Luke Brown Marketing Blog

Archive for the ‘Sales’ Category

With rare exceptions, most businesses need to make cold calls over the phone. With proper planning, preparation and practice, cold calling can be much easier than you might think.

The key to fast, sustainable revenue creation lies in creating or reengineering sales processes and systems. System inefficiencies, including prospecting and cold-calling methods, need to be examined, upgraded, and optimized to achieve revenue goals.

There are five areas which most sales organizations need to master in order to achieve goals and results from cold-calling.

1.  Manage Objections With Excellence

Research has shown that most sales reps and teams cannot properly answer basic objections, let alone complex objections. Most sales people have not been trained in the basic principles of refutation and/or persuasion nor have they been exposed to the concept of managing all objections head-on.

Most sellers, especially rookies, don’t understand that buyers, when confronted with a cold-call, offer objections that should not be interpreted literally. These common objections include, “I don’t have time right now…”  “Can you email me some literature?…”   “We  don’t have budget for anything like that…” and others.

These objections  are usually tactful ways of saying, “You have yet to prove that there is value in me spending time with you on the telephone.”  By identifying all objections and creating rebuttals for each objection, the confidence of the sales reps increases.

Jay Conrad Levinson, the creator of Guerrilla Marketing, surveyed buyers and found the top reason from buying from a sales rep was the seller’s confidence.  Extensive and structured role playing ensures that sellers demonstrate techniques to overcome challenges, whether from prospects or gatekeepers.

2.  Become Competent at Leaving Voice Mails That Produce Callbacks

It is rare that a sales rep or team will achieve more than a 3% callback rate from voice mail messages.  The average callback rate is less than 0.5%.  By using proven techniques, sales teams can convert up to 33% of these callbacks into meetings. See the article, Winner Take All Voice Mail Strategies.

3.  Eliminate Product-Benefit and Value-Proposition Statements

In cold-calling, product-benefit statements simply do not work.  Because sales resistance is deeply embedded in our culture, incorporating product-benefit and/or value-proposition statements into introductory messaging is the kiss of death.

This approach shows lack of creativity, lack of effort, and lack of concern for your prospect.  If your sales team incorporates product-benefit or value-proposition language into your cold-call presentations then there is likely a large gap between the results you are currently achieving and what can be achieved through best practices.

4.  Stop Inviting Prospects to Attend a Sales Call

The fastest way to ensure that your prospects will not meet with you is to invite them to attend a sales call.  What executive wakes up and hops in the shower imagining how great their day will be if they get a cold call from a sales rep with an aggressive invitation to attend a sales meeting about a product for which they have no prior knowledge?

Replace the initial sales calls with Analyst Briefings. Your prospects are far more inclined to accept a meeting where the purpose is to deliver research that is relevant to their professional life.  When structured properly, the Analyst Briefing becomes the perfect venue for deeply qualifying the target, and converting the target to a sales cycle if qualified.

5.  Get Rid of the Easy-Outs

Most sellers make it easy for their targets to say “no” by including easy-out statements in their first sentence.

• Is this a good time?
• Do you have a minute?
• Are you free to talk now?
• How does that sound?

The use of these statements when cold calling is for losers!  Getting targets on the phone is difficult enough. Don’t give them an easy escape!

Pushy sales reps are cheesy. Professional sales reps are classy.

Sales reps who ‘pitch’ aren’t listening. Consultive sales reps listen closely.

No matter what kind of sales rep you are, sometimes all the professionalism in the world can’t close the sale. When you want the sale and you know the prospect will benefit, you’ll both lose if a sale isn’t made. Here are a few last ditch closes to help you make the sale. All closes assume you have made your complete presentation and several closes.

Telephone Sales

For products less than $500.00, the business card close is an absolute winner. Be strong, assert yourself and say:

“Okay, Joe, let’s do this. We’re going to ship out the (ABC product) today and on the outside of the box where where the packing slip enclosure is, I’m going to include 5 of my business cards with your name and company written on the back. Now when you get the (ABC product) and love it like everybody else, you simply give one of those business cards with your name printed on the back to your friends or business associates. When they place an order, we ask for the referral name on the back of the card. Every time they mention your name, you get a $50.00 credit on your next order. And if you need more cards for more friends and $50.00 referrals, just ask. There’s no limit to the referrals you can earn! Now, you’re still at 1234 Main St…

DO NOT pause at any point unless indicated. When you pause, you’re history. You can play around with this a little to make it work for your product, prospects and price. I used this close for over 10 years, ALWAYS put the cards in the packing slip envelope and NOT ONCE did somebody call in as a ‘referral’. When the cost of a sale is 5 business cards, that’s a hell of a return on investment.

Any Sale, Anywhere

The Silence Close is simply my all-time favorite. Read it all the way through, then make sure to read the notes, numbered in parenthesis.

If you’ve made several closes only to be quickly rejected each time, pay attention and watch for any stretch of silence longer than 3 seconds when you make a close. Then pounce on it like a lion.

“You’ve been silent for a bit, Mary. You know, my mom (1) taught me a lot about people. You probably learned a lot from your mom, too, right? (2) The one thing my mom always used to say was(3), “Silence… (3) implies… (3) consent.” (3) Since you were silent for some time, you obviously want the (product or service).”    Then take out the order form and start writing!

(1) Far more people are on better terms with their mother than their father. Use mother to improve your odds.

(2) The use of the tie-down (right?, huh?, didn’t you?, etc.) forces a yes, instead of coaxing the yes from the prospect. Get the prospect to agree.

(3) You must master the pregnant pause here for maximum effect. If you rush through it, it won’t work.

I Want to Think it Over

Is there any sales rep who hasn’t heard this classic stall? This one is easy. It helps you pinpoint the prospects real objection or determine the call is pointless and you can move on.

When a prospect says, “I want to think it over” simple look them in the eye, smile sincerely, and tell them:

“That’s great! There’s nothing wrong with wanting to think it over. And the best time to think it over is right here and right now, while I’m here to answer any of your questions or concerns. What’s the first thing you wanted to think over?”

Man, I’m telling you, buyers have used this stall since time began and almost nobody knows how to respond. When you respond, they are shocked! They know you’re a professional and are ready to sell! You can just about cash your commission check right then and there!

Luke Brown was the #1 sales rep for 5 different companies before founding his first sales company. He has trained over 1,200 sales reps and speaks about sales training to many Fortune 1000 corporations.