

Yeah, ButThe interesting thing is that when you

try to logically deal with this type of atti-tude, some people will actually go out oftheir way to defend their negative tenden-cies. They invariably use the “yeah-but”defense. It goes like this:

“Okay,” I reply, “Price is often a keyfactor in a proposal. So if price is themotivator why not offer the Value Plan?”

“Yeah, the Value Plan is cost effec-tive, but it does not include scaling. (ateeth cleaning procedure for pets)”

“Is scaling important to the custom-ers?” I inquire.

“Well, I am pretty sure it is. Most cus-tomers find it important.”

“Did you ask? Was this identified as aneed?”

“No.”

I replied, “Let’s take a different ap-proach. The Elite Plan offers scaling. Ifscaling is so important to the client, whynot offer it?”

“Yeah, but the Elite Plan includes dis-ability.”

“So???” I ask.

“Well, clients don’t want disability.”

“Oh I see,” said I. “Did you ask?”

“No.”

“Isn’t disability a good thing to have?”

“Yeah, but it increases the premiumand when I tell the client about the dis-ability it turns them off.”

Okay, I can't bear to go any further.The rep was building ready-made excusesfor why he could not sell the product. Helost before he had even begun calling.

Apart from maiming his mind by hisnegative words, there are a couple of otherfactors contributing to this negative atti-tude. First, the rep made broad assump-tions. He assumed that all clients thoughtscaling was unimportant.As it turns out,most of the clients had no idea what scal-ing was. Secondly, armed with these falseassumptions, the rep did not bother toquestion to determine the client's needs.

There’s more. In cases where scalingwas deemed important, the rep felt com-pelled to position the disability coverageas an unnecessary add-on which raisedthe price. In fact, the rep actually toldclients that the Elite plan included scalingbut also included disability. Of course theclients viewed it as a negative simply be-cause the rep positioned it as one.

This is a classic example of talkingtoo much. If disability is unimportant tothe client, then don’t sell the feature ofdisability. If scaling is important, sell thescaling feature and its benefits.

Where the “Yeah, Buts”Came From

Shortly after the conversation with thisrep I met with five or six other salespeoplefor coffee. These guys were the “grizzledold vets.”

It was deja vu. I heard the same dia-logue as I had with the rep that morningabout scaling!

We tend to build “support” groups thatreinforce our attitudes. Sometimes we fallinto the trap of hanging out with negativeindividuals.

Over a period of time, a subtle brainwash-ing occurs. We actually begin believingour own negative junk and spread it toour clients.

What to DoFirst, the next time you're with a

bunch of reps, stop and listen. How dothey speak? How do they position yourproduct or service? Is it negative or posi-tive? Is there a pattern forming? Figureout if those around you jump on the bandwagon.

Second, if it is a negative atmospheretry to determine if there is any legitimacyto it. If there is a product flaw of somesort, do the proper people in managementknow about it? And it is simply not enoughto “mention” it. Anyone can do that.

Go further. Gather data. Collect “evi-dence.” For example, when I asked thereps how many clients/prospects actuallymention scaling, there were only two outof several hundred who had commented.And make some suggestions or recom-mendations.

Third, if there is no legitimacy to thewhining or complaining, then removeyourself from that environment. Don’thang out with that crowd. It will poisonyou.

Fourth, if you find that you are al-ready poisoned with negative talk, stopit. You have a choice. Learn more aboutthe product features and benefits. Spiceup your selling skills by reading newslet-ters, read sales books, listen to selling andmotivational tapes.

Words that kill sales evolve from thesame words we speak to ourselves. Keepa close eye out as how you speak to your-self and others, ensure it's all positive, andyour thoughts and actions follow.

Good Selling!


New Business

and look for other ways you can helpthem.

To simplify, look at what they’ve pur-chased and the intervals. This should givehints to complementary things they likelyare buying elsewhere. Then confirm thatby doing some snooping, some SocialEngineering by talking to others at thecompany. Then craft your introductoryvalue opening:

“Hi Pat, Stan Seller withEdvantage Services. First, I’d liketo thank you for the opportunity toprovide you with the gazmodasyou’ve gotten from us a couple oftimes over the past year. Also, I’dlike to apologize. I see that you usethose in your filtration processingand we work with over 100 compa-nies helping them in all aspects ofthat process, maximizing their pu-rification results and cutting costs,and we haven’t discussed your otherrequirements to see if you couldtake advantage of some other op-tions that might enhance your out-comes...”

Notice how different that is fromsomething like, “Hey, we also sellduraglams and contralias, and I’d liketo tell you about those.”

Inactive CustomersThese include buyers who at one time

were decent, or even good-to-great cus-tomers, but stopped for whatever rea-son. If you don’t know these reasons,neglect might actually be one of thecauses. In any case, if they are still inbusiness they are likely still buying whatyou sell, just from someone else. And ifthere was a problem that caused themto leave, that problem is not like a papercut that heals itself and everything is allgood in a few days; it’s like a contagiousvirus that spreads. Bad experiences travelthrough negative. word-of-mouth. By re-contacting this group you have a chanceto right a wrong, and pick up new busi-ness.

Wrong Approach: “You used to getall of your gazmodas from us but youstopped buying. I was wondering why?”

You do want to find out why. Butputting them on the witness stand and

interrogating them, acting as if it’s theirobligation to continue buying from you isnot the way to do it.

Similar to the previous example, wewant to take the humble approach. There’sa pretty good chance you or your organi-zation dropped the ball. You didn’t stay intouch, or screwed up, whether you areaware of it or not. We need to find out sowe can fix. And swallowing your pride, withhat in hand, admitting your fault for notstaying in contact.

Again, do some Social Engineering.Find out from someone there if they stillbuy what you sell, from whom, and why.Yes, you can get this intel if you pokearound and speak with the right people.

“Hi Pat, Stan Seller with EdvantageServices. First, I’d like to thank youfor the opportunity to provide youwith the gazmodas you’ve gotten fromus in the past. We’ve realized that wehaven’t stayed in closer contact withyou... we apologize for that and wewant to begin fixing that today. I’d liketo ask a few questions about how andif your requirements have changed,and let you know about some of ourchanges that could have a positive ef-fect on your process there ...”

Side Note: Just think how much easierit is to actually get through to these previ-ous two groups than someone you haven’tspoken with before. When talking to a pro-tective assistant, you can use the words,“Oh, you’re already customers withus.”

Lost DealsSure, there still might be a sour taste

lingering because you were spurned foranother suitor. What you DO know is thatthey are qualified, they obviously buy whatyou sell, you know a lot about them, theyare familiar with you, and you have aninvestment in them. Yes, your investmentcould range from a few minutes on a simplequote, all the way up to tens of thousandsinvested in calls, visits, demos, mock-ups,simulations, and more. Here’s the impor-tant variable to bring to the forefront: thingschange. Constantly. Their needs mightchange, they might shift into a new focusthat would make you more desirable, orthe vendor that beat you out might notperform as expected. The opposite of “outof sight, out of mind” is “regularly in touch,top of mind” and being the top choicewhen change inevitably occurs.

(continued from front page)Again, the wrong approach is a re-

active, non-value-added one: “Hey, justfollowing up on the gazmoda quote wegave you last Spring, where you wentwith Ulterior Services. Wondering if any-thing has changed or anything I canquote you on?”

Sure, some contact is better thanno contact. Just slightly though. Theycan view a call with no value as thesalesperson being a desperate, pesty,quoting-machine vendor. Instead, youwant to position yourself as a value-added consultant who brings some-thing to the table every time. Then,when things DO change, they will thinkof you first and then reach out. That’sthe goal, since your calls will not likelyand luckily coincide with their changedneed at the moment it occurs.

This impression of you as a value-added option is achieved with everycommunication you send. Email, mail,samples, reports, calls, voice mails...they all need to contain something thatcauses them to say, “That’s good toknow. That guy/gal has it going on.”

Technology is your friend here, sinceyou can have automated“nurturing”campaigns set up of various types thatyou can appropriately plug your pros-pects/customer into, so that you canhave these value-added “touches” go-ing out automatically while you sleep.And then you supplement and comple-ment these pieces of communicationwith the personal call. Those callswould take the form of,

“Hi Pat, I thought about youthe other day in our meeting whereour QA team released their new-est report on changes in gazmodaregulations and how it will affecttime to market industry-wide. Thisis some cutting edge stuff and Ithought you could benefit fromthe information and I’d like tosend it to you.”

But Art, where’s the selling?

The selling is when they are buy-ing. Either on this call when you tran-sition naturally into some casual—butplanned—questions, or when they havethat trigger event and call you.

Want new business? Look in yourown back yard, follow these ideas, andyou'll be a happy quota-buster.


(JillKonrath,author ofSNAP Selling,Selling to BigCompanies,and hernewest book,Agile Selling,

helps sellers land bigger clients andspeed up their sales cycle. To get herfree Prospecting Tool Kit, visitwww.jillkonrath.com/sales-resources.)

Jill Konrath

How Your Prospects Really WantYou to Follow Up With Them

I was sipping a large frosty glassof beer in the hotel lobby, gettingready to head home after speakingabout business growth for a groupof entrepreneurs. That’s when Chrisapproached me.

“Can I ask you a question,” hesaid tentatively. “I’m stumped aboutwhat to do about this situation I’min.”

I encouraged him to tell memore. Here’s his story:

"I was recently in a meeting withan executive for a large hospitalgroup. I’d been referred in by amutual connection, which immedi-ately positioned me as a credible re-source.

"When we met, I really hit it offwith this executive. I asked her lotsof questions. She shared some con-fidential information. And, becauseI’d dealt with similar issues when Iworked in the medical field, I hadlots of ideas about how to addressthe challenge.

"It was a great meeting. Shethanked me for my time and said sheneeded to think about what we’dtalked about."

My initial reaction was that he’dprobably spilled the beans tooquickly. That’s one of the most com-mon problems I see. But honestly,he convinced me otherwise. Theyreally had a solid peer-to-peerconversation. So I asked him,“What’s the problem?”

“That was three weeks ago and Ihaven’t heard from her since,” heconfessed. “What should I be doing?”

Chris said that he’d called andemailed several times, mentioningthat he was touching base or wantedto know her thoughts. As Chris sawthe expression on my face, he justi-fied his follow-up strategy, “I don’twant to be too pushy.”

How Holding Back HoldsYou Back

If I’ve heard that response once, I’veheard it a thousand times. No one wantsto be pushy. I don’t want to be pushy.But there’s a big difference betweenbeing pushy and being professional.

That’s when I decided it was timeto turn the tables on Chris—to get himto think “as if” he were his prospect.Here’s what I said:

"Let’s say you were the decisionmaker. You’d just met with a savvybusiness person who truly understoodyour situation. You were impressed—and even relieved—because a solid re-source had appeared.

"Here’s my big question, Chris. Ifyou, as an executive, met this savvyperson, what would you expect him orher to do next?"

He looked at me thoughtfully. “I’dfollow up—but I don’t want to be pushy.It might turn her off.”

What YourProspect Really Wants—It’s Not What You Think!

“Chris,” I said. “Get over yourself.You’re being a total wuss. Now tell me,what would you want this person todo? Put on your buyer’s hat. Think.Then talk to me ‘as if’ you were thisperson.”

I watched Chris struggling with thequestion, then saw something shift. Anew idea was emerging; deep down healready knew the answer. Speaking asif he were the buyer, Chris told me:

"I’d want this person to take charge.I have a gazillion things going on herein my organization. I’m constantlyjumping from project to project. I don’tlike to take big risks here either. I’veseen too many careers get dead-ended.

"I don’t want this person coming tome with a big humongous plan to solvemy problem. That would only throwme into overwhelm. What I’d really likeis for the seller to suggest the logicalnext step.

I’d want to test him out on that tomake sure that I liked working withhim, that he delivered on his prom-ises and that his work yielded results.

“Exactly,” I chimed in. “Andwhat’s preventing you from takingcharge with this prospect?”

Chris said, “I don’t want to bepushy. And, I guess I want her to wantto work with me.”

How Your Own ThinkingHolds You Back

As I talked with Chris, I could seethat his wish not to be pushy was over-riding his sense of how he could helphis prospect. “This is not about you,”I told him. “This is about helping apotential customer address their chal-lenges and achieve their objectives.

“You need to focus on them, notyou. Don’t wait for them to come beg-ging for your services. Help them. Showthem the next steps. Now.”

With that, I took the last sip of mybeer and said my good-byes. I hon-estly don’t know if Chris ever dared tobe a leader, to show his prospect thenext logical step, to help them realizethe value of making a change and toguide them through the decision pro-cess. But if he didn’t, he was missinga big opportunity.

That’s what it takes to win bigdeals this days.

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Prospecting

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In today’s world there are two typesof salespeople. VEGETARIANS andHUNTERS

Vegetarian salespeople are ordertakers who sit around waiting to getlucky. They whine and complain aboutnot having enough leads, competitor’sdropping their prices, prospects thataren’t buying, not having the right prod-ucts, and are always looking for an easyway out. They have somehow deludedthemselves into believing that they areowed something.

Hunters, on the on the hand, areFanatical Prospectors who attack themarket place. They are relentless andunstoppable, obsessive about keepingtheir pipeline full of qualified prospects.They are always on the prowl, pros-pecting day and night, anywhere andanytime—constantly hunting for theirnext opportunity.

Hunters view prospecting as a wayof life. They prospect with singleminded focus. They enthusiasticallydive into telephone prospecting, emailprospecting, cold calling, networking,asking for referrals, knocking on doors,following up on leads, and striking upconversations with strangers.

They don’t make excuses: “Oh, thisis not a good time to call because theymight be at lunch.”

They don’t complain: “Nobody iscalling me back.”

They don’t whine: “The leads arebad.”

They don’t live in fear: “What if shesays no?” Or “What if this is a badtime?”

They don’t procrastinate

They prospect when times are goodbecause they know that a rainy day isright around the corner.

They prospect when times are badbecause they know that fanatical pros-

pecting is the key to survival.

They prospect even when theydon’t feel like prospecting because theyare driven to keep their pipeline full.

Hunters are acutely aware that fail-ure in sales is not caused by a deficitof talent, skills, or training. Not a poorterritory or inferior product. Not sub-par communication and presentationskills. Not a failure to ask for the busi-ness and close. Not tough competitorsand not the economy.

They know the brutal truth aboutsales is the #1 reason for failure in salesis the failure to consistently prospect.Period. End of story.

What kind of salesperson are you?

(Jeb Blountadvises many of theworld’s leadingorganizations and theirexecutives on theimpact of emotionalintelligence andinterpersonal skills oncustomer experience,

strategic account management, sales,and developing highperforming salesteams. He speaks to and deliverstraining to high-performing sales teamsacross the globe. Get his newest best-selling book, Fanatical Prospecting. 1-888-360-2249)

The Two Types of Salespeople:Hunters and Vegetarians

By Jeb Blount

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Here's a great question to ask ofsomeone who contacts you. This ques-tion is designed to determine if the per-son is a decision maker, or collectinginformation for a decision maker:

"Is this something you are tak-ing on yourself, or was it assignedto you?"

A QualifyingQuestion to AskInquirers

Think of some of the inquiries youfollowed up on that seemed just too goodto be true.

The prospect seemed hot and readyto buy right now. And buy big. They didnot ask many questions, but just wantedthe proposal or quote so they could getit approved right away.

And then...you never heard fromthem, nor could you reach them. Sowhat happened?

I dunno, perhaps their boss finally re-minded them they needed that competi-tive quote before they went into contractrenegotiations with their present vendor.Maybe they're just collecting information.Could be that they think they're a deci-sion maker, but really have to go throughmany layers. All we know for sure in thiscase is that we don't know.

What to do? Treat your incomingleads, everything that comes in via web,mail, phone, fax ...whatever, like youwould any other sales situation. Ques-tion to determine the reason behind theirinterest. If you don't, you're vulnerable.

I know, it's sometimes easy to not goin-depth when someone is apparentlywaving money at you. It's simple to justpresent product/service and prices, be-cause they said that's what they're inter-ested in. Whoa, slap yourself back toreality. No, people buy because they areinterested in the results of your prod-uct/service. And they should be able toclearly explain what results they are in-terested in and why. Therefore, your ques-tions should include,

“What prompted the inquiry?”

“How did you happen to chooseus?”

“Why are you looking tochange?”

“What’s happening there thatcaused the decision to look forsomething like this?”

“Tell me about the process onyour end to implement this?”

“What is this (product/service)going to do for you and the organi-zation?”

If It Sounds TooGood to Be True...

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Top Tips

TeleTips


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Tell Them They’re Wrong ina Roundabout Way

Directly tell someone they’re wrongand they’ll resist your ideas even morestrongly while defending theirs. But here’sa roundabout way to do it that lets themsave face, while helping them keep anopen mind. Let’s say they serve up anobjection or make a statement you knowto be blatantly wrong. Respond with,“That’s a good point, and it couldbe a valid concern if ...”

For example, if they say, “We couldn’tconsider you because your service de-partment is in way over its head and wecan’t afford to wait for service,” youcould respond with, “That’s a goodpoint, and would be a valid concernif we hadn’t expanded the depart-ment, which we did a month ago.Now we’re operating on one-dayturnaround.”

You Start With NothingAnyway, So Why Not Ask?

Regarding asking for the sale, keepin mind that you start with a “no” be-fore you place your calls. By asking forthe business, at least you have a chanceto change it to a “yes.” Without asking,you have virtually no chance. So youhave nothing to lose!

HOW are They Different?When they interrupt you with, “Yeah,

yeah, but our company is different,”throw it back to them:

“Oh, I see, well, tell me aboutthe primary differences.” Or,

“In what areas?”

Economize Your QuestionsDon’t use two or three questions

when one will do. For example,

“Is there a particular person whohandles that function in your depart-ment?”

“Yes.”

“Oh, who would that be?”

Better alternative: “Who handlesthat function in your department?”Here’s another,

“Do you ever experience variationsin quality?”

“Yes.”

“What do you experience?”

Better alternative: “Please tell mewhat you experience regardingvariations in quality.”

Get a Commitment Now forthe Future

Speaking of qualifying them for thefuture, go a step further and get a com-mitment. Get agreement on somethingthat would move you closer to a rela-tionship or sale.

“Assuming we have somethingyou like, would you be agreeable tobuying from us?”

“If your present situation were tochange, could you see yourself us-ing us as one of your vendors?”

If so, find out what would need tochange.

A One-Word UpsellI needed to grab a bite to eat

between two connecting flights. Atthe airport foodcourt I found a de-cent looking Chinese place. Theyhad a two entrée special, and a three-choice option that’s about a buck more.They were super busy, and the personbehind the counter greeted customerswith New York deli-type urgency.“Whatwouldyoulikeplease!” Here’s thesales technique: after each person gavetheir two choices, the woman behindthe counter barked out,

“And?”

Most of the people I saw, includingmyself, added a third choice of KungPao something or another. And anotherdollar to the sale.

Think of the opportunities you haveto increase the size of your sales. Thebest time to get someone to buy more iswhen their wallet is out. Often it is justas simple as one question. Or one word.

Think, and Ask in Terms ofthe Decision MakingPROCESS

Learn more about the decision-mak-ing process. There could be many be-hind-the-scenes influences on the deci-sion. Ask about actual users of yourproducts/services, anyone else whocould influence it, who has to sign offon the ultimate decision or OK themoney for it, and perhaps people whowould rather not see it happen.


Art Sobczak's

SMART CALLINGREPORT


A 400 Year-Old “Trick” to Be More Persuasive

September 2016 Volume 33 Number 9

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An article at the INC. website byBetsy Mikel, was titled “The One SimpleMind Trick That Instantly Makes YouMore Persuasive.”

I totally agreed with its premise. Be-cause I have been teaching and practic-ing it for about 30 years. More, actually.

And as the article points out, this trickis not new. The French philosopher,mathematician, and physicist, BlaisePascal wrote about it in the 1600’s.

The “Trick”?If you want to change someone’s

mind, do NOT start a discussion withthe reason why they are wrong. Take theopposite approach. Begin by focusing onwhat they believe, and admit there istruth in it. Then ease into presenting alarger picture… getting them to open upto what other angles and approachesmight exist. This helps them to reach abelief on their own. As the article pointsout, “Instead of you doing the persuad-ing, you’re setting them up to persuadethemselves.”

Let’s turn back the time machineand hear from Pascal himself about this:

When we wish to correct with ad-vantage, and to show another thathe errs, we must notice from whatside he views the matter, for on thatside it is usually true, and admit thattruth to him, but reveal to him theside on which it is false. He is satis-fied with that, for he sees that he wasnot mistaken, and that he only failedto see all sides. Now, no one is of-fended at not seeing everything; butone does not like to be mistaken, andthat perhaps arises from the fact thatman naturally cannot see everything,and that naturally he cannot err inthe side he looks at, since the per-ceptions of our senses are always

true... People are generally better per-suaded by the reasons which theyhave themselves discovered than bythose which have come into the mindof others.

In the article they get a more recentopinion from an expert: AruthurMarkman, a professor of psychology atthe University of Texas. He says, “Whenyou immediately attack someone's be-liefs as wrong, they'll want only to dig intheir heels more. But if you begin by af-firming their position, you've taken thefirst step toward a cordial and potentiallycooperative discussion.”

He adds, "If I have an idea myself, Ifeel I can claim ownership over that idea,as opposed to having to take your idea."

Using ItSo, how do we use this in practice?

Despite what some gurus say, youcan admit that there is merit to someone’sobjection. Somewhat. For example,

“Yes, I can see why you say that.”

“I hear that a lot from peoplewhen I first speak with them.”

“I understand where you arecoming from.”

We call those “softening statements.”You let them know you are not going toargue with them. And they serve to vali-date someone’s belief.

Then you go to work. Not by talkingat them, but by asking questions.

What the article does not mention isthis process. I haven’t validated thisthrough scientific studies. But I have inthe laboratory of the real world. And thatis to get someone to doubt their belieffirst, before presenting your argument.

Because, really, for someone tochange their mind, they first do need tosay, “Hmm, maybe there might be an-other way.” Then they will be open tolooking at the other angles and alterna-tives.

Ask QuestionsSo to execute that we ask questions

to get them to talk about their belief orobjection.

“Tell me more about that.”

“What was behind that conclu-sion?”

“When you say you can get itcheaper online, what are you actu-ally getting?”

“Could you clarify for me someof the details about that?”

And these aren’t questions you justwing off the top of your head. Theyshould be brainstormed for and prac-ticed. Sit down with other reps, comeup with the common objections youhear, all of the reasons WHY someonemight say those things, and then theinitial questions you would ask aftersoftening them.

And then come up with all of theways they might answer.

And then the next questions you willask.

Repeat. Repeat.

Ultimately you should lead them tothe point where now their guard is down,and they would be more open to yourpoint of view.

Some people might think it’s a trick,but it’s just common sense. Pascal saidso about 400 years ago. And it still workstoday.



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Sales ObservationsThe little things mean a lot.

A small personal touch can have aneconomic impact. Here are a coupleof examples from this past month.

Early last year in my Smart Call-ing Blog I gave out my second Artof Selling award. This very exclusiveand totally not-on-a-regular-sched-ule distinction is given out to some-one in a traditionally non-sales role,who does something spectacular insales. The recipient was my dentist,Dr. Mitchell Cooper. You can seethat entire article here: http://smartcalling.com/newsite/the-sec-ond-art-of-selling-award-winner/

To summarize, Dr. Cooper calledme at home, at night, after a proce-dure, just to make sure everythingwas OK. Fast forward to now. I waswatching a ballgame with a coldone, later on a weeknight, when mycell phone rang. I didn’t recognizethe local number, but answered any-way. “Art, Mitchell Cooper here.” Ittook me a couple of seconds of si-lence to connect the name to mydentist. “Oh, hi Dr. Cooper, how areya?” At this point I’m thinking Iwas actually due for a cleaning, andmy gosh, he’s calling people him-self?

“Great,” he replied. “Hey, I wasjust going through some older emailsand I came across what you hadsent me about that article last year,

and I know I mentioned somethingwhen you were in the office last, butwow, this is really really cool and I wantto thank you again.”

So now I am blown away. Again.He took the time, at night, to pick upthe phone simply to THANK me forsomething I had done over 18 monthsago. Which he already thanked me for.

We chatted for a minute or two andthen ended cordially. Without him men-tioning a word about coming in to theoffice for my cleaning. Of course hewasn’t calling for that. He called be-cause he genuinely was thankful. Hecalled previously after the procedurebecause he genuinely cared.

And in my estimation, that’s a ma-jor reason why he’s successful and apatient has to schedule almost twomonths in advance to get in for a rou-tine visit. That’s why he gets tons of re-ferrals. That’s why I’ve written abouthim twice and tens of thousands ofpeople have read about him. And per-haps some in the local Phoenix area arenow going to him.

And yes, I did call to schedule mycleaning after that.

Here’s another. Cindi Tuttle, arep with one of my regular monthlycoaching clients, Headsets.com, sharedher personal touch story. Headsets.comgets some of their new orders through apartnership with amazon.com. The repsfollow up on those orders to welcomethem, and learn how they can furtherhelp the new customers. Cindi first senta handwritten thank you card to a newcustomer, and then followed up byphone. The person who received theheadset, and the card, was not the maindecision maker, but the user. But whatshe did was—with great excitement—show that card to her IT person, whoIS the decision maker. In the meantime,Cindi was unable to reach the customerby phone, since the healthcare companyshe works for had a very secure phonesystem that required an ID input to reachsomeone internally. Fast forward three

months to the present, and Cindi re-ceived a call from the customer, whothanked her for the card, shared thestory about the IT buyer, who had toldher that they need to order fromHeadsets.com from now on. And shethen placed an order for five moreheadsets. And provided her direct num-ber to call in the future.

There you go. Lots of repeat busi-ness as a result of something that costless than a dollar, and a few minutesof time. The little things.

In one of the Facebook groupsI frequent, which is essentially a usergroup for some marketing automationsoftware, someone posted this:

"Who can recommend a good bookto get someone up to speed fast onFacebook advertising?"

There were a few good suggestions,and then this smart ass comment:

"Does your pager beep or buzz,LOL! Who reads physical books?"

There's a case not only of a jerk,but someone who believes everyone islike them. A fatal mistake for sales-people. YOU are not your prospect orcustomer. All that matters is what theythink. Remind yourself of that beforeevery call, question accordingly, andyou minimize the resistance you hear,since you are not creating it.



Don’t Qualify for Budget Early By Tibor Shanto

Many people involved in sales seemto be fixated with budget; they want toqualify for it way too early in the pro-cess. I know it is important, but you maybe are disqualifying perfectly good buy-ers for the wrong reason.

Your job in sales is to, well, sell, whichmeans identifying requirements or gapsin the prospect’s current situation.

But, about 75% of potential buyersdon’t know, realize or admit they haverequirements or gaps. Remember, sta-tus quo is your biggest hurdle.

So if they don’t perceive a need, theycertainly don’t see a need to allocate bud-get. This does not mean that theywouldn't, in fact, benefit from your prod-uct, they have just lived with the painlong enough so it doesn't seem urgent.Or on the positive side, they didn’t real-ize they could achieve their goals by tak-ing advantage of your offering. Ask thistype of person about budget too earlyand you will end up disqualifying a per-fectly good buyer.

If you are talking to the right peoplein the right way, budget is very much anissue that can be--at times easily--over-come.

An ExampleConsider this example: have you ever

walked into an electronics store lookingto buy a flat screen TV? You know whatyou had in mind, and then you encoun-tered a clerk who “qualified you”? Theyasked a bunch of questions, includingbudget, and then showed you two orthree products that fit what you de-scribed.

Contrast that with the time I walkedinto an electronics store, with a specificflat screen in mind, shopped it on line inadvance so I had a budget in mind, butI encountered a different type of salesperson. She asked me why I was buy-ing the TV, and had I had a flat screenbefore? What type of things would I bewatching?

She then continued to ask what kindof DVD player I had, telling me aboutBlue Ray, asked if I stream from the web,and of course since I told her I watchmusic DVD’s, what was I using to maxi-

(Tibor Shanto is a Sales ExecutionSpecialist,focused onhelping salesteams andindividualssecure morerevenue throughimprovedprospecting,selling and

overall execution of their process. Youcan reach Tibor at (416) 822-7781, orvisit www.SellBetter.ca)

mize the sonic experience. When allwas said and done, I had exceededmy flat screen budget by $250, or20%. In addition I became the proudowner of an unbudgeted Blue Rayplayer. (I decided to give my inad-equate home theater system to thekids; how else was I going to makeroom for the new one?)

You can say I was an impulsebuyer. I would argue that I was maxi-mizing my investment in my enhancedflat screen. Either way there is no ar-guing that rather than qualifying mefor budget, she qualified me for whatI was trying to achieve and how tobest maximize that over the life of mynew smart TV.

Corporate buyers are no different.The higher you go in the organization,the truer this is. Executives are able tocreate budget, able to shift fundsaround, and make a buy based on ahost of factors beyond budget. I havemany clients who did not have budgetfor training when I cold called them.But after we engaged, and I demon-strated how their investment in what Ido will deliver results and returns thatwill exceed their investment,THEN thatjustified an unbudgeted expenditure.

Executives want and need to showa difference in their position. Showthem how you can help them do thatand you will find a person motivatedto make things happen.

If you intead give them theimporession that your primary interestis their ability to spend money withyou, even those with a budget will self-disqualify. It’s about engagement andinvestment – not budget. Go ahead,qualify someone for a better competi-tor.

A sales rep for office supplies calledme, didn't have a very good opening--but I stayed on the call anyway thinkingI'd get some material out of it--and heimmediately started with, "Tell me aboutyour office supply needs."

I told him I had no needs. He saidthanks and hung up.

If you hit someone with a vague ques-tion like, "What are your needs?", andthey are not thinking about their needsat that very moment, what are you likelyto hear?

"Uh, we're satisfied with what wehave," or, "We're doing fine where we are."

Bottom line, you will not get themtalking about something they haven'tthought of, or aren't thinking about atthat second. As an alternative, frame aquestion around a need they likely have... a question that helps them visualizeand feel the need you can fill. Don't forcethem to come up with the possible needon their own, you paint it for them, thenask them to react to it. For example,

"Tell me about your ordering pro-cess, and how many different ven-dors you usually need to contact tofind the supplies you want."

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Asking AboutNeeds Doesn'tGet Them

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You Do Not NeedTo Apologize ForHelping Them

Don’t apologize for taking someone’stime at the beginning of a call. It dimin-ishes your importance. For example,

“I know you’re busy, and I’msorry forinterrupting ... I’ll take just a few seconds,and here’s why I’m calling.”

Stop. Think about what you’re reallyoffering. You have something of value thatwill help make this person’s life better.

You need to present that feeling withconviction. If you’re not sold on your im-portance, they certainly won’t be.

Top Tips


Jim Domanski

(Jim Domanskiis President ofTeleConceptsConsulting, atelesalesconsulting andtraining firm.Contact him at

[email protected],613-591-1998)

How to Really Move the Sale Forward

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There are only four outcomes to anysales situation: a sale, no sale, a continu-ance and an advance.

The first two outcomes are easy to com-prehend. But the line between continuanceand advance is the line between mediocrereps and immensely successful reps. Ifyou’re interested in reducing the salescycle, working on better qualified leads andgenerating more sales, pay attention.

ContinuanceUnfortunately, the vast majority of reps

are superb at “continuing” a sale. A con-tinuance is where it appears that the salecycle is being closed but in reality, it isonly being extended. This is sometimes atough concept for reps to understand.Here are some examples to illustrate whatI mean:

“I’ll send you some product brochuresin the mail.”

“I will give you a call sometime nextweek to discuss the proposal.”

“Give the sample a try and we’ll re-view it later on.”

“I’ll fax you the material and we’ll goover it.”

“Let’s meet sometime next month andwe’ll assess your need then.”

On the surface, these statementswould suggest that the sale is moving for-ward. Not so. Did you notice the two com-mon denominators?

1. There is no firm commitment onbehalf of the prospect or customer to takespecific action.

2. There is no firm follow-up date.

Some sales will, of course, occur.

But if you are interested in getting moresales in less time, and if you would like todisqualify those clientswho are not actu-ally interested in your product or service,then you must learn to “advance” the sale.

The AdvanceThe advance differs from a continu-

ance in that it gets the client to take aspecific action within a given timeframe.

Here’s how the above examples wouldlook/sound like with an advance:

“I’ll send you a product brochureon the Deluxe version by email andwhat I would like to recommend isthat we review these together nextThursday. How does 10:15 look toyou?”

“I’ll give you a call next week todiscuss the MEA proposal. Supposewe schedule Wednesday at 2:20?”

“I’ll be glad to provide you withan Atrium sample. Specifically whenwill you use it? What is the criteriafor evaluation? What I would like torecommend is that we set up an ap-pointment for Friday, at 8:30 a.m. toreview your evaluation. How doesthat sound?”

“I’ll send over a link to the demomaterial right now. Can you review itso that we can go over the details to-gether in about 45 minutes?”

“Let’s set up an appointment fornext month, say the 15th, at 2:45. Atthat time we can reassess your situa-tion. Is that date okay with you?”

Do you see the difference?

Each example suggests a specific ac-tion that must or should be taken by theclient. This creates active participationfrom the client which moves the sale fur-ther through the cycle.

Next, each example has a specific timeframe for the accomplishment of the ac-tion which creates commitment. This is apowerful one-two sales punch.

Withdrawing the AdvanceIf the client will NOT commit to any

action or follow up, it suggests that per-haps their interest is not particularly strongat this point in time.

If the client will NOT commit to theaction, then withdraw the advance.

For example,

“Ms. Finn, I get the impressionthat perhaps now is not the best timeto send the literature. If it is not pos-sible to set up a review date, perhapsit would be best if we waited and Icall you at a later date.”

It takes guts to do this but what itreally does is allow you to focus onlyon genuine sales opportunities. Youdon’t waste time “watering deadplants.”

This is an extremely powerful tech-nique.

Use it and advance the sale!

How To Make Your VoiceMail Message Stand OutFrom the Clutter

Want to enhance your chances of avoice mail message being remembered,maybe even evoking a return call?

Back it up with a written message byan assistant. Ask the screener, assistant,or anyone in the area to scratch out abrief note for the prospect. For example,

“Pat Walters left a voice mail re-garding cutting maintenance ex-penses by 25% and will call backtomorrow.”

Ask them to NOT put it on yourprospect’s desk, but on his/her chair. Thatsets you apart.

Further, ask them to draw a littlesmiley face next to the message.

Don’t laugh. Corny to be sure, butmemorable, right?

Reinforce it with an email, if youhave or can get the address.

Of course all of this must comple-ment a great value proposition.

The message must be about themand their world, and what they want orwish to avoid. What we’re doing withthat message is making it stand out fromthe clutter.

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Persuasion Skills

Selling to Distracted PeopleI stopped in the local Subway to grab

a quick sandwich. Luckily there wasn't aline, but I was still left waiting as no onewas there to handle my order. Two otheremployees were busy helping other cus-tomers, and one of them yelled,

"Michelle, counter!"

About 30 seconds later a 20-some-thing customer servicer came out, didn'tlook me in the eye and blurted, "Hep ya?"

I was ready, since I had ample timeto prepare my script.

"Yes, please. I'd like a six-inch turkey,on whole grain, not toasted."

She slapped on gloves, then lookedat me a bit puzzled and said, "You saidmeatball, right?"

That was odd. "Turkey" sounds noth-ing like "meatball." "No, I said turkey. Onwhole grain."

She searched for the turkey, fumbledaround a bit, then looked at me againand said, "White bread?"

I thought she was joking. I gave her a"Your're kidding right?"-kind of smirk.

Realizing she actually didn't know, Ireplied, "Well, again, I'd like whole grainplease."

A few seconds passed as she fever-ishly threw together the sandwich, lookedup and said, "You said toasted, right?"

Now I'm laughing. I replied, "Actually,no, I didn't say that. And no thanks, nottoasted."

Finally she asked, "What would youlike on it?"

Given my experience up to this point,it took everything I had--trust me-- to notreturn with something like, "I'd answer, butI don't think it will do any good, so justask me a second time right now."

Instead, I maintained my composureand very slowly told her what I'd like, itemby item. I even pointed at them to helpher visualize.

I'd like to think this experience is theexception with service people, sales

people, or even just people in general. Youand I both know that unfortunately it ismore the norm.

The typical attention span today is mereseconds--if that. People are addicted to dis-traction.

Young and old. We communicate inabbreviated phrases. We get news in head-lines, scrawls and tweets. If a websitedoesn't grab our attention in seconds, click.Next.

And don't even get me going on theentire notion of "present but absent," whichis using your mobile device to text, call,tweet, email or whatever-- when you areWITH another person. Any time someonedoes that they are indicating, "I've got amore important person on the other endof this."

While walking through a restaurant tomy seat the other day, I observed at least80% of the tables where there were couplestogether, one, and sometimes both of themwere tapping on, talking into, or staringblankly at their mobile devices. Present butabsent.

OK, let me get this rant back on thetracks. My point is the reality today is thatwe must operate in the environment wherepeople in general have shorter attentionspans than ever.

We are more distracted and inundatedwith stimuli than ever before. To be effec-tive in the sales game, we need toproactively counteract that when we aresending, and receiving messages.

A couple of very rudimentary, but nev-ertheless important points.

Pay AttentionI believe that to truly be an effective

communicator, you need to work hard atthe art and science of simply paying atten-tion.

Yes, that means actually listening towhat the other person is saying, and notthinking of what you will say next. Or worse,interrupting them with what you want tosay.

It means not checking your emails,texts, tweets, Facebook or any other sitewhile you are speaking with a prospect orcustomer. I heard a speaker say that there

is no such thing as multi-tasking, since aperson can only do one thing at a time.If you are flitting from thing to thing, youare not doing any of them very well. Cer-tainly you wouldn't have your A-gamewhen you are talking on the phone andtrying to perform several other activities.

Here's a test worth taking: on the re-mainder of your spoken communicationtoday, on the phone and face-to-face,practice "over the top" listening. Thatmeans grabbing on to every word youhear as if you would be tested on it, withdire consequences if you failed. Youmight be surprised at how much you re-ally hear.

Pre-empt their DistractionWhat's harder to control, but certainly

doable, is grabbing and keeping their at-tention. How? Talk about their favoritesubject: them. This is not new. But thenagain, I don't know why more reps don'tdo it.

Sitting in my voice mail inbox rightnow is a message from a clueless callerwho left a 90-second message about theservice he provides to call centers andhow he wants to set up an appointmentso he could show me how I should beusing his service in my call center. Uh,hello. It wouldn't take more than a fewseconds to find out exactly what I do,which is not run a call center.

What my business is, is helping sales-people do what he didn't . Create inter-est, engage prospects and customers, andmove the sales process forward. That'swhat I constantly talk about and yourmember site is full of info about, andthere is even more on my free sites..

So, if you are having a difficult timereaching decision makers, getting pros-pects to read--or even open--your emails,and then if you are able to get through,actually selling, well, brace yourself: it'syou. Money, and attention, flows tovalue. How can you communicate that?

If you made it all the way to here,congrats. You either have a refined at-tention span, and/or I kept your interest.Follow these ideas and you will be wayahead of those who are busy being dis-tracted.


(JillKonrath,author ofSNAPSelling,Selling to BigCompanies,and her

newest book, Agile Selling, helpssellers land bigger clients and speed uptheir sales cycle. To get her freeProspecting Tool Kit, visitwww.jillkonrath.com/sales-resources.)

Jill Konrath

The Easiest Way to Keep inTouch Without Harassing People

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Virtually every time I speak tosales organizations, I get asked,"What do I do when I don't hear backfrom people? I don't want to be apain in the you-know-what." Keep-ing in touch is so darnn hard!

So I ask to see what they're do-ing now. Usually it looks like this:

"I'm checking in to see if anythinghas changed since we last talked. Isuspect you're probably busy."

"If you have time in the upcom-ing week, I'd love to chat. Let meknow!"

Big UGH! Boring, pathetic,deletable.

With today's savvy buyers, wecan't do that if we want to be seenas a credible resource ... someoneactually worth talking to about im-portant business objectives. That'swhy we need another approach toour sales strategy.

1. Be HelpfulIt sounds too easy. Not like a

salesperson -- who's supposed to al-ways be pitching. But honest togoodness, it's what works.

For example, one of my clientssells a product that significantly im-proves customer service. I suggestedthat they send out an email as simpleas this:

When I read this article to-day in the Harvard BusinessReview, I immediatelythought of you.

It includes info on socialmedia trends related to cus-tomer service.

www.InterestingArticle.com

Hope you find it interest-ing.

Notice how you’re not asking foranything — just providing value —which positions you/your companyas a credible resource.

2. PiqueCuriosity

Another great sales strategy is to sendpeople to a resource on your own website.I'm not talking about a place that toutsyour product and services. Gag me! Do-ing that is so 1970s.

Instead, I'm talking about somethingthat could help your prospect achieve theirobjectives. Like a white paper, case study,article, or interview that's informative —or shares insights. You could send anemail like this:

Last week, I sent you info onhow XYZ company is leveragingtheir online community to driveincremental revenue.

I thought you might also beinterested in how Generic Sys-tems reducing customer churn by17%. Here's a link to their casestudy:

www.linktocasestudy.com

I think you'll be impressed withall the results they're seeing.

Tempting? It should be if you've foundthe right resource for your prospect. Again,there's no pathetic "circling back" or"checking in."

Every email (or phone message) yousend to your prospect has to stand on itsown as VALUABLE. Once you get thehang of it, it's easy. And honestly, youfeel better communicating this way.


Thinking back to all of the math Itook in high school and college, mostof the algebra, calculus, statistics andaccounting was never of any use tome in the real word. What wouldhave been really helpful is some ba-sic sales math that most of us usethe rest of our lives.

Numbers of course play a hugerole for anyone in sales, and business.Look around you and in thenews...pro athletes and team ownersargue about percentages of revenue,congress and the President are argu-ing about budget numbers, tax per-centages, etc. And we use numbersin a variety of ways to persuade andsell.

We use numbers to describe de-grees of pain, pleasure, profits, losses,income, and time. And there aresmart ways to use numbers on thephone in your sales. Let's look at afew of them.

Reducing Price to theRidiculous

This old technique refers to mini-mizing your price or difference in costbetween you and a competitor. "Ri-diculous" refers to how insignificantthe amount really is when you put itin daily terms.

"Pat, we're really only talkingabout a difference of two dollarsa day to have the souped-upmodel."

(Or, ridiculous could mean howcrazy someone could get with thistechnique, which can sound cheesy:"Chad, it's only 30 cents per hour dif-ference over the 10-year life of themachine.")

Raise it to theOutrageous

Conversely, this is taking a sav-ings and extrapolating it over a longerperiod. It's useful in pointing out howmuch someone will save, over agreater period of time, by buying fromyou.

Using Numbers

The REALNumbers GameIn Sales


Using Numbers

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(Brendon Cassidy, founder ofCassidy Ventures posted this as anupdate in his LinkedIn profile. We'vereprinted it as is. Some interestingpoints.)

What To Do: Personalize. BigTime.

1) Play the RelationshipGame. Do you know someone thatknows me? Do you not know some-one that knows me? Both of thosetrump any other scenario. If you arevetted through someone I know (orbetter put, I think you’re vetted throughsomeone I know), your odds go upconsiderably. If you don’t have a com-mon relationship to play...a good friendonce said “fake it til you make it.”Example: “Brendon, I am friends withAaron Ross, whom I know you know.I recently joined XXX company, andwe are trying to simplify how compa-nies YYYY. I know this is an issue thatyou and Aaron have spoken andblogged about often. Do you havesome time today or tomorrow totalk...?” That’s pretty solid.

2) Play the Ego Card. I’m no

What Not To Do: Don’t Cold CallMe. And Don’t Send MarketingPitches.

1) I Know Cold Calling is AllThe Rage. Hey, maybe it’s just me (itisn’t by the way), but I ain’t picking upyour cold call. And guess what? If I didn’tpick up your call the first time, I’mdamn well not picking it up the secondtime. Or the tenth. I recently acciden-tally clicked on a Quicken Loans ad. 18calls in 3 days. HORRIBLE. Number oftimes I bought from someone that coldcalled me: Zero Point Zero.

2) Don’t Send Me Generic Mar-keting Content. ”We are providinganalytics that solves the age old prob-lem of xxxxxxxxxx.” Delete. Not gonnahappen. At a minimum, make your con-tent fresh, funny, and outside the box.Show me something I haven’t seen be-fore. Your 0.5% goes up to 5%. Hey,sometimes that’s all you need.

Bottom line: Personalize, personal-ize, personalize. And for gosh sakes, if Iwant to talk to you I will let you know.Happy hunting.

narcissist, but like anyone else, I don’tturn down compliments. There is TONSof data available on the web on pros-pects. Look at shows they’ve spoken at,panels they’ve participated in, podcaststhey’ve done, blogs they’ve written.“Brendon, I saw you speak at Saastrand I’m a huge fan of yours. You spokepassionately about being data driven inyour decisionmaking, and I’m workingwith xxxx that is solving yyyy problemfor zzzz companies. I think we’d solvethis problem for you. I’d love to get yourfeedback on what we are doing etc etcetc.

3) Tell Me Something I Don’tKnow. The most valuable commodityI know of is information. Maybe the VPof Sales at our competitor just left. “HeyBrendon, So the VP of Sales at xxxxxjust left (not sure if you know this). Itseems like a great time to turn the heatup on their customer base. Our productcan give you access to over 1,000 com-panies that use their product. Would yoube interested in having access to thatkind of data? Do you have 20 minutesto talk later this week.” (yes I just de-scribed Datanyze)

A Decision Maker Reveals,“How to Get a Meeting With Me”

(Continued from previoius page)"Our program is in place at 358

dealerships," sounds authoritative.

"Our program is in about 400dealerships," leaves a feeling that thenumber might be fudged a bit.

Likewise,if you want to minimize theimportance of a number, you could usea rounded figure.

"We're only looking at a figurefor customization somewhere inthe 200 range."

Place Price in aDifferent Perspective

You probably can recall those hair-pulling situations here you've establishedthe savings or additional profits youcould help someone realize, but yet,they don't act on it. It's normally be-cause they don't see the number asbeing significant enough. So put it in

terms they can understand.

"Paul, you're right, we're onlytalking about $600 a month sav-ings here. But I bet that wouldmake the monthly payment onone of your delivery vans."

Or, here's a powerful one:

"The $200 cost reductionmight not seem like a lot, but let'slook at it a different way. You saidyou're profit margin is about 10%.You'd need to do another $2000in sales per month just to makethe $200 I'm basically offeringyou, for free."

These examples just scratch the sur-face of how we use numbers all of thetime in sales. I'd like to hear yours.Please email me with some numbers-techniques that you use to persuadeand sell.

"You'll save the shipping cost onevery order. On two orders permonth at an average of $15 per,we're looking at $360 for the year."

Can You Say "Dollars"?When you want to maximize the per-

ception of a number, say the word "dol-lars."

"With us, your savings will beover three-thousand dollars."

Conversely, to minimize it, just saythe number

"To upgrade will only be an ex-tra one-fifty."

Use Exact NumbersStating exact numbers adds more

credibility to your statements than us-ing rounded numbers. For example,

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TeleTips









8

Competing Against theCheaper OnlineVendors

If you're faced with the resistance of"We can get it cheaper online," a goodstrategy is to not get into a price discus-sion, but rather get them thinking andtalking about what they really want,which many times is not included whenpurchasing online. For example,

"Of course most things today canbe simply purchased online forlower prices. But let's look at ev-erything that you really want..."

A Tip to Get ThroughHaving trouble getting to a decision

maker? After leaving repeated voicemails with no reply, opt out and find aperson to speak with. Listen to theirmessage for whom that might be. Thenask, "About how often does she/heget around to making return calls?"You should also ask them to leave ahandwritten note for the prospect say-ing that you called.

Get them to ElaborateTo build on the cover story, I've al-

ways taught that the best way to dealwith objections is to question them inorder to find the real reason behind theresistance. Otherwise, you likely are fo-cusing on the symptom, not the realproblem itself. While coaching some repsafter training on this topic, a couple ofthem had great success with simply re-plying, "Could you please elaborateon that?" after hearing the objection. Itreally got people to open up.

Listen for This LeadSource

Want a good source of leads? Lis-ten for these words from existing pros-pects and customers,

"At the last company I was at..."

Then just ask them where that was,and probe further who might now be inthat position.

Just Close ItDon't overcomplicate the "ask."

Simple works just fine:

"Shall we move forward withit?"

"Would you like to get started?"

Help Them Visualizethe Result

It is widely believed that we will notaccomplish something until we can ac-tually see ourselves in our mind's eyegoing there. Therefore, we want ourprospects and customers to see them-selves taking the next action. Here's avery simple, yet powerful question I'veused several times with great successover the past month:

"When do you see yourself do-ing the training?"

In all cases it helped the prospectgive a clear indication of where theywere in the buying process. Some wereready to move, and a couple were notand it helped me to disqualify them.

Ask How They FeelAbout Their Decision

Here's something a sales rep did withme. I'm not sure I've ever heard it used ortaught, and not even sure if the rep wasconsciously using it as a sales technique,but it worked. I was giving buying sig-nals, leaning toward making a purchase,but hadn't verbally said I was pulling thetrigger. The rep, who was assuming thesale, said, "Do you feel good aboutyour decision?" At that point I thought,and said, "Yeah, I needed to do some-thing."

Help Them Read theOther Proposals

On a rep's call I was listening to aspart of preparation for a training programwith them, I heard him skillfully tell theprospect how to read the other compet-ing proposals. He suggested looking foritems that are typically left out regardingguarantees, and in the way others priced.Naturally, his company was stronger inthese areas. Then he put that informa-tion in a follow-up email

Breaking a SlumpIf you ever experience a slump, or just

feel like you're getting stale, try what Ja-son Stoddard does. Come in the officeon a weekend. Completely clean your of-fice or cube. Toss anything you haven'ttouched in a year. Rearrange and reas-semble your surroundings so it looks freshto you. On Monday, dress up a notchhigher than normal. Come in a bit earlyand hit the ground running!


Art Sobczak's

SMART CALLINGREPORT


Voice Mail Ideas to Use, and Avoid August 2016 Volume 33 Number 8

As you likely know, the mission ofthis publication is to share with you thebest of what’s working in sales and pros-pecting. That’s why I not only providecontent I’ve written, used, teach, andexperience, but also have lots of guestand regular columnists. And, I’m con-stantly on the lookout for material I pickup by reading, watching, and listeningto many many other sources.

This month I found an article on get-ting calls returned, by John Carroll, onhis insurance marketing website,InsuranceSplash.com (I told you I goto the most exciting places!)

John actually got these ideas fromother agents, and he even warned thatsome of them were unethical. So, I’mgoing to share the ideas that have merit,and at the end mention some of theunethical ones just to show more of thegarbage that is still being practiced outthere.

People Must WANT toCall Back

He points out in his first couple oftips that this is the fundamental premisethat everything else falls under. He saysthat people don’t ignore you for anyother reason than because you failed todo your job, which is to make themWANT to call you. Therefore, “Whenyou’re leaving a message don’t sell theprice, the options, or the service; sell theperson exclusively on why it’s worth theirtime and energy to return your call.”

Restate Your ReferralThis was a very good point. If you

are calling as a result of a referral, men-tion that person’s name early in the mes-sage and frequently. This does a fewthings:

- It reminds the person that youshould be trusted and respected.

- It catches their attention just tohear a name they recognize.

- It provides social proof since theirfriend is also a client.

- It reinforces any concerns thattreating you poorly will reflect badly onthem.

Speak Like a JournalistThis was a good analogy to get to

your valuable point quickly. The articlesaid, “In the newspaper world of dead-lines and limited page space, journal-ists are taught to organize their storieswith the most important informationfirst and less relevant details furtherdown the page.The premise for the jour-nalist is that you never know where theeditor is going to cut off your story soyou want to make sure the major pointsare relayed as quickly as possible.Yourprospects are the editors of their ownvoicemail, so make sure you get to thepoint ASAP.”

Ask QuestionsAlthough not new, one tips suggests

asking questions in a voicemail, sinceit can make the person on the receiv-ing end more likely to call back to closethe loop.

Remind Them You’re LocalThe article says, “In some insurance

sales situations, you might be the onlylocal salesperson for a prospect andyou don’t want them to treat you likesome call center dude five states away.Aren’t you a bit nicer to salespeoplethat call you from a local number?”

Depending on what you sell, thiscould be of great value for you.

Set Callback TimingExpectations

This again is a good take on an oldidea: “One of the reasons people don’t

want to call you back is they’re afraidof getting into a long call. If the reasonfor your call only requires a quick con-versation, make sure you mention that.Avoid using round numbers: a fiveminute call never really is, but a fourminute call probably will be.”

HumorI agree that if you can use humor

effectively, it’s to your advantage.

While they give an example of howyou could set up a joke on your mes-sage and tell the prospect they need tocall you back for the punchline, whichI find a bit out there, one that I smiledat was pretending like you’re confusedabout the beep:

“Wait… Was that the beep?… AmI recording?… Oh shoot… Oh man,it’s too late to hang up now… This isJohn from…”

Again, it likely not for most people,but perhaps you could adapt some-thing.

Multi-Pronged AttackI’ve taught this one for a long time:

“If you can hit those people with anemail, a letter, a fax, a text, and a tweetall at the same time you’ll be sure toget their attention.”

Give Your After Hours CellNumber

This is a good suggestion that notonly applies to insurance, but a lot ofindustries: “There’s plenty of folks outthere who would LOVE to call youback if only they could do it at 7pmwhen they’re free. If you’re seriousabout selling insurance, you’re goingto need to talk to clients when it’s con-venient for them. Leaving your after-hours cell number is one great way todo it.”




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Sales ObservationsOn my long list of many

things to get to, I’m planning ondoing a training, or at least a longerarticle on being different on yourcalls. Being unique to stand out fromthe crowd and to grab attention. Thatwill include saying things that are outof the ordinary, maybe even shock-ing. And also using humor.

Don’t misinterpret; I am not talk-ing about being totally outrageous,or sounding like a goofball or a jerk(there are trainers out there that takethat approach). Everything will stillfall under the umbrella of havingpossible value, but not sounding likeevery other salesperson out there.

Here’s just a hint of some of themessaging you can use:

In an opening:

“You probably get lots ofcalls from people who say theycan save you time and money,right? Well, I actually can, butwe’re a bit different, here’swhy…”

After your brief Possible Valuestatement, qualify it with,

“Now I know this mightsound too good to be true, buthere’s why it isn’t…”

Or, “I know you weren’t sit-

ting there hoping to get a call todayfrom someone who wanted to talkabout your pressure components…”

Similar, but the opposite:

“And I know that on your to-dolist today, right at the top, was, ‘takea call from a workman’s comp spe-cialist.’”

What do YOU do that is different, orhumorous? I've love to hear it, and in-clude it in whatever I put together.

I’m going to be partnering withSteve Richard, founder and Chief Rev-enue Officer of ExecVision, a companythat has an unbelievable platform for re-cording calls and coaching with them.I’m also going to do one of his CallCamps where we “break down the film,”so to speak, like a coach after a game.But we do it with reps’ phone calls. On aprevious one I listened to I heard a repuse a great technique on voice mail. In avery confident voice, after leaving a nicemessage that had some value, she said,

“Please give me a call back. Ipromise not to waste your time.”

That’s different. It’s powerful. An-other variation would be,

“I promise it will be worth yourtime.”

Again, you need to do this with a con-fident tone. And of course you need todeliver big time when you do speak withthem.

I received a LinkedIn Inmail mes-sage from one of our new Inner Circlemembers who said,

“I’m looking for some information onclosing a prospect email— what is thebest way to close a prospecting email totry to get an appointment? Best to give apossible date/time for the meeting (phonemeeting) or leave it open to the prospect?Thanks!”

I don’t believe in asking for an ap-

pointment in a prospecting email... orare you referring to a phone appoint-ment? If you’re simply looking to getsomeone on the phone, I like to endwith,

“... I will try you again Mondaymorning, or if there is a better timefor you, please hit Reply with acouple of times and I will confirmwith you.”

After I read her message again, I'mpretty sure she was referring to just aphone appointment, in which case thisstill applies.

It really seems so simple. I wishI didn't have to learn it the hard wayearly in my career: just shutting up andgetting out of the way.

I asked a training client, “Where doyou feel your people need improvement?”He began talking, and, these are word-for-word, the answers he gave me inrapid-fired succession:

“ What we would like to do is...”

“Where we are having trouble is...”

“We are weak in the area of...”

“What we are faced with is...”

I could barely write fast enough. Andof course I drilled down with deeperquestion in each of those areas. Whenit came time for my recommendation, Ijust plugged his words back in.



3 Things To Not Say On Prospecting Calls By Tibor Shanto

Many sellers ask me what theyshould add to or say in an initial tele-phone prospecting call.

Having listened to and analyzedthousands of calls, I have come to theconclusion that most salespeople wouldmake great strides if they first focusedon what to leave out of their calls.Thereare things that people say in the callthat make sense based in “normal” situ-ations, but not in prospecting, whereyou are calling people who you havenever spoken to, who are not expectingyour call, not looking for your product,and who were busy doing somethingthey thought was important at the timeyou called.

As discussed in the past, your pros-pect has heard it all before. If they getfive calls a day, that’s 25 a week, 1,200a year, some 6,000 calls over the lastfive years! So you have to break throughthe apathy and “deafness” if you areto have any chance at all. This meansnot just being different from the others,but sounding different than all the othercallers they’ll encounter this week.

To help you avoid sounding like thealso-rans who did not get the deal, hereare three things to leave out of yourinitial prospecting call; And, oh, I haveheard all of these in the last week, bypeople who most would consider to be“good” sales people. Here we go:

1. “How are you?” I know itsounds simple, polite, and innocent, butit adds little if anything to the call, andopens some risk. I have a very binaryview of initial calls: if something doesnot add measurable upside to the call,it does not belong in the call. “How areyou?” is definitely one. It is one of thethings that we hate about the calls weget in the middle of dinner, where astrange voice asks how you are asthough they were your best friend con-cerned about your day. Skip it, respecttheir time and intelligence. Instead ofasking how they are, get to why youare calling.

2. “Is this a good time?” No! AsI have spoken about in the past, our

job is that of “professional disruptors,”professional interrupters. By defini-tion, a cold call is when we call some-one who does not know us, is not ex-pecting our call, but fits the profile ofsomeone who would benefit from ouroffering. With all that, no it is not agood time, but I really don’t care,because I have something importantfor the prospect, something that willhelp them achieve their objectives andimprove their business.

3. “Who is in Charge Of?” Wantto tell a prospect you don’t care, youcan’t be bothered, or that you reallydon’t enjoy your job? Just start thecall like that. I swear if I had a dollarfor every time I hear that each week,I could subsidize my coffee habit. It isnot impossible to find names andtitles, and if all else fails, ask for justa specific title, “May I speak to theVP of Operations?” Or pick an af-ternoon and call in advance to col-lect names to be ready when youmake the money call.

Now I know some will sit there andsay “I know this, this is too basic”,and you would be right, which is whatmakes these kind of calls so wrong.

Leveraging The“Nice To Haves”

Sales people are good at lookingfor prospects or buyers with “pain” or“needs,” those ready for the seller’s“solution.” I get it. These are moreimmediate sales, more cooperativebuyers even when the motivation isrooted in “pain.” But is that enough?

Most groups I work with will tellme that to make quota they will haveto close business with more than justthe “lower hanging fruit” of self-de-clared buyers with “pains” or “needs.”They will need to reach beyond thisgroup, and bring other players “intothe market.”

A few days ago I was in the backof a room when a pundit was tellinga sales audience that they should seg-ment their prospects’/buyers’ state-

(Continued on page 6)

ments into three types:

- Needs

- Wants

- Nice to haves

He went on to say that successful salespeople focus most of their effort on theprospect’s “needs,” a lesser amount of timeand effort on the “wants,” and by ad-dressing these two you will win the busi-ness. Don’t waste time on the “Nice tohaves,” “because they are likely notfunded and usually reflect the individual,not the group, and therefore will notachieve consensus.”

That may be logical on the surface,but I have always found that exploringthe “Nice to haves” usually helps me getthe sale, or at times allow me to walkaway, without adding much if any timeto the sales cycle.

“Nice to haves” are usually more per-sonal or individual and certainly more sub-jective than other aspects of the decisionaround the purchase. As a result, we knowthat it is not likely to be the things every-one coalesces around, but it is often akey stop or the critical element in gettingto that consensus. According to the CEBin the Challenger Customer, a buyinggroup is more likely to have discord andfailure in deciding the “type” of solutionto deploy than in selecting a specific ven-dor once they have agreed on “solution.”

Against this backdrop, it is clear thatthe clutch that brings people together, isthe degree to which their “nice to haves”are part of the consideration and the pathforward. It is the salesperson’s ability tohelp each stakeholder see how the coredecision and ultimate deliverable, actu-ally moves them closer to their “nice tohaves.”

Don’t look at exploring their “nice tohaves” as a waste of time. They are per-sonal and telling. You may find that indi-viduals who may not see eye-to-eye onelements of the decision, may have simi-larities in their nice to haves. Creatingconnections and allegiances on that levelcould make the difference between onepath and another, or one supplier vs. an-


Jim Domanski

Are you frustrated by the lack ofresponse to your voice mails and theimpact it has on your Smart Callingefforts?

You can increase your odds of get-ting a return call by integrating e-mailswith your voice mails. Here is asimple, easy to use Three-Step com-bination that you can adapt and usein virtually any industry. It combinespolite persistence with a touch ofhumor to compel the prospect to re-spond.

Step 1: 10 Minutes of YourTime Voice Mail and E-mailCombo

Assuming that you have madeseveral attempts to reach your pros-pect live, the first step in the processis to leave a simple voice mail mes-sage using the template below. Thekey to the message is the request fora 10-minute chat:

“Hey Dan, This is Mike Wraycalling from Logistical Shippers.We work with freight handlerswho are frustrated with late anddelayed shipments. Dan, the rea-son for my call is to arrange abrief, 10-minute chat to learnmore about your situation and tosee if we can reduce some of thehassle associated with shippingdelays. Please call me at ____. Inthe meantime, I'll send you a briefe-mail.”

The subsequent e-mail you sendechoes the voice mail message by pro-viding a visual message to the audiomessage you left. It begins with agood subject line,

Re: Dan, request for 10 min-utes of your time

The subject line contains theprospect's name and references a re-quest for 10 minutes of time. It notonly echoes the voice mail message,it creates a degree of curiosity espe-cially if the prospect has not yet heardof the voice mail i.e., "What request?Did I miss something?" The body ofyour e-mail should contain elementsof your voice mail:

”Dan, as I mentioned in myvoice mail, we work with freighthandlers who are frustrated withthe hassle that delayed shipmentscan cause. We have a simple solu-tion that virtually eliminates thesehead-aches.Could we chat forabout 10 minutes so that I canbetter understand your situationand needs, and to see if we mightbe able to make your job a heck ofa lot easier? My number is _______or simply reply with a time anddate.”

The e-mail provides a lot of "teas-ing copy." It references both the painmotivator (frustrated and hassle) andthe gain motivator (a heck of a lot easier)without belaboring either.

Step 2: 8 Minutes of YourTime Voice Mail E-MailCombo

Persistence is the key to make thisprocess work. Wait three days for a re-sponse before leaving your second voicemail/e-mail combo. Three days courte-ously gives the prospect enough timeto reply and helps avoid the “stalkingsyndrome” that typically occurs if youfollow up too soon.

“Hi Dan, Mike Wray calling fromLogistical Shippers. Dan, I am fol-lowing up on the e-mail left aboutsetting up a telephone appoint-ment to review your freight han-dling needs. I asked for 10 minutesof your time but I suspect you'rebusy, perhaps dealing with a lateshipment or two. Kidding aside,how about 8 minutes of your time?I'll send you a quick e-mail withsome additional information. Inthe meantime, my number is...”

It is vital that the tone of your voiceis light and easy. Notice the request fortime has diminished to 8 minutes. It'sa lighthearted message that acknowl-edges the importance of the client'stime. Also notice the fun little jest:,dealing with a late shipment or two.This is a brief reminder of a possiblemotivator.The e-mail follow up contin-ues the theme in the subject line:

“Dan, how about just 8 min-utes of your time?”

As you can see, reduced time re-quest is emphasized once again. Thisis deliberate. It's what makes the mes-sage unique and catches the eye. Italso has a playful ring to it. The bodyof the e-mail looks like this:

“Dan, I know how busy thingsare in the freight business. I dealwith handlers every day...so I'llonly ask for 8 minutes of yourtime instead of ten. In that time,perhaps we might be able to ex-plore some ways to help stream-line freight tracking and delivery.Sound reasonable? In the mean-time, my number is _____ or sim-ply reply to this message.”

The message is very brief and col-loquial in nature. “Sound reason-able?” is an incomplete sentence butit gives it that off-the-cuff and "no bigdeal" flavor to the message.

Step 3: Five Minutes ofYour Time Voice Mail/E-MailCombo

The final step in the strategy is towait another three business days andgive the prospect time to respond. Ifthat doesn't happen, your third voicemail/e-mail combo should follow thesame pattern as the first two messagesby making an easy quip about thetime required.

“Hi Dan, it's Mike Wray call-ing from Logistical Shippers.Okay, it sounds like you're superbusy so here's my one last shot.How about just five minutes ofyour time AND I promise you itwill be the best five minutes youspend this month. My numberis...”

There are a three things at workhere. First, is your persistence. Youhave made two sets of five follow-upcontacts spaced about six businessdays apart. By now the prospect willrealize you are tenacious.Second, youcreate ongoing interest—and maybe

How to Use Email and Voice Mail to Get a Return Call

(continued on next page)


(Jim Domanskiis President ofTeleConceptsConsulting, atelesalesconsulting andtraining firm.Contact him [email protected],613-591-1998)

Jim Domanski

The Powerof DailyProspecting

by Jeb Blount,Author of Fanatical Prospecting

When you prospect consistently -and, that means every day - amazingthings happen. The cumulative impactof daily prospecting is massive. You be-gin to connect with the right people, inthe right accounts, at just the right time.Suddenly, you start getting “lucky.” Op-portunities drop in your lap out of no-where (my team at Sales Gravy calls thisphenomenon “The Sales Gods”).

Most salespeople never get lucky be-cause they only do the minimal amountof prospecting required to just squeak by,and when they do start prospecting (usu-ally, out of desperation), they expect in-stant miracles. When those miracles don’thappen, they gripe that prospectingdoesn’t work and crawl back into thewarm comfort of mediocrity.

You can’t expect to make prospect-ing calls for a single day and expectmiracles any more than you could ex-pect to hit the driving range once and goon to win a golf tournament. It requiresconsistent commitment and disciplineover time-a little bit every day.

So, go hit the phones, knock on doors,send e-mails and text messages, poundLinkedIn, ask for referrals, attend net-working events, and talk to strangers. Befanatical. Don’t let anything or anyonestop you.

The more you prospect, the luckieryou get.

Link the ClosingAction toThe Benefit

If you’re closing for an appointment,or any action for that matter, alwaysmention the action you want them totake along with the benefit for doing so.For example,

“Pat, it seems that it would be anexcellent idea for you to bringyour last two years’ tax returnsdown to my office. I’m confidentI’ll be able to show you a way tocut your taxes significantly.”

“Dale, the next step at this pointshould be for you to send me cop-ies of your bid specifications. I’llbe able to get back to you withinthe day with a price that will atleast be 10% less than you’re pay-ing now.”

even amusement—by whittling awaythe time that you're requesting.Third,is the sincere promise of the chatbeing “the best five minutes you'llspend this month.” Delivered withconviction, this is a bold and confi-dent statement. Let the prospect hearit.The follow up e-mail has the fol-lowing as a subject line:

“Re: Okay Dan, here's my lastshot: only 5 minutes of yourtime?”

If your prospect reads nothingelse, he'll read the subject line andremember you. But your subject linealso reveals a graceful way of sayingyou won't pursue him beyond thismessage. This can help buy somegood will and perhaps urge the pros-pect to respond.The body of the mes-sage does not have to be elaboratebut it should maintain the easy na-ture of your earlier messages.

“Dan, here's my last kick atthe can: 5 minutes of your time.No more. Promise.But kiddingaside, if you can spare just fiveminutes of your time there is avery good chance that we canhelp reduce or eliminate thehassle and headaches of delayedshipments.Using a simple pro-cess, we take the checking andverifying out of your hands andput it into ours. It's all we do.And that gives you time to workon other more significant mat-ters. 5 minutes? Please give mea call at ________ or simply re-ply to this e-mail. Otherwise I willcall you next quarter.”

Note the layout of the message.Short sentences. Lots of white space.Easy to quickly read and understand.The "look" of your e-mail reflects whata quick 5-minute look might feel like.Also take note that there is a refer-ence to the solution you offer. It's nota pitch but just a broad overview. Andfinally, the message points out that ifthere is no reply, you'll call next quar-ter. In effect, you are saying this isthe last chance they have to respond.

Summary

This process works. It's been "bor-rowed" from IT specialist Brian Bor-rows who explains that he gets a 30%response rate.

This is not surprising. The processcombines persistence with creativity.It's easy going, amusing, and gentle.It creates a one-two punch by marry-ing the power of audio messages withthe power of visual message. Becauseit is a process, you can use it repeat-edly with virtually every prospect aslong as you change the name. Thissaves you time and effort.Take thetime to adapt this process to your situ-ation. It requires a little thought andeffort but the return can be significant.

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Prospecting

(Jeb Blount advises many of theworld’s leading organizations and theirexecutives on the impact of emotionalintelligence and interpersonal skills oncustomer experience, strategic accountmanagement, sales, and developing highperformingsales teams.He speaks toand deliverstraining tohigh-performingsales teamsacross theglobe. 1-888-360- 2249)


(Jill Konrath, author of SNAPSelling, Sellingto Big Compa-nies, and hernewest book,Agile Selling,helps sellersland biggerclients andspeed up theirsales cycle. Toget her freeProspectingTool Kit, visit www.jillkonrath.com/sales-resources.)

Jill Konrath

The Three Tough Sales Questions I Should Have AskedA few years ago, shortly after

launching my new website, I absent-mindedly answered the phone whenit rang. When the caller announcedthat he was from Southwest Airlines,I quickly snapped to attention.

He’d been all over my website,was very impressed, and also veryinterested in my training programs.The airline was going to be puttingits salespeople through training in thenot-too-distant future and wasevaluating its options. When I askedwho else he was looking at, henamed off a bunch of industrybiggies. I was over the moon.

As we continued talking, Mr.Southwest asked dozens of questionsabout my content, delivery models,remote training options, learning re-inforcement, and more. I answeredevery single one in glorious detail.When he requested a proposal, Iasked, “How soon?” and quicklyagreed to his two day timeline.

The proposal I sent to him via e-mail covered everything we hadtalked about in our conversation,plus a full range of pricing options. Inever heard from Mr. Southwestagain—and it was my own fault.

How To Keep a Salefrom GoingSouth(west)

In retrospect, I mistakenly let myown eagerness to do business withthis marquis customer outweigh mycommon sense. I should have knownbetter, but I was seduced by the op-portunity.

Over and over again, I see othersellers make similar mistakes whenthey have a ready-to-buy-now pros-pect on the line. Like me, they ex-pound on their capabilities and ben-efits. They willingly provide detailedinformation and do tons of extrawork to create proposals or presen-tations—anything the prospectswant.

While that puts you into the“nice” seller category, it doesn’t helpyour prospects make the best deci-

sion for their organization. Nor does itenable you to separate yourself fromyour competitors. You just come acrossas an overeager beaver. And usually youdon’t get the business.

That’s why, when these prospectscontact you, it’s imperative to not letyour common sense fly out the window.Here’s what you can do instead: askquestions

Why Tough SalesQuestions Matter

It’s good for both you and your pros-pect to dig in and ask the hard ques-tions. At first, they often feel inappro-priate, especially when you feel like youshould be “selling.” But in reality, theyare exactly what you should be doing—helping potential clients make the bestpossible decision for their business.

Here are three questions you mustask about—even if they’re uncomfort-able:

1. Are they 100% sure they’regoing to change—or are they tryingto determine if it makes sense?

This is crucial in determining yournext step. If they’re still trying to decide,your focus needs to be on the businesscase. If they’re committed to taking ac-tion, then the focus becomes differen-tiation.

2. What other options are theyconsidering—and have they everdone business with any of thesecompanies before?

If your prospect has an existing busi-ness relationship, make sure to explorewhy they’d consider changing. It’s a lotmore work than staying with the statusquo and if they don’t have a good rea-son, they’re likely not going with you.

3. What are their decision crite-ria, and why is each factor impor-tant?

When you find out what criteria theyplan to base their decision on, it ulti-mately helps you:

Figure out which aspects of your ownproduct/service you should stress;

Determine how you stand againstyour competitors; and

Uncover any possible misconcep-tions about the best solution for them.

Plan these questions now. Doit before you talk to a real, live, ready-to-buy-now prospect. You’ll also wantto practice asking these questions aloudtoo. Ultimately, asking the tough ques-tions will make you more likely to iden-tify the opportunities with potential andthus close more deals.

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(Tibor Shanto isa Sales ExecutionSpecialist, focusedon helping salesteams and individu-als secure morerevenue throughimproved prospect-ing, selling andoverall execution oftheir process. You can reach Tibor at(416) 822-7781, or visitwww.SellBetter.ca)

other. Having two allies you broughttogether on a personal level can’t hurt.

Knowing their “nice to haves”, willalso put you in a good position for futureupsells and renewals with the company,based on the rapport you establishedwhen you took their individual “nice tohaves” into account. Remember, oftenthe difference between a “want” and a“nice to have”, is the sales person’s abil-ity to make the “nice to have” possible.

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Price

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Voice Mail

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The UglyThese are the unethical ones I share

only for entertainment value, as I shakemy head in amazement.

Imply That You Have aMutual Friend

“If you say something in your mes-sage implying that your prospect and youmight have a mutual friend, they’re morelikely to call you back because: Theywant to know who the mutual friend is.And, They won’t want you to tell theirfriend they’re an unresponsive jerk.”

And then you’ll be the jerk if theycall back and realize you lied.

Quote an InsanelyCheap Price

“If you want a callback, leave a priceon their voicemail that is half what itshould be. Sure you’ll have your workcut out for you when that call comes,but at least it came.”

Oh, and that’s the way you want tostart a relationship. The means doesNOT justify the end.

Offer a Prize“Leave a message with, ‘Call me

back and I’ll give you a prize that couldbe worth $5,000…’ And give them ascratch-off when they come in to signthe paperwork.”

Please.

Leave Half a Message“Call your prospect, start to say some-

thing very interesting and then CLICK…

‘I was talking to my wife about youand…CLICK’.”

He actually cited the famous, bom-bastic trainer with lots of followers whosuggests this. I won’t even give him thepublicity here.

So, there you have it. I’m out therefor you, sifting through the good, bad,and ugly and breaking it down for you.Take the good ideas here, adapt themand use them to deliver value. Stay awayfrom the bad ones and you’ll not be con-tributing to the negative impression thatsome salespeople perpetuate.

Use a Sexy VoiceI’ll just leave this one alone and you

can draw your own conclusions: “Youprobably already knew that “sex sells.”But did you know it can also get phonecalls returned? Now I’m not saying thiswill work for everyone, but if you’re call-ing a member of the opposite sex andyou make your voice a little deepernobody’s going to get hurt. It worked forElaine, right? Next time you’re about tomake a phone call, channel your innerBarry White or Madonna and let’s see ifit doesn’t get you a callback.”

On the “A BitSuspect” Side

Here are a few that are in the greyarea, which means that for many peoplethey are totally unacceptable tactics. Per-sonally I wouldn’t recommend them asis, but using the theory, with a differentexample I might condone.

Use Information GapTheory

Information Gap Theory is when wefeel there’s a gap between what we knowand what we want to know. It is sayingsomething that will arouse your prospects’curiosity so much they’ll HAVE to callyou. Their example is,

“Mr. Jones, I was reviewing your in-surance history and I was a bit surprisedat what I saw… I’ll explain when you callme back.”

Now, if indeed that IS true, it couldbe effective. If it’s made up, then of courseit’s not acceptable.

Disregard My FormerMessage

The author shares a tactic that anagent in the field uses:

“Sometimes I leave a message saying‘please disregard that last message,’ with-out actually leaving a prior message.People respond pretty quick asking aboutthat last message.”

I’d only suggest it if you did indeedleave a previous message, but perhapsthat would diminish its intended power.

A Question to AskPurchasing

Do you ever end up talking to thepurchasing department and gettingfrustrated?

At a recent training program thediscussion shifted to dealing with pur-chasing agents and how they typicallytry to beat you down on price and usu-ally don’t care about any other aspectof possible value.

One of the reps, Laura Mantz,shared that she at one time worked inprocurement, and reminded everyonethat they are actually human (despitewhat some reps might think). They, infact, do have a stake in making thebest choice for the money, and don’twant to look bad if they buy the cheap-est alternative and it turns out badly.She suggests asking,

“If you ever did buy just basedsoley on price, and the quality wasinferior, would the users comeback to you for an explanation?”

Uncover the CompetitivePrice

Finding out what your competitorcharges, and what your prospect/cus-tomer pays or is quoted is valuable in-formation in a negotiation. Here aretechniques from Gerald Nierenberg onfinding out that informaton.

Guess. “OK, you're paying $1.45per unit now. Oh? You say you're pay-ing $1.43?”

Reversal. “Alright, suggest a fairprice to me, tell me why it's fair, andI'll see if I can meet it.”

Comparison.“You have to con-sider other things besides price—deliv-ery, dependability, quality. What's thebest package they could offer?”

Umbrella. “The market's beenvolatile lately, and everyone seems tobe shifting their prices. What's the bestoffer you've received?”

Direct. “The industry average isprobably $1.45. but I'm interested inwhat Pat Smith at XYZ is offering I'msure I can get close to his price.”(“Negotiating the Big Sale,” GeraldNierenberg)

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TeleTips









8

Communicate PreciselyDo you know anyone that regularly

speaks in vague terms and you find itdifficult to pin them down for a commit-ment for anything? For example, if youare suggesting an activity together, hear-ing a response like, “That sounds good.We’ll need to do that. I’ll let you know.”Frustrating. Well, it has the same effecton your prospects and customers. Lookat these vague terms and their more spe-cific alternatives.

Vague: “I’ll be back in the officelater.”

Better: “I’ll be at my desk and avail-able after 2:30.”

Vague: “We’ll get the proposal outas soon as we can.”

Better: “You’ll have the proposal nolater than Friday’s FedEx delivery.”

Bottom line, be specific in your com-munication, and you get better results.

What are You ThinkingBefore Calls?

The next time you’re about to dialthe phone, STOP! Ask yourself, “Whatam I thinking about this prospect/cus-tomer right now?” Surprisingly, some repsallow little negativisms to creep in andpollute their thinking . . . thoughts suchas “I know this guy will want to beat medown on price.” These thoughts thenturn into self-fulfilling prophecies. Instead,move into a state of mind where you’revisualizing your call objective as alreadyhaving been accomplished. Also ask your-self, “What does this person wantand how can I help them get it?”

Interesting Quotes on Wants- and Needs-Based DecisionMaking

In his book, Selling to the Top, David Peoples shares a few thought-provokingquotes: Dale Carnegie said, “When dealing with people remember you are notdealing with creatures of logic but with creatures of emotion.”

Dr. Tom Stanley, author of the book Marketing to the Affluent, said, “Of thehundreds of millionaires I have interviewed, only one reported using totally objectiveevidence to evaluate sellers of investment services.”

Former Chief Justice Hughes of the U.S. Supreme Court said, “Our level ofdecision making is 95 percent emotional.”

Neil Rackham, in his book Major Account Selling reports that in a study oflost sales where vendors were told they lost on price, follow-up interviews showedthat 64% of the time the real reason was other than price.

Plan for Your Off-Phone TimeMost of us believe that we just don’t have enough time to get everything done.

Particularly those of you who handle details other than calling during your day, suchas chasing down answers to problems, sending out samples and literature, andchecking on orders. An efficient way to get your calling in and handle the functionsand crises that arise is to have a set amount of time each hour—10 minutes or so—as your “other duties” time. Schedule a constant time each hour, at 50 minutespast, for example, and stick to it. This way you can lay aside those little nagging jobsuntil their set time, instead of dropping the phone to perform the duty. This way,your calling tempo remains in rhythm, and you still get plenty done.

Put Excitement in Your StatementsIn addition to the aforementioned attention-grabbers, you want to make state-

ments that exude excitement and confidence. For example, analyze the emotionsthat the following pairs of statements evoke:

Neutral Statement 1: “Here’s a proposal I have for you.”

Colorful Statement 1: “Here’s an exciting opportunity you’ll want to takea look at.”

Neutral Statement 2: “Well yes, our price is higher.”

Colorful Statement 2: “Comparing just the amount you would write thecheck for today, yes the price is higher. But look at it this way, you’llenjoy the benefits of higher quality, plus over time you’ll actually payless.”


Art Sobczak's

July 2016 Volume 33 Number 7

SMART CALLINGREPORT

What’s the most-read, and usu-ally the first-read part of a direct mailletter, or email?

The P.S.

So be sure your prospectingemails have one as well, and that youuse it to ask a question.

Don’t misunderstand me here;I’m not suggesting you send out themass, untargeted email campaignsthat give a long-winded pitch and thenask for an appointment. (These arealso characterized by the annoyingfollow-up emails that say, “I wantedto be sure you got my last message.You did not reply.” Right, that’s be-cause your email had no value forme. In fact, I would never ever be aprospect for what you sell.)

I am suggesting you can use emailto warm up a prospecting call. Anddo include a question as the PS.

An ExampleFor example,

Hi Mike, a mutual acquaintance,Doug Stevens at Grande Industrialfelt it would be beneficial for us toconnect. We helped him to cut hisprocessing times and associated la-bor costs by 20% on commercialprojects and he mentioned you mighthave interest in those types of num-bers.

I’ll give you a call Friday morn-ing, or if there is a better time pleasejust hit Reply and give me a coupleof choices that work for you. Or ifyou’d like to speak before then,here’s my mobile 555-555-5555.

Looking forward to speaking withyou.

Emily KnowltonNational Accounts Manager

P.S. I see on your LinkedIn profileyou volunteer for Special Olympics.Will you be at the Torch Run?

The ComponentsTo break down this email, first no-

tice what is NOT in it: a product pitch.If you talk about your product or ser-vice, you have just given them enoughinformation to decide they do NOTneed to speak with you.

Here are the components in thisone you can model:

1. Reason for Contacting andPossible Value.

The reason for reaching out: in thiscase it was a mutual connection.

The possible value for the pros-pect: here it is the “social proof,” whatyou have done for the mutual con-nection. The results you have pro-vided, which likely would be of inter-est for the prospect as well.

2. The next-action intent andrequest.

Notice here the rep is stating thatshe will call. She is not asking for anappointment up front, although shedoes ask him to hit Reply (an easyaction to take) and offers a couple ofgood times to speak. Then she givesanother soft option for the prospectto call, if so inclined.

3. The PS.

The PS shifts gears into a lighter,personal area. One that likely is ofgreat interest to the prospect. Thisshows the sales rep did homework,and cares enough to touch on some-thing the prospect has interest in.

And finally, it asks a question.People are conditioned to answerquestions. Particularly if the topic issomething the person is passionateabout.

I received an email from someonewho did not know me, and his for-mat somewhat followed this process.Not bad overall.

Then at the end he said, “I knowyou’re a huge baseball fan and at onetime you were on a mission to seeevery stadium. (That was in one ofmy books). How many do you haveleft?”

I replied with a several sentenceanswer. AND took his call when itcame in.

Your options for the PS here arelimited only by your creativity. But besensible. You don’t want to comeacross as the creepy stalker. I’d keepthe questions to things you see on theirLinkedIn page, not on their personalFacebook profile. Ask about previousjobs, companies, experiences in posi-tions, or about an interest they statein their profile.

Again, email is not a replacementfor selling. It is an effective comple-ment, and when used wisely it canhelp you tremendously.

PS. Don’t forget the PS!

A Unique Tip to Use WithProspecting Warm-Up Emails

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Sales ObservationsI’ve so had it with the “cold

calling doesn’t work” crowd. Theseare the folks who for the most partare trying to sell their social mediaor marketing courses. And whenmeek salespeople opt for the path ofleast resistance—buying into thepromises of not having to talk topeople they don’t know, and thenspend—actually waste—their timeon these marketing activities, insteadof calling, they burrow themselves fur-ther into the hole of no results.

Granted, social media, email,and snail mail are all great comple-ments to a sales strategy and pro-cess. I use them all extensively my-self. But they are not a replacementfor the quickest and most effectiveway to enter into a sales conversa-tion with someone YOU want to dobusiness with—as opposed to wait-ing for someone to contact you likea teenager hoping someone will callthem for a date.

And even though you can get in-stant success by making a call rightafter you read this and get a “yes”from someone, we all know that isnot typically the case, any more thana baseball player getting a hit mostof the time. There will be more “no’s”than achievement of your primaryobjective, no doubt. It’s part of thegame. Just like prospectors in the

1800’s, we sift through lots of gravel be-fore finding gold. But the gold is what wetake to the bank. The more gravel we gothrough, the greater our chances of hit-ting the gold.

Which also means if you are seriousabout getting a steady supply of new busi-ness, prospecting needs to be a habit. Notsomething you do when you have down-time, or just do it in spurts. That wouldbe like going to the gym once or twice amonth when you can fit it in, and expectto drop weight and build muscle.

It needs to be something you do EV-ERY day. Non-negotiable. It’s an appoint-ment you set with yourself. It’s a priority.You can’t wait for a convenient time, be-cause that does not happen. People whoaren’t committed to their prospecting al-ways find something else to do.

And the magical thing about takingaction... massive action... is that this mys-tical, magical, mojo and karma kick in.Good things happen when you are put-ting yourself out there. Opportunities be-get other opportunities. Momentum feedsoff of itself. All of a sudden, you get“luckier.”

But it’s not really luck. Luck is whathappens when consistent, education ac-tion meets the marketplace.

So, as we know, the “cold” in coldcalling is dead, but not the calling. Nowgo and make that next call, and makethings happen!

Quick personal story about coldcalling success. My doorbell rang on aSunday morning. I usually don’t evenanswer my door if I am not expectingsomeone or I see it’s someone I don’tknow. In this case I saw it was a small,middle-aged, sweet-looking Hispanicwoman. I opened the door. She steppedbackwards, smiled, and said, “Hi, myname is Leticia, I’m a housekeeper and Ido a couple of homes down the block. Ihave references and do great work andI’m looking for one more home in this

area. I was wondering if you neededa housekeeper?”

My first spoken reaction was thesame as many people when they arehit with a pitch on a cold call, or by asalesperson in a retail store.

“No, I’m all set.”

She smiled, and looked at me andsaid, “Oh, OK, well if you ever needanyone I do really thorough cleaningand I’m very reliable.”

Now, the backstory. My house-keeper had actually quit two weeksprior because she was consolidatingclients and staying closer to her partof town. I actually had another house-keeper that was referred to me com-ing the next day for an interview. SoI said to Leticia, “What would youcharge for a house like this?”

She gave me a range and said shewould need to look around and findout what I needed done. So I invitedher in.

Fast forward. I had her do a “try-out” cleaning that day. She was awe-some, as a cleaner and a person. Ichecked her references. They wereglowing. I cancelled the other inter-view. Leticia is now my regular house-keeper. From a cold call. A door-to-door cold call, no less.

But cold calling doesn’t work,



Sell More By Asking “Why?” and “How?” By Tibor Shanto

Much of the discussion around so-cial selling vs. traditional selling, or evenold school selling like cold calling, hasdistracted many from the central issue:successful selling.

When was the last time someonecongratulated you on landing a big ac-count and asked you “BTW, Ann, didyou use social or other selling to winthis deal?”

It is more likely that someone wouldask about the steps and techniques thatcould be repeated to deliver similar re-sults consistently.

The Proven MethodThere is one tried and true ap-

proach, that when executed properlycan help you and the buyer in a num-ber of ways to come to the right deci-sion in a shorter and less painful timeframe and atmosphere. No magic orsilver bullet, but a series of questionsframed around two simple words andconcepts:

· Why

· How

Using these two in a one – two com-bination helps you resolve a number ofpotential hurdles but avoid some aswell.

One common example is when youhave worked a sale in accordance toyour process. You have interviewed thebuyer(s), qualified them, understoodtheir objectives, and then validatedthem for good measure. You deliver yourproposal, expecting to have some dis-cussion or negotiations, and then ulti-mately leading to a decision (preferablya buy decision--but at times any deci-sion will do.) Only to be told that theyneed to take it to someone who hasnot been part of the process to date(owner, boss…). None of us can pre-tend this has not happened to us.

However, using the Why-How early in the cycle can reduce oreliminate this, but only if you leave theproduct out of it, and focus on thebuyer’s objectives. And by buyer, I am

talking about the individuals and thecollective organization.

Start by asking Why they chosethe product or process now in place.No pre-bias or agenda, just an hon-est question as to “Why that?”

If they are unable to clearly ar-ticulate why they chose the product/provider--and this should be in de-tail--that means you need to be readywith a number of follow-throughquestions in order to fully explore spe-cifics. What were they trying toachieve, why didn’t thye like someof the common alternatives? Whyautomate instead of outsource? Whyon premise vs. cloud?

Question DeepGo deep, don’t just skim the sur-

face. Many prospects will be able toprovide answers that are really justtalking points, but to get real an-swers, answers that give insight intothe situation and the person’s role inthe situation, you will need to haveat least three follow up questions.

· Why that objective?

· How do they measure that?

· Upside of achieving the objec-tive

· Plus, implications of a miss; etc.

If they can go into detail aboutthese, contrasting the choices theyhad to deal with and why they landedwhere they did, then you are morelikely dealing with someone who wasinvolved in the decision, vs. some-one who can't answer, and thereforewas not likely core to the decision.Which is a clear signal you’ll needto engage someone else, and now.

Along with the Why questions,you need to have How questions.

“Great, I understand whyyou went with that route (prod-uct service, provider, etc.), tellme how you went about select-ing Vendor X?”

The goal here is to get a step-by-

step of the How, giving you a windowinto how they make decisions.

Again, if they can detail How thedecision was made, you’re in the rightplace heading in the right direction. Ifnot, and it is clear that they were sec-ondary in the process, then it is clearthat you need to engage others. The goalis to do this really early in the discoveryphase, where curiosity and interest arerewarded with information, especially asthe questions you are asking relate tothem, but provide you with multi-levelinsights.

ConversationalAgain, if you are ready with your

follow-through questions, then you willalso be in a position to learn who wasinvolved in the decision, and is likelynecessary to get a decision now. Thegreat thing is that once you makethis Why-How combo part of yourroutine, you’ll discover that it is a veryconversational and inclusionary ap-proach, where buyers are allowed to re-flect and share info rather than interro-gating or pitching.

The Why-How works on almostany element of the sale, but it does re-quire practice and preparation.

Rather than doing the conventionalprobing around the decision process,who is involved, what are the steps, arethe steps defined or is it ad-hock, etc., ask anyone if they are the ones to makethe decision, and they’ll likely say yes.

Ask about Why and How thecurrent vendor was selected, and youmay find a different scenario, with ad-ditional and at times more importantplayers that will have to be engaged toget the decision you want. But that’sjust the start. You can leverage Why -How in a more granular way to giveyou further insights about the buyer, theirorganization, and how to adjust your ex-ecution to achieve success.

First is across time. Look to the past,present and future. Looking to the pastwill tell how they do things. How theybought software last year or the year be-fore, unless there is an entirely new crew,

(Continued on page 7)


Jim Domanski


(NOTE: This is the opening that Arthad covered briefly in the July Inner CircleCoaching Call.)

Anyone in sales knows how difficult itis to capture a prospect’s fickle and fleet-ing attention, especially if you sell “like”or “identical” products or services. And ifyou can’t grab their attention you are notgoing to sell them.

Here is an opening statement that hashad some remarkable success and is some-thing you might be able to adapt to yoursituation.

It’s called the McCarthy Opener be-cause I stole it from Ryan McCarthy, asales rep for Softchoice Corporation, acompany that sells computer hardwareand software. You can’t get a more “like”product than hardware and software. Ihave taken a few liberties in the examplebelow, but the key components of Ryan’sapproach are evident:

“Jim? This is Ryan McCarthy call-ing from Softchoice Corporation. Weare a reseller of hardware and soft-ware technologies. And Jim, believeme, I know you can get this kind ofstuff at a lot of different places. Butwe really do things differently here atSoftchoice to add value for our cus-tomers by helping them, among otherthings, develop strategies to mitigatelegal risks associated with softwarepurchasing. If I have caught you atgood time, I would like to ask yousome questions and, if it makes senseto do so, provide you with a presen-tation that explains how Softchoiceapproaches the market. How doesthat sound?”

Initial ReactionWhen I first heard Ryan deliver this

opening statement, my jaw hit the desk. It seemed so flippant, so off the cuff thatI had difficulty imaging that anyone wouldgive him the time of day. Well, I was deadwrong. Ryan went three for three on get-ting clients to listen. He also used it as avoice mail message and got a response. He explained that he had tested numer-ous opening statements and this one hadthe best hit rate.

After giving it some thought, it occurredto me that this opening statement works

because it has the right mix of words thatconjure up positive thoughts in the client’smind. When you look at the opening state-ment you will see there are four distinctparts.

Part 1: IdentificationPretty standard here: Ryan introduces

himself and his company. He also includesa very brief description of what Softchoicedoes. This is helpful for a prospect thatmay not be familiar with the company.

Part 2: The HookThis is where the opening statement

really excels.

Ryan’s hook begins when hesays ”…believe me, I know you can getthis kind of stuff at a lot of differentplaces.” The statement is absolutely re-freshing and candid. No one expects a salesrep to be so forthright; so blatantly honest.Consequently, it catches the prospect offguard and because it does, the prospect isdrawn further into the opening statement.He listens because he is intrigued. You canalmost hear the prospect say, ”Wow, that’sa line I haven’t heard before.”

Because the prospect is truly listeningit makes the second part of the hook moreeffective. The second part of the hook isthe benefit statement. Ryan refers to howSoftchoice can help mitigate legal risk as-sociated with the use of software licens-ing. To an IT director at a business firm,this is a pertinent topic. (Ryan has otherbenefits that he can insert here as well).

Part 3: Reason for the CallRyan’s reason for the call is to set up a

presentation call. It is NOT to sell, it is notto send a proposal, it is not to provide aquote and it is not even to set up a face-to-face presentation. For the prospect, thereason for the call is relatively harmless. Inother words, there is no concern that hewill be ‘pitched’ a product or a service.This helps drop the reserve that many pros-pect have with unknown vendors.

Ryan positions it effectively too. Heuses the phrase “…if it makes sense.” Thisis an excellent choice of words. Again,the prospect does not feel he is being“pitched.” He understands that he is notbeing cornered. The implication is that if it

doesn’t make sense then the call will gono further. The prospect is put at easeand is more receptive.

Part 4: Bridge to a DialogThe last part of the opener is very

‘techniquey’ but very effective. Using thephrase, “if I caught you at a goodtime…” Ryan shows respect for theprospect’s time but he inserts that thoughtwith a request to ask a few questions.He sums it up by asking: “How does thatsound?” What this statement really doesis it stops Ryan from talking further andgets the prospect engaged in the dialog.

If the prospect says yes, the first ‘sale’has been made. Ryan has sold the pros-pect on asking questions. At this stage,Ryan goes on to qualify the account anddetermines if a follow up presentationmakes sense.

Speaking of presentations, Softchoicedid their homework. They developed acompelling USP – unique selling propo-sition- and bundled it into an effectivepresentation. Obviously, for this openingstatement you need to understand anddevelop your own unique selling proposi-tion. You need to be able to articulatewhat makes you “different.” You don’tneed a Power Point presentation but youshould certainly have a clear and con-cise message.

The McCarthy Opener works well inalmost any industry or market. I have“borrowed” the template and tested itwith several other clients. It doesn’t work100% of the time but it does get morepeople to listen further. It works well be-cause it is different and unique. Prospectshave become jaded with slick and cheesyopeners. This opening statement cutsthrough the clutter because it is bold andbrassy. It tells it like it is and prospectsseem to respect it. Give it a try.

A Different Kind of Opening Statement

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By Jeb Blount

I spent the past week working withone of my client’s inside sales teams.My objective was to map the salesprocess of their very best reps in prepa-ration for writing a custom salestraining curriculum designed to accel-erate the performance of their entiresales team. To gain the information Ineeded I listened to the calls of theirbest reps as well as reps that were notproducing at optimum levels.

Several of the underperforming repsI worked with had once been top per-formers but were no longer at that level.As I listened it struck me that they didnot sound enthusiastic, took short-cutsduring the call, and were not as likableas the top reps. When I questioned themabout it, at first they defended them-selves. However, when I pointed outthat they had once been performing ata much higher level than now, most ofthem came clean.

Just Going Through theMotions

They were just going through themotions. The reps were aware that theirperformance had dropped and admit-ted that they were burned out, un-happy,and tired. They told me that they likedthe company, the people they workedwith and that overall it was a great job.Yet, they just couldn’t seem to get outof their rut.

In sales it is easy to get stuck in arut. Burn-out is common. The reasonsare simple. First, sales is chock full ofrejection. The reps I was with heard no,on average, 40 times a day. That’s alot of rejection for anyone to endure.Over time it adds up and begins to im-pact attitude, confidence, and overallhappiness.

Next, sales can be incredibly repeti-tive. Same questions, same responses,same objections, same product or ser-vice, over and over again.

It is no wonder that so many sales-people find themselves down in thedumps, bored, angry, tired, and some-times depressed. They whine and com-plain about the leads, environment,economy, prospects, peers, and boss.

Commonly they don’t even know why.Instead they plod on and hope for thebest. But nothing really changes (andoften things just get worse) because theyfail to address the real issue – their atti-tude.

Attitude ResetThe key to getting out of a rut is re-

setting your attitude because until thatchanges nothing else will. What is impor-tant to understand is that you didn’t getinto a rut overnight and likewise you won’tupgrade your attitude overnight. Chang-ing your attitude requires self-awareness,a commitment to change, and time.

The first time I got into a sales rut Iwas mad at the world. My attitude stunkand my performance, which was usuallythe best on my team, was going the wrongway. My sales manager told me that Iwas better than that but his admonish-ment just put me into a deeper funk. Ididn’t know what to do but I knew I hadto make a change or I’d soon be an an-gry, depressed sales rep without a job.

My reset beegan with a copy of NoBull Selling by Hank Trisler. I'd decidedto read it as a way to motivate myself.Each morning I had to make outboundcalls to set appointments with prospects.In my funk I could barely dial the phone.I hated making those calls. So I made apact with myself. Every time I made 15dials, I could read 5 minutes of No BullSelling.

Invest in YourselfA little bit every day my attitude im-

proved. Even though I hated the dials Ilooked forward to reading the book andthe book inspired me to make the dials.The more I read the better I felt. Threemonths later I was the sales rep of thequarter. I’d come out of my rut andoutgunned the entire sales team.

I learned a valuable lesson from thatexperience. If I wanted to change mynegative attitude I had to feed it positivefood. I had to invest in myself. No oneelse was going to do that for me.

This is the key to getting out of ruts.Fill up with positive energy and a little bitat a time you will emerge from your salesrut.

Attitude and Motivation

Here’s a simple way to brainstormfor some of your Possible Value Propo-sitions. Fill in the blanks:

“We specialize in working with

(title of buyer/type of company,group, organization)

who/that

(describe a situation or problem)

and help them to

(the result you provide)

which means

(further describing the end result).

(Mention specific customer/client re-sults)"

For example,

“We specialize in working withsales teams that have new businessquotas, helping them to use aproven prospecting process whichmeans they are able to confidentlyget through to and sell to new buy-ers. Our most recent client has al-ready opened up 10 new accountsin a week, more than they did thepast three months.”

You get the picture. Give it a try.Build a sales meeting around it.

How to Get Out of a Sales Rut

A Prospecting OpeningStatement Template

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(Jeb Blount advises many of theworld’s leading organizations and theirexecutives on the impact of emotionalintelligence and interpersonal skills oncustomer experience, strategic account

management,sales, anddevelopinghigh perform-ing salesteams. Hespeaks to anddeliverstraining to

high-performing sales teams across theglobe. 1-888-360- 2249)


(Jill Konrath,author of SNAPSelling, Sellingto Big Compa-nies, and hernewest book,Agile Selling,helps sellersland biggerclients andspeed up theirsales cycle. To get her free ProspectingTool Kit, visit www.jillkonrath.com/sales-resources.)

Jill Konrath

Don't Suffer from Seasonal CALLergiesAre you one of the 5.4 million

sellers* worldwide who suffer fromseasonal callergies?

It’s that time of year again! Sea-sonal callergies are in full swing andsellers everywhere aresuffering. How do you know ifyou’ve been afflicted with thismalady—and what can you do totreat it?

The Center for Sales DiseaseControl* has just issued thisstatement:

Seasonal callergies frequentlyarise when the sun is shining and it’sa gorgeous day. Sellers typically feela general lethargy towards prospect-ing. They may even experience ad-verse reactions such as an inabilityto concentrate and a severe itchingto get outside.

Left untreated, seasonalcallergies can wreak havoc on meet-ing your sales goals.

The good news is that you don’tneed to suppress your urge to avoidthe phone and get out of the office.

Instead, use it to your advantage. Youcan enjoy this beautiful weather if youdo the following:

1. Get Off to a FasterStart

Each day, block time on your calen-dar to identify who you need to call.Have your list ready to go when youcome in each morning — and then getto work. Research shows that you’ll moveeven faster if you do ALL pre-call prepa-ration before you initiate contact viaemail or phone.

2. Play “Beat the Clock”Games

Rather than dilly-dallying around orcomplaining about prospecting, chal-lenge yourself to get it done within acertain time frame. Seriously, playinggames is highly motivational, especiallyif there’s a nice reward at the end.Maybe you could take the afternoon off— or even a full day.

3. Set a Quitting TimeBelieve it or not, leaving your office

(even if it’s in your home) at a certaintime is the best guarantee that your work

will get done. Think about how muchyou accomplish in the day before youleave on vacation. Work does not haveto drag on and on,especially when thesun is shining.

Seasonal callergies are nothingto sneeze at!

But, they don’t have to ruin yoursummer’s sales numbers. Use them toget more work done in less time.

*Source: The above statistic is en-tirely fictitious and was used in the spiritof fun. And, there is no Center for SalesDisease Control. I made that up too.

Create Your OwnHypotheticalQuestions

Politicians are often asked contrivedquestions in order to get their opinionsabout something supposedly basedupon facts. You can ask hypotheticalsto get prospects and customers to con-sider what they would do in certain situ-ations:

“Jane, how would you handleit if your supplier was not able todeliver because they werebackordered on something youneeded overnight?”

Create your own hypotheticals de-signed to get them to react to very realproblems they might encounter ...onesyou can solve.

Scott Hodges sells material handling products to manufacturers. His are thehighest priced in the market, so he naturally faces resistance like, “We’re happy withwho we’re using, and have no problems whatsoever.” Scott’s best response is tosimply ask, “When you replace the exisiting product, why is it replaced?”

What a great question! Notice the psychology here: the question doesn’t addressthe reflex resistance response “we’re happy.”

That’s smart, since a lot of rational thought hasn’t been devoted to that re-sponse. Questioning the response would only frustrate them, and perhaps help themcome up with good reasons why they are using their present vendor.

Instead, this question focuses on what Scott is really doing: solving problems. Indoing so, he’s positioning the real value of his product. Because when the prospectanswers by explaining that he replaces his palette jacks when the cost of repairsbecome higher than the cost of a new unit, he can layer questions deeper to get theprospect thinking about those costs. Ideally the prospects begins realizing how eventhough the equipment had a cheaper price tag initially, the real costs piled up interms of replacement parts, labor, out-of-service time, and ultimately a shorter lifespan. Then the prospect is in a very receptive frame of mind to hear about Scott’sproducts . . . most importantly, how his problems could be solved.

Handling “We're Happy With theVendor We Are Using Now”

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Handling Resistance

(Continued from page 2)

Tibor Shanto

Want to Get More BusinessUsing LinkedIn?

LinkedInForSalesSuccess.com

Here’s an email I received fromCharles Knighton, a Smart Calling Pros-pecting course owner, sharing his successand a few tips. (Charles sells commer-cial real estate investment opportunities).

Art:

I hope you’re doing well. My call planhas greatly improved and now I’vestepped up my game.

I’m also targeting large franchise own-ers and commercial investors and amreaching the gatekeepers. I recently calledDisney and got past the gatekeeper — Iwas calling the wrong person, but it wasstill pretty cool.

I’d like to get as much informationfrom the gatekeeper as possible. I’ve beenasking the following questions:

“Are there any topics I shouldavoid when speaking with him?”

“Why/why not?”

“How does he/she like to get theirmessages?”

When Smart Calling, you likelyhave, or will hear right after your open-ing, “I don’t have time to talk rightnow.”

This could be a Resistant ReflexResponse, which is simply an attemptto get you off the phone.

Or you might indeed have reachedthem in the middle of something.(Which begs the question, why did theyanswer the phone? Ok, maybe theywere expecting a call from someoneelse.)

In any event, we want to reply ina non-threatening way that acknowl-edges what they just said, but doesn’taccept it totally, and makes an at-tempt to either speak briefly now, orset up another call.

Here’s how. Respond with,

“Not a problem,” or, “I under-stand.”

Then follow with,

“Actually, first I just wanted toask a couple of questions to seeif it would be worth our while fora conversation. Can you take two-three minutes now, or should weset up a time?”

You’ll find that if it is just a RRRand they were trying to get you offthe phone, they truly aren’t too busyto talk and now you can ask your ini-tial questions, and if things are goingwell, you can continue.

If they opt to schedule a time, atleast you now have salvaged the op-portunity and gotten a commitment.

in which case exploring their past willstill provide visibility to how they dothings. Assuming the players have notchanged, exploring the past will giveyou a clear picture as to their propen-sity to change.

If they have continuously laggedthe market in adopting new technolo-gies, if they are still sitting back wait-ing for cloud computing to be vali-dated, you need to adjust your salesapproach accordingly, at times evento the point of moving on and revisit-ing the opportunity in the future. Atthe other end are innovators and earlyadopters. Where they are will dictatehow you execute and win them as aclient.

Exploring the future, especiallywhen that exploration is through theprism of their business will also dic-tate execution.

If they have clear objectives,aligned around elements of their busi-ness and how they look to grow it, itwill make your sale easier, more likestraight forward.

Assuming their plans make sense,you can focus on helping them achievethem. If they have clear objectives buthave chosen a less than optimal meansof achieving them, then you need tofirst get them to consideralternatives. Why -How will help youto get them to change course. Preach-ing at them would be ineffective, buta series of “Why that?”, and “Howwill that look?” questions will helpyou to get them to look at things dif-ferently, and from there to look at dif-ferent things.

Individual ANDOrganzation

The other way that Why-How will help is by exploring both theindividual you are speaking to, andthe Why’s - How’s of theirorganization. This is especially impor-tant when there are multiple stakehold-ers or decision makers. This helps inaligning personal agendas with corpo-rate objectives. It can help you createalignment among the players by fo-cusing on common elements, of each

of the individuals, and those of thecompany. Minimize differences, es-pecially when not critical to theproject, and build on overlap and com-mon elements that you can enhanceby virtue of your experience and pastsuccess.

I know there are some sales pun-dits out there who are afraid of theword Why, and would rather haveyou wait for a random event to trig-ger your success. I say take controlof your success by asking Why >How, early and often

(Tibor Shanto is a Sales ExecutionSpecialist, focused on helping salesteams andindividuals securemore revenuethrough improvedprospecting,selling and overallexecution of theirprocess. You canreach Tibor at(416) 822-7781,or visitwww.SellBetter.ca)

Success Tip from aSmart Caller

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Reacting to aBrush Off

TeleTips









8

Increase Your Chance of Reaching ThemHaving a difficult time reaching that coveted prospect? Don’t

call them at the same time every day. They might have aroutine... perhaps a daily meeting at the same time. Mix it up.Look at the times you call and try other times. Of course theold stand bys are before or after regular business hours. Somesales reps have gotten their biggest deals by calling on Satur-day morning.

YOU are Not of Interest to ThemI hear lots of calls that begin with, “And I’d like to intro-

duce myself as the Account Manager for your territory and tellyou what we do.”

The needle on their Care Meter immediately pegs to zero.Here’ s an important point: until they know you and trust you,YOU are not a reason that they are going to be interested inyou. You need to be prepared with the possible results andvalue that you have delivered for others, and might be able tofor them, in order for them to be even remotely interested inspeaking further.

Objection-Handling Technique from aPolitial Pundit

I heard this while listening to two opposing-view politicalpundits debating on a cable news show. One was screechingand yelling her points while the other would calmly listen andthen reply. She started one of her responses with, “Well, that’sone way of looking at it. Actually, the facts show…”

What a great way to respond to an objection!

For example, after hearing an objection that actually isn’tbased in reality—but certainly their feelings and emotions—you could first acknowledge it with the same technique: “Well,yes, that is one way of looking at it.”

Then, you could continue in a similar way: “In actuality,here is the return on investment that others are nowgetting…”

A Unique Addition to Your OpeningIf you are in an uber-competitive space and your prospects

get tons of calls daily, not only from your competition but fromreps selling virtually anything, here’s a technique lots of my cli-ents have been using. It begins by separating yourself from themasses since it’s unique, it empathizes with them, helps themlet down their guard, gets them to laugh depending on what yousay, and gets them talking, which is your goal.

The technique is this:

“Hi Mary, Tom Davis with Logistic Partners. First, letme ask you how many calls you got today from salesreps who told you they could save you time and money?(pause) Well, I’m not going to tell you that, yet. We’re abit different. We specialize in …”

Then you give your opening, which does still hint at a result,and then you get into your questions.

I’ll probably do a longer discussion of this in a future issue,but for now, give it a try!

"And Does He/She Know What This isAbout?"

David Copple works for a firm that provides staff and man-agement for the emergency rooms of hospitals. A difficult situ-ation he said he runs into is when screeners say,

"And does he/she know why you’re calling?"

Usually, the prospect does not and admitting so is a nega-tive, indicating to the screener that you’re prospecting. He likesto immediately respond by justifying the reason for the call:

“The reason I’m calling Dr. Smith is that I have a couple of ideas I’d like to run by him that he might findinteresting from both a financial and managerial perspec-tive regarding the operation of your emergency room.I’ll need to ask him a few questions to see if these wouldmake sense in his situation.”


Art Sobczak's

June 2016 Volume 33 Number 6

SMART CALLINGREPORT


By Colleen Francis

If you've been involved in sales formore than a week and a half, oddsare, you've probably come across thoseparticular five words at least once inyour career. In fact, if you're like mostof us, you've likely heard them a thou-sand times and counting.

In my experience, price is the singlemost common objection encounteredby salespeople in every industry, city orsector of the economy. It can also beone of the most difficult objections formany sales professionals to overcome.

Fear not - an objection over pricedoesn't have to be a deal-breaker! Thefollowing five-step process can help youhandle price objections from both newand established clients (and more onclient success here), and go on to buildlong-term - and profitable - relation-ships.

Step 1: Talk it Over FirstThe first thing is to make sure to

talk about the price before sending theclient anything in writing. Verbalizingwhat you think the price will be beforesending a formal proposal can signifi-cantly reduce the chances that a priceobjection will arise.

For example, while you're still infront of the client, give them a roughestimate of what you think the pricewill be. Say something like, "it's goingto be around ten thousand dollars.How does that sound to you?"

If they object, this allows you todeal with the issue face-to-face andright up front. If you write the pricedown and email it to them later, onthe other hand, there's a good chancethat - if they don't like your price - theymight simply not call you back.

Step 2: Be 100% CommittedNext, make sure you are 100% com-

mitted and convinced that your price isfair before you tell the client what it is.

If you don't think your prices are fairvalue for the goods or services you haveto offer, no one else is going to believe iteither. As a salesperson, you must beable to say to yourself: "You know what,if I was in the buyer's position, I wouldbuy this. This is a great deal, at a goodprice!"

How can you reach this level of con-fidence? Start by doing your homework.Find out in advance what your competi-tors' prices are like, so you know whetheryour customer is comparing apples toapples.

Plus, remember that an objectionover price is often just an attempt byclients to see if they can make us squirma little. They know that most salespeopleare terrible at handling that objection,so they figure it's worth a shot to see ifthey can get a better deal.

As long as you keep in mind that anobjection over price isn't necessarily anindication that the client is about to walkaway, you'll be able to keep your cooland remain firm in your conviction thatyour prices are exactly what they shouldbe.

Step 3: Don't AssumeAnything

I'll save you the old joke about whatyou do to "u" and "me" when you "as-sume" anything. Suffice it to say, it holdstrue when it comes to finding out ex-actly what "too high" means to your cli-ent.

When most sales people are told thattheir price is too high, they make an im-mediate assumption about what "too

high" means. If they're presenting a$10,000 proposal to a client who saysthe price is too high, for example, thesales person might automatically thinkthat they're 10% too high, or 25%, or50% or so on. Then, they offer a dis-count based on that assumption, ratherthan basing it on what the client reallyhad in mind.

"Too high" is a very subjective com-ment. So before you start making anycounter-offers, take a deep breath, re-lax and don't say anything for a goodthree seconds. Just pause, look at yourcustomer and gather your thoughts.

Sometimes, those three seconds ofsilence are enough to encourage theclient to elaborate. If they don't, comeright out and ask them precisely whatthey mean.

Step 4: Find Out What "TooHigh" Really Means

Start by acknowledging the objec-tion and showing the customer that youappreciate them sharing it with you.

This can be as simple as sayingsomething like "thanks for sharing thatwith me," "I appreciate you noticingthat" or "I appreciate your honesty."Giving them a small compliment helpsthem to feel good about asking thequestion and reassures them that you'reboth on the same side.

Remember, the client has every rightto raise any objections or make anycomments they want. The worst thingwe can do is to try to justify our posi-tion or defend our prices. As lawyershave known for centuries, nothingmakes an innocent person look guiltierthan trying too hard to protest their in-nocence.

Five Steps to Handling the Price Objection



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Sales Observations“The powers above decided to go

with another solution.”

Ever heard that before. Probably.

The path some reps follow is de-jectedly hearing the news, mumblingsomething about “keep us in mind,”getting off the call and dejectedlythinking how they made a bad deci-sion.

A more productive route wouldbe to ask your contact the reasoningbehind the choice. Find out whatcriteria they used to make their deci-sion. Maybe you won’t get that, butyou want to keep the lines of com-munication open with your contact.I’m going to assume that they weresold on using you. (You did ask that,right?)

Also ask that if anything changedwould they contact you. And getagreement that you can check backwith them. Then do so. When youdo, gauge their satisfaction level withthe other vendor. Even if they arenot open to changing at this point,it’s now an opportunity for you toask for referrals from your contact...find out if there are any colleaguesin their network you can contact.Prep for this in advance by checkingtheir LinkedIn connections.

Even if you don't get the sale to-day, you could still ultimately gainfrom your work.

Be careful of questions asked ofyou that might appear difficult on the sur-face, and could lead you down a dam-aging rabbit hole if you are not prepared.

For example, let’s say that the wordon the street is that your company hashad service issues and is losing custom-ers as a result. In actuality, perhaps therewas a situation that caused some prob-lems temporarily, but it is now fixed. Youwant to avoid coming across as defen-sive and apologetic.

If they say, “I’ve heard you have hadservice issues and are losing customersbecause you can’t deliver on time, is thatright?”

One option is to acknowledge andreframe their question:

“We did have an unfortunatethree-day stretch of inventory avail-ability that is now fixed. Are you ask-ing if we are now able to deliver or-ders the next day?”

“Last month there was a softwarehack that hit us pretty hard. We nowhave double safeguards in place soit doesn’t happen again. Is yourmain concern our product availabil-ity?”

I just heard a local radio commer-cial where the owner of the auto bodyrepair shop said, “ ... and we feel we givethe best service in town.” Yawn. Big deal.Who cares what he feels and thinks. Allthat matters is what the customer feelsand thinks. Don't make the same mis-take. Talk in terms of “you” and “your,”helping the buyer see himself already own-ing and getting benefit from your productor service.

As I repeat so often the qualityof your question determines the qualityof your answer.

If a sales rep asks, “Do you now havesituations where you need to get a projectdone by a deadline and are under-staffed?”, there is the potential for them

to say “no.” Granted, they might say“yes,” and we hope they do, but if wehave the opportunity to prepare in ad-vance—and we do of course—why notjust eliminate the possibility of the an-swer we don’t want, and maximize thechances of getting pure gold?

We do that with “assumptive prob-lem” questions. We don’t ask if theyhave the problem, we just assume it,paint a picture of it, and get them toreact to it.

Using the example above, we’dchange that to, “Tell me about thelast time you had a situationwhere you needed to get a projectdone by a deadline and were un-derstaffed.”

Notice how much easier it is forthem to answer. With an answer thatgives you precisely what you’re look-ing for.

And in the process they are nowre-living the problem in their mind asthey describe it, reminding themselvesof the pain they’d rather avoid. Whichis the frame of mind you want themin, in order for them to hear your rec-ommendation.

Beautiful, isn’t it?

Analyze your questions. Listen torecordings of your calls. Are the an-swers what you’re looking for? If not,tweak your questions accordingly.



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(Tibor Shantois a Sales Execu-tion Specialist,focused on helpingsales teams andindividuals securemore revenuethrough improvedprospecting,selling and overallexecution of their

process. You can reach Tibor at (416)822-7781, or visit www.SellBetter.ca)

Focus on Customer Objectives Instead of Hurtful Pain By Tibor Shanto

People ask me why I focus somuch on prospects’ objectives. Afterall, if you can find a pain and play toit, you are bound to get a sale.

Well, maybe.

I always find it amusing that whenI ask people what they want to knowabout a potential buyer, too many say“I want to know what their pain pointis...their needs, the problem.”

When I ask what they want toachieve in a first/second meeting witha prospect, they start gushing onabout wanting to establish a relation-ship.

One guy at an IT consulting/sys-tems integrator said this to me whenI asked what his goal is for a firstmeeting:

“I want to find the soft underbellyof the beast; stab it; then serve up thecure.”

While you may be shaking yourhead, and rightfully so, I hear thissame type of thing said differently byso many in sales, including pundits.This cause me worry.

You Don’t Have To Hurt TheOnes You Love

So maybe I am missing the point,but how does one go from poking (orprobing) for pain--latent or other--andin the space of one hour or so go toforming a relationship?

Maybe it is a Bizarro sales versionof the Stockholm Syndrome.

How else can you explain the ex-pectation that one can search for ordeliver pain with a blunt instrument,and establish rapport or a relation-ship, even if you hand out Aspirins.

What I see as being more effec-tive, even with buyers who arescreaming with pain, is to focus thebuyer on a point down the road, apoint in time 18 – 24 months in thefuture. You want the buyer to “see”themselves, their aspirations and their

opportunities in your narrative andexperience.

Your ability to create an authori-tative dialogue aligned with their ob-jectives, based on specific instanceswhere you have enabled and en-hanced clients’ ability to reach theirlong term objectives, but to speakconvincingly about specific impactsand outcomes.

While there is no doubt that inthe near term pain relief is paramount,it does beg the question, what then?

Pain is short term, usually nega-tive, and limiting. While objectivesare long term, tied to other initia-tives, uplifting and positive, and asa result have an energy “pain” and“needs” don’t.

By marginalizing the “pain,” andfocusing on the big picture beyondthe current pain, you can create alevel of involvement and emotionalcommitment that is not availablewhen it’s only about solving an im-mediate problem.

Long term relationships should betied to the long term, be that goals,objectives, etc. Clearly you want toaddress and resolve immediate“problems,” but you need to posi-tion that as a small line item in amuch bigger plan. To do that, youneed to open up the conversation toalign it with the big picture.

As mentioned, pain discussionsare narrow and limiting, so in con-versation with a client, assume youwill solve the problem, and steer to-wards the long term.

What to SayI have written about this in the

past, but I find a two-part questionto be an effective way of practicingand fine tuning this. You will needto make it more specific to your buy-ers over time, but use this as a primer.

Once you get past the usual so-cial element at the start of the meet-ing, ask:

“I am curious, Jane, if we weresitting here 18 months from now,and you were telling me yourteam had hit a grand slam, whatwould that look like?”

The goal is to get them to lookpast their current positions pain orperhaps problem, and refocus the ontheir success plan, hence the grandslam reference. You’ll find that thereis a moment of reflection, a couple ofbasic things, and then it gets interest-ing when they start detailing what theirequivalent of a grand slam is. Onceyou have let them share their vision,you really do need to shut up hereand intensely listen, you can the askthe second question:

“Help me understand why weare not there now?”

You will often find that they re-flect again, and start telling you aboutwhat’s keeping them from hitting agrand slam.

What you’ll also find is that theywill talk about many of the samethings you have helped others achieve,and build a relationship around.

Get Even More FreeGreat Tips at Art'sSmart Calling Blog:www.SmartCalling.com


Jim Domanski


Here’s an old Polish proverb taught to me by my grandfa-

ther: “If you have to eat crow, it is best toeat it while it is young and tender. Crowdoes not get better with age.”

Translation: when you are wrong orwhen you make a mistake, it is best toacknowledge/admit it right up front. Thereal point is to deal with the issue as soonas possible. Avoiding it or delaying it onlymakes the matter worse.

What are you talking about, Jimbo?I am talking about my annual blunder:that time of year, when, despite years andyears of training, knowledge, experience,and expertise, I blow a call. And I meanreally blow it. It happened last week. Letme tell you about it and let’s learn fromthe experience. (Actually, I need to purgemyself and confess. The Jesuit priests inmy youth obviously had an impact.)

The Hot LeadI received a hot lead from a colleague.

The client wanted training for a salesconference for their inside reps. I ques-tioned intently. I listened. I learned of theneeds and the depth and the breadth ofthose needs. They wanted a proposal. Idelivered. Darn good pricing. Powerfulcopy. Enticing and exciting, if I do say somyself. I made the follow up call in theprescribed period of time. Got voice mailbut I employed my famous (well, it's notfamous yet but one day) “4/3 strategy”of follow up voice mails. I did all that Ishould and maybe even more. A surething. A cinch.

Or so I thought…

On the third follow up call I reachedthe prospect, established rapport and wentfor the close. Heck I followed the bookfrom beginning to end. The prospect re-plied:

“Oh, well, we decided not to includethat portion of the training.”

Ever-savvy Jimbo replied,

“Oh, okay, well, thank you.”

Jim Carey ScreamsDid you ever see “Ace Ventura, Pet

Detective,” starring Jim Carey? He ut-ters a word in the movie that has beenscreaming in my head ever since the

moment. That word? Loser.

I am being somewhat dramatic andI really haven’t beaten myself black andblue, but it was a nice little wake upcall.

AnalysisI did a lot of things right. I estab-

lished rapport, I questioned, I presenteda strong selling message, I followed upand I closed. But there are two things Idid not do; two things that most salesreps are guilty of at some point in time.

Pre Call PlanningFirst, I did not bother to plan my

call. I was so confident of getting thesale I did not take pen to paper andplan the call. I assumed the sale was ashoo- in. I got “cocky” or maybe abetter way to put it was that I got lazy.

I wasn’t prepared for the prospect’sremarks. I was totally caught off guard.I did not have prepared a secondaryobjective nor did I even remotely thinkabout an objection.

Handling ObjectionsOkay, so I did not prepare. That

doesn’t really excuse the second blun-der. I did not bother to handle the ob-jection. I accepted it at face value.

The question now is, why did theydecide not to go with the training? Wasit my price? Was it the training pro-posal? Was it me? Was there a com-petitor who hit the nail on the head?Did the budget run out? Heck, I don’tknow.

Two QuestionsMy father taught me a lesson once

a long time ago when I screwed up onsomething. Dad said to ask myself aquestion:

“So what did you learn from allthis?”

And that’s my real point. I am nota “loser.” I simply screwed up. I madea mistake. That happens. It will hap-pen to you sooner or later. And that’sokay. It is okay to blow calls and makemistakes.

But what is not okay is to ignore

the lesson that can be learned from themistake.

That cannot be forgiven. That reallydeserves the moniker “loser.”

Every time you miss a sale, go backand review it closely and ask yourself“What can I learn from this?” Keep anotebook and call it “Lessons I haveTaught Myself.” Record your impression.Toss your hurt feelings aside and be ab-solutely honest with yourself and analyzethe moment. Sometimes you reallyscrew up. Learn from it. Don’t beat your-self up because that’s an utter waste oftime. Try not to do it again. If you do,record it again. And again if necessary.Check your “Lessons” book from timeto time and see if there’s a pattern. Fixit. Sometimes you don’t screw up. Writedown what you learned from the momentanyway. Learn from it. Who knowsmaybe you can write your own book oneday.

The next question my dad would askis this;

“So, what are you going to doabout it.”

Dad was saying that it is fine to doan analysis. But that wasn’t enough. Thenext step was to figure out what youshould do next. Sometimes the next stepis to do nothing. But more often thannot, it means you have to do some un-comfortable things. Do them.

As for me, I plan to eat my crow nextweek. I will send the client this article witha note explaining what I have done. Iwill make the follow up call and learnfrom it.

Good Selling.

Jim Blows a Call: His Annual Blunder

5©Art Sobczak's SMART CALLING REPORT • (480)699-0958

Opening Review

How to Avoid Losing the Deal With Your Demos

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By Jim Keenan

In the world of SaaS (software as aservice) and cloud solutions, the demo iseverything. As the demo goes, so goesthe sale. Give a shitty demo, and you’renot gonna get the sale. Give a good demo,and you’ve just increased the chances ofclosing the deal. Give a killer demo andget ready to cash your fat commissioncheck and prepare for President's Club.

With the demo carrying so muchweight in the sale, treating them as a wayto highlight every feature your product orsolution has is stupid, annoying, unnec-essary, boring, and unsophisticated. Thatis how too may sales people treat them.And, managers take note, how too manymanagers and sales organizations teachsales people to do them.

The Only Way to Do ItHere’s the ONLY way to do a demo.

Pay VERY close attention. This isn’t asuggestion. This isn’t an ideology. Thisisn’t one person’s thoughts. This is theconcrete, irrefutable, only way to dodemos and if you’re not doing it this way,you’re doing it WRONG!!!

Listen up;

When doing a demo, every featureyou show must be tied to a specific busi-ness goal, operational process, work-flow,execution issue or opportunity that spe-cific customer has — PERIOD!

In other words; if you’re showing afeature and are saying; “If you email yourclients for meetings then this feature will. . .” or “If you have two systems fordoing reports, this reporting feature will .. . ” Or worse, if you just whipping fea-tures around like they are cars on a carshowroom floor by saying “And the nextthing I want to show you is.” You aredoing it wrong — very wrong!

There is no room for “if” in yourdemos. There is no excuse to show a fea-ture that isn’t germane to the specificbusiness and highly targeted to the op-erational or executional needs of thebuyer. Demos should not be used to dem-onstrate your product, but rather to showhow your product can affect your buyer’sbusiness. Demos need to be used to givethe buyer a vision of how your product

will change their current environment forthe better. Demos should be used toshow the client how what they are doingtoday can be done differently with yourproduct. The buyer should feel silly, out-moded and inefficient as you seamlesslyexecute a process they are currently do-ing poorly. They should bubble with joyas you demonstrate how your productcan execute brilliantly on a process theycan’t currently do, something they havewanted to do for a long time. Your demoshould be enveloping them in the powerof your product changing their specificand unique environment for the better,not in features and functions that mayor may not be relevant to them.

ExamplesThis is how a demo should go.

“You stated you use three sys-tems for reporting, let me show youhow reporting is done with our prod-uct and how it would create reportsin your environment in a tenth ofthe time.”

“I know that being able to trackemail response is important to you,let me show you how you will beable to track responses faster withour solution and how you will alsobe able to . . .”

“Understanding that you’re try-ing to increase revenue by 15% thisyear through your existing clientbase, let me show you how we canmake that happen with the. . . fea-ture.”

“I recall you were saying you’restruggling with getting (insert cus-tomer problem), let me show youthis feature. It is designed to do ex-actly what you said you were look-ing to do as well as. . .”

The key to a successful demo is tomake sure every feature, every functionyou demonstrate is attached to yourbuyer’s unique problems and challenges.If it’s not, your not giving a good demo.You’re wasting everyone’s time.

Demos are not meant to be producthighlights or product showcases. Good

demos demonstrate how problems willbe solved and how opportunities willbe leveraged. Good demos temporarilyand virtually insert the seller’s prod-uct into the buyer’s world. They arelike digital or virtual changing roomswhere the buyer can see how every-thing fits.

Good demos let the buyer try onyour product for fit. Like a changingroom, the buyer wants to see how yourproduct fits their unique body type,curves, and all.

A Virtual“Changing Room”

Give your buyers a virtual chang-ing room. Structure and deliver yourdemos like changing rooms where theycan see themselves in your product.Attach every feature and function youdemonstrate to their unique environ-ment so they can see how it fits. Don’tshow features that you can’t attachto their business. Don’t ever, ever, eversay, “If you. . . then this feature will.. . ” There is no room for “if then”statements in demos. Don’t show afeature unless you know exactly howand why it is germane to your buyer.

Demos are not spectator events orshows where the buyer is a partici-pant on the sideline. They are meantto be interactive, virtual tours that putthe buyer in the product, allowingthem to see how it fits on them. Any-thing else is a waste of everyone’s time.

Stop wasting time!

(Jim Keenan is A Sales Guy Inc’sCEO/President and Chief Antagonizer.He’s been selling something tosomeone for his entire life. He’s beenteaching and coaching almost as long.

He is thecelebratedauthor of"Not Taught:What It Takesto beSuccessful inthe 21stCentury ThatNobody’sTeaching

You." Contact him at ASalesGuy.com)


Jill Konrath

How to Not Rush the Sale, AND Get it Quicker


Sometimes just getting that firstmeeting feels like a major victory!

You've been dying to work with thiscompany for months and you're finallyon their radar! You can't wait for thefirst meeting—and neither can they.You've piqued their curiosity and theywant to learn more.

Except when you actually do talkto that prospect, their enthusiasm startsto wane.

They bring up obstacles and nolonger seem so motivated to move for-ward. It all happened so fast that youdon't even know what went wrong.

The Speed BacklashIf you've ever had a hot prospect

suddenly cool down, I have one thingto say, "Slow down!"

It's highly likely that you misjudgedyour prospect's interest as readiness tochange. In your eagerness to capitalizeon this opportunity, you made sure theyknew all about your competitive ad-vantages, top-notch service, latest tech-nologies and more. And you probablytalked fast to get as much as possibleinto the time you had.

If that happened, you're probablystarting to feel the speed backlash.

How can you know if your pros-pect thinks you moved too fast? Theytell you everything is fine, even thoughit couldn't be with their current statusquo. They brush you off with a priceobjection. They turn a minor obstacleinto a show stopper. Or they simplythank you for the update and promiseto contact you when the need arises.

Prospects who receive massive in-formation dumps unconsciously erectbarriers to slow or even derail your salesefforts.

If this is happening, you've madethe mistake of talking too much. Whenyour prospect can barely get a wordin, they feel like you lack concern fortheir needs—and that you only wantto make the sale.

How to Increase the

Success of a FirstSales Meeting

Top sellers realize that making asale is a slow, deliberate process. Theyknow multiple people are involved inthe decision process—and they allhave to agree before moving forward.They understand it takes time to dem-onstrate value and develop strong re-lationships.

Knowing this, they put together aone-step-at-a-time sales strategy thatactually advances the sales processmuch faster than if they tried to doeverything in one or two conversa-tions.

Here's how to earn your prospect'strust in that crucial first sales meet-ing:

1. Do your homeworkLearn as much as you can before

your meeting. Review your prospect'swebsite. Look for gaps between wherethey are and where they want to be.Identify primary initiatives. Figure outhow your product or service helpsachieve those objectives or ties in withcritical business drivers. For example,if you know that “Earning CustomerLoyalty” is important to your pros-pect, determine how your product cancontribute to this objective.

2. Focus on resultsYour product is a tool—nothing

more. People buy it because of whatit does for them, so make sure youknow what difference it makes. Beprepared to talk about the businessresults your prospects will achievewhen using your product or service.Be ready to explain how it helps re-duce time to market, increase opera-tional efficiency or improve sales—and have a relevant story to share thatillustrates the points you're making.

3. Plan your questionsQuestions are key to your success.

They demonstrate interest and con-cern. Prospects feel you are moreknowledgeable when you ask goodquestions. Questions provide valuable

insights into customer needs and thedecision-making process. They are thebasis for developing a strong relation-ship. Plan at least ten questions aheadof time. Make sure you find out theirstatus quo related to your offering, pri-ority objectives and relevant strategicimperatives. To keep you focused, havethem in front of you during your con-versation.

4. Establish a logicalnext step

Before your meeting, determinehow you want it to end. A successfuladvance might be an information-gathering meeting, an analysis of cur-rent work flow or a presentation toother decision makers. Feel free to rec-ommend the next step. You know whattypical prospects go through when thewant to change, so share the processwith your future clients.

The sales and buying process can'tbe short-circuited. If you go too fast,problems are guaranteed to arise. Youropportunity will evaporate into thin air.

The Big First SalesMeeting

When it's finally time for the bigmeeting, get down to business fairlyquickly. Start by stating your purpose.It's enough to simply say, "As we talkedabout in our initial conversation, wework with companies like yours to helpthem [insert business driver/valueproposition]." Then, share a short storyabout how your company helped an-other client and the specific results theyattained. Talk results, not products!

Explain your process in workingwith accounts. Tell your prospect it'sessential to understand their objectives,needs, issues, and challenges in orderto determine the value you can pro-vide.

Transition to questions and spendthe bulk of your time investigating. Findout why their curiosity was piqued inthe first place. Ask about the currentsituation as well as related businessobjectives. Explore any issues or chal-


(Jill Konrath,author of SNAPSelling, Sellingto Big Compa-nies, and hernewest book,Agile Selling,helps sellersland biggerclients and speed up their sales cycle.To get her free Prospecting Tool Kit, visitwww.jillkonrath.com/sales-resources.)

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Price Objections

(Continued from previous page)

lenges that may arise if they stick withthe status quo. Discover what they'vealready done to reach these objectives.

Even though your prospect asks,don't be tempted into talking aboutyour products or services. Answer theirquestions briefly, then refocus on thebusiness issues. Unless there's a clearbusiness case for moving forward, noth-ing happens. If they already have one,you want to know that. If they don't,you need to build it with them. Beforeyou leave, suggest that logical next step.

This is what the top sellers do. Theydon't rush the sale and, as a result,they get the order. And quicker. Fol-low their example and you'll soon beenjoying the same success.

Jill Konrath

Instead, the very best salespeoplelook their clients square in the eye andsay, "you're right; our prices aren't thelowest in the market. How much toohigh are we?" or "what do you mean bytoo high?" You can even just repeat thestatement "too high?" and wait for theclient to fill in the blanks.

By acknowledging the validity oftheir objection, you're turning a poten-tially costly confrontation into a sincereinvitation to work together towards a so-lution that will be beneficial for both ofyou. More importantly, by being sostraightforward, you stand a betterchance of finding out exactly what thedifference is between the price youquoted and the figure the client has inmind.

Early in my career, I once had a po-tential client tell me that my price wastoo high. Turns out, they were only look-ing for me to come down by a grandtotal of five dollars. That kind of dis-count was well within my authority andmy comfort zone, and I considered it asmall price to pay for establishing a prof-itable relationship.

Now, if that same client had wantedme to come down by five thousand dol-lars, well, let's just say the story mighthave had a different ending.

Step 5: Listen, respond -and if need be, move on!

Last but most definitely not least,listen to the answer the client gives you.

If you say, "How high is too high?"or "What do you mean by too high?"and be quiet, you will get a nice longanswer. Once the client has explainedtheir objection, I usually respond by say-ing something like: "if we can't get ourprice down to that lowest level, does thatmean there is no chance that we will goforward?" Or I might ask, "so is pricingyour only consideration?"

By asking these questions (and whatquestions should you avoidasking?), Iwant to find out - once and for all, be-yond any shadow of a doubt - whetherthey are making their decision basedsolely on price, or whether any other fac-tors will influence their choice.

I'm hoping that price isn't the onlything they care about, so I can movethe conversation onto that other topic.But if they really are only interested inbuying the cheapest option available, Iwant to know that as early as possibleso I can decide then and there what Iwant to do with that information.

As salespeople, we have to be pre-pared to walk away from business wherethe client isn't willing to pay what themarketplace has determined is a fairprice. This can be much easier to do ifyou have a healthy pipeline of otherprospects to sell to.

You can't and won't sell to every-one. Having a healthy pipeline (and con-stantly prospecting to keep it full) is yourbest defense against any objections,because it gives you the confidence towalk away from a deal that could costyou more than it's worth.

The ironic thing is, the more busi-ness you walk away from, the more busi-ness chases after you. As often as not,the minute you tell a client that youdon't think the deal is going to work, isthe same moment they come runningback to tell you that they're ready andwilling to do business.

(Colleen Francis, Sales Expert, isFounder and President of EngageSelling Solutions. Armed with skillsdeveloped fromyears ofexperience,Colleen helpsclients realizeimmediateresults, achievelasting successand perma-nently raisetheir bottomline. Contact her atEngageSelling.com)

(Continued from cover page)

Want to Get More BusinessUsing LinkedIn?

LinkedInForSalesSuccess.com

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Ask an UnusualQuestion

Almost everyone has experiencedthat gut-wrenching feeling of thinkinga sale is “in the bag,” only to have itsuddenly fall through for some unex-pected reason. To help ensure thisdoesn’t happen, ask this question:

“It appears that we will be do-ing business together within thenext two months. To prepare forthe unforeseen, is there anythingthat could hold this up?”

Their answer could help you answersome objections in advance, or allowyou to prepare them more effectivelyto sell their superiors.

TeleTips









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Paraphrase When NegotiatingA good use of paraphrasing is repeating someone's re-

quest when they are neotiating with you, particularly whenmaking a request you might consider a bit unreasonable.

For example,

“If I understand what you're saying, you want theright to duplicate the training material for your otherlocations, for free? Is that right?”

Then ask,

“What is the reasoning for that?”

This gets them to justify the request.

Get Them Thinking and Talking AboutTheir Urgency to Solve Their Problem

Once you have a prospect/customer talking about a needor problem, and they have spoken in terms of what theyneed to do to solve it (i.e., they contact you about a pricequote or proposal), it’s good to question them further ontheir sense of urgency to move forward, and what’s drivingthat urgency. The answers will give you additional great in-formation about their intentions, plus they will be sellingthemselves.

For example,

“Mike, what led to the decision to do this now?”

“What is causing the urgency on this project?”

“How did you conclude that this was somethingyou needed to move on this quarter?”

“Why now?”

If you analyze the possible answers to these questions,you see that the prospects/customers will provide you withvaluable details.

“Small” Could Be Just In Your ThinkingMine your database and pull out the customers who

bought from you once, or those who just buy one or twoitems or limited single services from you. Are your customerssmall because you THINK they are? Or are they buying otherthings that you sell from your competitors? Chances are, theanswer is “yes” to both questions.

Call The Ones You Didn’t GetScan your database and pull out the 10-20 biggest sales

you really wanted, worked hard for, but did NOT within thepast year. Call them. But, please, do NOT say, “I’m justcalling to touch base.”

Review your notes and develop a value-added reason forcalling. Say something like,

“I came across some interesting information in InfoIndustry Journal, and remembered how you were con-cerned with the issue of external data security lock-ing in a multi-user environment. I wanted to send thatto you ...”

Of course you would then ease into a discussion of theirpresent situation, and perhaps uncover any possible areas ofdissatisfaction.

Sort Prospects By Who TheyNow Buy From

Regarding your database and recordkeeping, most con-tact management programs allow you to customize fieldsand sort accordingly. Consider assigning a field for“CurrentVendor.” Then set up a Google NewsAlert for your maincompetitors.

If there ever is an event that could negatively affect them,you can be quick to take advantage of it. Then it’s a breezeto do a quick sort of all the prospects who have thecompetitor’s name in the field, and plan your next contactaccordingly.

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