Get 'em on the Phone

Unless you have a steady stream of high-quality leads beating a path to your door, you’re going to have to make reaching out to prospective customers part of your customer acquisition efforts.  Marketing - advertising, direct mail, blogging, web site, etc. - is one way to do that.  However, even the most effective, integrated marketing, and well-executed campaigns take weeks and months to start bearing fruit.  If you need business now, the only way to do that is to reach out and contact prospective customers directly.  In other words, you’ll have to prospect for business. 

There is, of course, one big challenge inherent in prospecting - and it’s the primary reason so many sales people despise doing it: the people you’re interested in speaking with most often aren’t interested in speaking with you.  In order to overcome this pervasive obstacle, a well-thought out and well-delivered initial approach is necessary.  An initial approach is a short, customer-oriented communication that makes a favorable connection between you and a prospective customer, and stimulates interest in and curiosity about what you have to offer by suggesting how your offering can solve a problem, meet a need, or satisfy a desire the person you’re contacting is likely to have. (An initial approach can be either verbal or written.)

This challenge exists because most prospects view “cold calls” as a nuisance, as an unwelcome intrusion. They tell us they’re “not interested”, they’re “too busy”, or that they’re “happy with their present provider.” In order to effectively deal with these responses, it’s important to understand that these prospects are not dismissing us or what we’re selling (a well-crafted initial approach won’t even reveal what it is you sell). They just don’t know – and have no reason to believe – that what we’re calling to tell them about could possibly be of any value to them.  And can we blame them for being skeptical? They’ve been inundated with too many calls from people (telemarketers and bad sales people) trying to sell them stuff that really isn’t of any value to them. To get these people to even listen to us - to move them from their natural state of indifference to one of heightened interest in or curiosity about how our offering could benefit them – we need to use a very different approach from the unprofessional ones they’re used to. 

That approach begins with understanding that this is not a “sales call” (note that nothing in the definition even hints that the purpose of your call is to get the person to buy what you’re selling right there and then). In fact, the objective of an initial approach is not to sell your product or service – it should be to secure an appointment (a meeting if you have a local territory, a call if your territory is regional or national) with a prospect whom you believe has a reasonable shot at becoming a client during which you can speak with the prospect at a time when he’s ready and willing to focus on you (and not – as he likely will be on your initial call - to get rid of you as quickly as he can).

In crafting your approach, you must consider and answer 2 questions the prospect will be thinking. The first is “Why should I listen to you?” The second is, “Do I want to learn more?” Use these elements of a well-crafted initial approach, and you should get “yes” answers to both questions most of the time:

- Clearly and concisely introduce yourself and your company

- If your initial approach is a call, as opposed to an email or letter, earn your way  to continuing the call by pre-empting and neutralizing the anticipated (instinctive) resistance to it, then to continue

- Include a presumed need and a benefit statement positioning your offering as able to meets that need

- Pique interest, curiosity, and a desire to learn more

- Use language that is non-threatening, and which disarms

- Ends with a request for a meeting

If you incorporate your these elements into your initial approach contains, and if you deliver them effectively (coming across as confident and self-assured, but not cocky; enthusiastic but not overly so), it should be easy to conclude the conversation by asking for the appointment, and you should experience a significantly higher success rate in getting them.

Here’s an example:

[Name], this is Craig James with Sales Solutions.  You and I don’t know one another, so let me not be presumptuous by assuming you’re willing to take my call, or if you are, that you have the time to do so now…..  Thanks.   We help organizations get more out of their sales people without breaking the bank. Several of our clients have had some reps who were getting stuck at various points in the sales process. Others have been struggling with prospects whose purse strings are tight, or who just aren’t in a hurry to buy. We help businesses solve problems such as these, while enhancing the skills of their salespeople, so that they can close more business. Now, {NAME}, I don’t yet know enough about your situation to determine whether we could be of value to you.  But it’s possible we could.  So I’d like to propose a brief, fifteen-minute meeting that will allow us to quickly determine whether or not we can be of value to you.  Do you agree that makes sense?  Great – what are some dates that work for you for a fifteen-minute meeting?