I love it when readers challenge my b2b sales prospecting phone-use tactics. It brings out my best and provides me an opportunity to share tactics (hands-on, how-to’s) b2b sales professionals can use to master the sales prospecting process. Not theories but successful techniques tested on the street.
How do you, the sales professional, determine whether the person on the other end of the phone is being truthful? Your questions and how you ask them will reveal whether you are speaking with a liar or a potential buyer. Asking these questions on the phone will eliminate wasted face-time sales calls.
Professional Pollsters and Marketing Researchers who use the phone know the answer and so should you. They ask shielded questions. Actually, the same question, worded differently and asked once, twice or three times during the same phone interview.
I’m a great believer in having my 5-6 Qualifying Questions documented on a form I refer to as a CPQ (Call Planner Questionnaire). In fact, the CPQ is the lynchpin accountability tool I encourage sales managers and small business owners to use to make certain their sales team members are turning in legitimate expense reports at week end.
You may recall from past blogs my statement, “You are making a Social NOT a SALES CALL if you do not have 1 completed CPQ for each face-time decision-maker appointment.” None of us in sales were hired to make social calls. We aren’t paid for visits - ONLY CLOSED SALES! There should be 1 CPQ for each completed face-time sales appointment. This is RULE Number 2 of my Power Prospecting Formula.
One of the ‘key’ questions asked early on during the Qualifying Phone Follow up Calling Sequence should answer the important question:
Answering these questions strikes at the very heart of my Power Prospecting Formula. In 1967, when I began my formal sales career with NCR selling computers to the hoteliers on Miami Beach, I often discovered decisions to purchase equipment were made at the holding company HQ office, seldom at the local hotel property. My sales proposals were accompanied by the local managers’ purchase request and mailed to a distant decision-making office, far removed from Miami Beach.
Today, more than ever before, determining who signs the checks locally is critically important.
Many times, when I have conducted my Qualifying Phone Follow up Calling Sequence, I have discovered I’m speaking with an ego-centric ‘decision-maker’ who replies, “I make the decision!” Then, when I ask a variation of the same question later on during the same phone interview, their answer conflicts with their first reply.
Ah ha, a liar versus a buyer!
As a rule, I will not keep an appointment with a prospect to fails my shielded questions test. How can I believe anything else that person will tell me at our face-time appointment?
Am I being too sensitive? Am I placing an X on the door of a potential prospect? No! In fact, those few times when I have kept the face-time appointment with a liar, I have wasted my time on non-prospects. I don’t have the time or patience to meet with people who don’t respect me. When someone lies to me, they don’t respect me!
This shielded questions technique works especially well for commercial and industrial telemarketing sales. In 1987, I developed a CPQ scenario for an industrial sales software vendor. Elaborate product information kits were mailed, in advance, to all inquiries. Yet, fewer than 8% of these elaborate product information kits resulted in sales.
Two CPQ Questionnaires were designed and tested. The first CPQ narrow-focused an inquirer’s: urgency, decision-making-process, including who in the company by name and position was seated on the Software Evaluation Committee and whether the committee had a ‘funded budget’ to thoroughly research, conduct field trips to vendor installation sites prior to creating a short list of the three most capable solution providers. The ‘funded budget’ shielded questions and answers separated the curious from the serious.
The second CPQ Questionnaire was used after the prospect received the basic information kit which was one quarter the length of the original elaborate product information kit. The telemarketers asked the prospects specific questions about the software architecture and platform. Questions which could only be answered if the prospect thoroughly read the basic information kit. Both CPQ’s included multiple shielded questions.
Almost 8 months to the day the dual CPQ Questionnaires were implemented, conversions to sales were averaging 19-24%.
I’d be shocked if most of you aren’t using a CPQ type document, either printed or screen-displayed. However, if you aren’t using shielded questions, make some changes; add a few and you are sure to improve your conversion to serious, not curious decision-making prospects.
In Chapter 7 of the September edition of my How to Get Face-Time with People Who Buy What You Sell ebook (also called the PowerProspecting eBook) I detail how to design the ideal CPQ. Also, how to skillfully use my best secret weapon: The Columbo to forever eliminate wasted face-time sales appointments! CLICK on Purchase eBook Now. CLICK on Home Page. CLICK on View FREE Minibook. Remember, you have a 1 Year Money-Back Guarantee to test my Formula.
So, what works for you and your sales team? How do you filter liars and buyers?
Yes, I saw The President’s 15 minute Pep Talk about our “endangered American Economy and the urgency for bipartisan cooperation in Washington.” And, Senator Mc Cain’s announcement to suspend his campaign appearances, postpone his debate participation and to return to Washington to solve this catastrophic financial crisis before Wall Street completely unravels.
Yet, with all this gloom and doom news, I’m still very optimistic. My reason? I’ve been here before.
For 30 years, I have been a thriver, not just a survivor. Prospering in lean and mean times because I accept this as a natural progression in the entrepreneurial business climate in which we live.
Frequent readers of this blog already know I’m no Spring Chicken but neither am I Chicken Little, fearful the Sky will Fall! In the 60’s, I weathered the Vietnam War; gas crisis of the 70’s; dog days of the Nixon Whitehouse in the 80’s; Savings & Loan Scandal; Dot.com bust and every bump and grind in The Economy since the mid-70’s.
Guess what? That majestic Lady at the entrance of New York Harbor still shines her radiant torch of freedom on all who pass her graceful post and the NFL continues to entertain us on Sundays.
The fact is: I lived it and rode out every lean and mean lapse of economic insecurity. Tough Times, too……but serious career selling professionals who worked their system, not only survived, but thrived.
Here’s the secret: Only the strong survive in nature and especially in sales. It’s decision time for the carpet baggers or short-timers. They are in it when the economy is booming and running for the lifeboats when stormy seas are ahead. I’m not upset to see them go. In fact, I will cheerfully wave them goodbye!
FACT: Right now, NEW Opportunities abound!
This is not a typo or the rantings of an energized senior citizen who od’d on the Kool Aid! Here are 4 reasons to substantiate this claim:
First, I am thrilled to pieces my competition is pulling back, laying off sales staff and playing the Economic Blame Game. Meanwhile, I’m quietly harvesting the ripe, low hanging fruit they left behind.
My systematic laser-focused snail mail and e-mailings to decision-makers have doubled as have my timely qualifying phone calls to book the new business. Someone has to fulfill their needs, so why not me?
Second, less competition means more marketshare for me to prospect! With competition thinning out, there are many more new prospects for me to target. My favorite fishing holes are full, again.
Third, I can work my established networking contacts to reach out and touch many more new referrals. Both my BNI contacts and my LinkedIN Connections are ready and willing to extend my reach. Why should they do this, you say? Because my door is always open to help others achieve the income they deserve, in good and bad times, and they know it. So, with a little help from my friends, I’ll continue to nurture new opportunities.
Fourth, my sales message is tuned into the times. I preach value-added benefits and have a pocket full of client testimonial referral letters to backup my claims. Plus, I have made it much easier for clients to buy my services and new content-rich eBooks at market-sensitive prices with zero risk guarantees.
My latest $40. eBook is now available as a printable document. Titled, How to Get Face-Time with People Who Buy What You Sell, it’s chock full of time-and-money-saving techniques for getting b2b decision-maker face-time appointments in the era of $3.80/per gallon.
From where to get FREE prospect lists just like your best customers to How to Escape Voice Mail Jail. It’s all here. What works and why with complete examples. No hidden add-ons. All tactical hands-on how-to’s with very specific examples tested by me and my customers. Plus, you can download the FREE Minibook and take a look before you buy the complete book. Best of all there is No Risk because of my 1 Year Money-Back Guarantee. Interested? Go to the right sidebar or the top of this blog page and Click on Purchase eBook Now. Then, Click on Home Page. To preview my FREE MiniBook Click on View Free Minibook. Ok, enough shameless commercials! Let’s summerize and get back to business.
KEY POINTS for thriving in Hard Times:
I did many times before and I will once, again. I’ll see you out on the street, Gordie
*one of my favorite Zig Ziglar quotations.
Will happen if you know how to painlessly and systematically prospect for new b2b business and you have your selling priorities in the correct order.
FACT: There are NO SHORTCUTS in the DOING process.
Training b2b sales professionals by helping them to understand and apply the tactical hands-on how-to’s is where I have spent most of my 25 years. Not in a training classroom but out on the streets in the sales territory. Yes, it is a long time. Let’s face it, it is the stuff of my life as Ben Franklin said “time is the stuff life is made of”.
When people ask me, as they often do, what have you enjoyed most about your sales training career? My answer is pretty much the same because it is what brings me joy and my feeling of accomplishment. It is that I have invested my life, wisely that ‘my ladder has been leaning again the right wall’ in Stephen Covey lingo.
My answer is ’seeing the light go on when a sales trainee finally gets it’. When that person realizes the currency of success in the selling game is systematically filling the funnel with ‘qualified’ prospects who have an identified urgent need; true decision-making authority; and a concise understanding of what the sales person is selling. Once this realization becomes an urgent priority to be dealt with every week; then, my mission is accomplished.
It was 25 years ago, I believed that transferring the knowledge and skills was the difficult challenge to be reckoned with. Yet 25 years later, TODAY, to be exact (the day before my 65th birthday), I now realize it is really the second part which is the truly elusive challenge: that ’you have your priorities in the correct order’. This is what really matters most in sales. Getting my training clients to laser-focus on the essential activity of systematic and painless prospecting.
NOT checking e-mail or re-arranging the order of stuff on your desk; NOT hanging out at the corner coffee shop or the cooler down the hall. Having the iron-willed discipline to get down to the tactical business of speaking with real prospects; qualifying their needs; getting face-time and meeting their needs with your products and services.
In sales, everything else is secondary to getting the order and with it a check or purchase order to cement the deal. Chatter all you want about the up and down price of a gallon of gas (black gold) or the effects of IKE on the near-term price at the pump; the housing slump; the Recession, the War………..getting in front of qualified prospects……..determining their needs…………moulding your products and services to fill those needs; convincing the prospect that you can……….then, getting their name on the dotted line and their payment with their signed order………………….in sales…………THIS PROCESS is What Really Matters Most!
Three days ago, I sat down opposite a selling veteran I have known for some time who was making a lateral career adjustment. He was getting started selling a new service. He wanted me to analyze why he just wasn’t closing as much business as his new bosses thought he should be at this stage of this employment. I listened patiently through 2 cups of strong coffee and occasionally, I asked a question or two.
To my amazement, sat before me, a seasoned selling professional who, after all these years, had lost his way. Who was so distracted by the visions of sugar plums (fat commission checks) and promises of stacked commission spiffs that he had lost track of what really mattered most.
Yet, when I told him, he was almost indignant with surpise! Mark, ‘I said’, “you need to shelve all the crap and just get down to the business of prospecting’………….”FORGET everything else. Wrap your mind and your willpower around making the calls. Park that cute little PDA and sports car and plant your seat and start making calls”. He meekly agreed with me, when I asked to see his Calling Log Sheet and I pointed out how few calls he was making for each sitdown session. He was clearly a victim of the distraction of the trappings of selling success!
He was spending those commissions before he earned them. WHY wasn’t he making the calls? Was it a fear of rejection or, having to leapfrog the gatekkeepers; or, just doing the mundane task of making calls?
Make no mistake, if you and your peers, want to truly earn the income you deserve, it boils down to getting face-time with people who buy what you sell. Re-dedicate yourself to the PROCESS of systematically and painlessly prospecting. Every week, set aside whatever time it takes to book the number of ‘qualified’ face-time appointments it takes to exceed your weekly sales quota.
If you need a refresher course, I recommend you take a look at my newest eBook, titled “How to Get Face-Time with People Who Buy What You Sell”. Click on Purchase the eBook Now, in the right sidebar. My newest version is a PDF formatted version, chock full of stuff you can use to painlessly and systematically gain ethical access to decision-makers. It includes complete Phone Follow up Calling Scripts; a mailing campaign I used to get an 83% response; plus, how to get out of Voice Mail Jail. My newest version includes a FREE minibook you can download and read the Table of Contents; the Introduction and Chapter 3, How to Get and Use Ideal Testimonial Referral Letters; plus, my 1 Year Money-Back Guarantee. OK, that’s my shameless commercial plug!
Whatever you decide to do, I urge you to get back to the business of prospecting. My gift to you on my 65th Birthday is to remind you of this career enriching activity. Do it, NOW!
What are your 4 most frequently heard sales objections raised by potential sales prospects when you communicate with on them on the phone? Even if you are just beginning to use the phone to better qualify new sales prospects, you are certain to have heard the same 1 or 2 objection types; perhaps, worded differently. Answering this question should not be too challenging.
My reason for posing it is by anticipating these objections, we can carefully word our answers and commit their conversational adaption to one side of Cue Cards [3], [4], [5] and [6].
If you are a first-time visitor to this blog, please get caught up. Click and read the two Recent Posts. The Phone as a Sales Prospecting Tool (Part 2) and Mastering the Phone as a Sales Prospecting Tool.
Still stumped? The answer is easier than you think. Here’s why. Your mailing campaign will limit the type and nature of the objections asked by your prospects, provided of course, your prospect received the 1,2, 3 or 4 greeting cards spaced 4-5 days apart; and you conducted your timely Qualifying Phone Follow up Call within 5 days of their receipt of the last card.
In prior posts, I said the purpose of a pre-mailing is to set the stage for your timely Qualifying Phone Follow up Call. Your strategy should be to whet the prospect’s appetite with just enough information so they will thirst for your timely phone follow up call. Another important duty of your pre-mailing is to narrow-focus their objections to these 4:
How can I make such an assumption? It’s simple. The focus copy of your pre-mailing raises a problem or the ‘pain’ issue your prospect is likely to have recently experienced or is currently experiencing which is even better. Your solution, is reinforced by testimonial comments from clients (who are no longer pain-afflicted) because of your brand of Rx which soothed their pain or solved their problem.
If your pre-mailer copy is NOT focused on Pain issues, it should be! To waste this very limited real estate (copy block) which should not exceed 34 total words or about 2 sentences inside a greeting card on nearly any other subject, is the sign of an amateur or someone who has money to burn!
If There is NO PAIN………………………………..There is NO GAIN!
Isn’t just a cute saying. If the person who is opening your sequenced mailings isn’t feeling a pain or is someone who hasn’t felt this pain in their very recent past; they won’t be motivated to want to listen to your solution. They just don’t have a need now for what you sell. They have no sense of urgency! Your message will fall on deaf ears. So, do your homework. Don’t waste this precious space inside your 3 or 4 greeting cards with fluff.
Lets do Cue Card [3], one of the most commonly heard of the 4 Objections (copy between the ====):
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[3] “We do Business with Your Competition” (top line in red ink)
[hand-print the body copy, in blue ink]
You Say: “[Mr. Prospect] DO YOU have COMPETITION in Your Business?” (pause and continue)
“I just Want the Opportunity to Compete for YOUR ACCOUNT. Does That sound fair to you?”
(pause and wait for reply) Prospect Says:
YES-> Go to Cue Card [7] -> [ask your 5 key Qualifying Questions] -> Re-confirm Appointment day, date, time and appointment address] -> End Call -> Decide?
NO -> Go to Cue Cards [4], [5], or [6] -> End the Call and Begin next Qualifying Call.
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If you would like to see the carefully chosen wording for each of the remaining 3 Objection Cue Cards and a complete explanation with justification for use, CLICK on Purchase the E-Book Now in the right sidebar. My Power Prospecting eBook costs $40 and includes 4 FREE Bonus items. Plus, my NO NONSENSE Money-Back Guarantee gives you an entire year to try my program and then, if it doesn’t work for you; e-mail me your 5 completed Homework Assignments as proof, and I’ll refund your $40 credit card payment.
Why do I require proof of your completed Homework Assignments? To discourage impulse buyers! My mission with this eBook is to encourage you, a seriously motivated B2B selling professional, to end the pain of your weekly prospecting so you can systematically and painlessly earn the income you deserve!
Absolutely, nothing beats learning, by doing! If you are willing to complete my 5 paper and pen exercises to personalize this Formula to your needs, you will succeed, provided you apply the Formula, as designed and presented to you in this eBook to your prospecting situation in your B2B marketplace. Completing the 5 Exercises is important. Testing and re-testing (re-writes of your Cue Cards, too) the Power Prospecting Formula on your real world prospects usually takes several months of pre-mailings; timely qualifying calls; asking the 5 all important qualifying questions and then forming the disciplined habit of deciding to keep or cancel a booked in person appointment. You are deciding whether to make sales calls or social calls. Ultimately, you are deciding if this prospect deserves your time. Breaking old, unproductive sales prospecting habits takes time. You owe it to yourself and to those who depend upon you for groceries to allow the time for this new concept to produce tangible results. Thus, the reason for a 1 year guarantee.
In my next post, I’ll have several proven effective techniques for overcoming the bone-shaking fear of picking up the phone. This affliction, exclusive to sales professionals, is called: call reluctance. In the mid-1980’s, two behaviorial science specialists in Dallas, TX, wrote an excellent book about how to overcome the fear of call reluctance. The book includes a self-test which identifies several types of call reluctance with listed characteristics; detailed remedies and coping mechanisms. I have personally witnessed the transformation of several formerly shy sales wannabes into fearless Power Prospectors with the application of these techniques. You will not be disappointed!
As we continue composing your set of 8 each, 5″ x 8″ Cue Cards so you can painlessly and systematically qualify all B2B sales prospects before getting into your gas guzzler to only keep qualified in-person sales appointments, please note that Cue Card [2] is only necessary if the prospect doesn’t respond to your question asked during your use of Cue Card [1]
If you are confused by this opening statement, please read my June 30th blog posting titled: Mastering the Phone as a Sales Prospecting Tool because today’s blog posting is a continuation of the process begun on June 30th.
If you hear the sound of silence (no reply, no heavy breathing) then, the contents of Cue Card [2] should be vocalized to re-gain control of the qualifying call and to grab the prospect’s attention. It is called The Big BENE Card because it states very concisely the reason this prospect will WANT to listen to what you are about to say.
This is the moment you discover IF your direct mailing campaign worked. Most importantly of all, if it effectively set the stage for your timely qualifying follow up phone call. Did it uncover an open wound or raw pain this prospect is feeling? So much pain, that the prospect has been waiting to hear from you?
When you are composing your Qualifying Phone Follow up Presentation Script, hold this thought:
IF There is NO Pain……………..There is NO GAIN!
It is a selling reality. Selling is about satisfying an urgent need or soothing a FELT top of mind pain. If the person with whom you are speaking is tramatized by a lack of something you sell and they have the authority and ability to pay for it, you have a serious prospect on the phone, especially, if it is a constant, nagging pain they continue to experience. This nagging pain creates urgency. An immediate urgency from this felt-pain.
Wouldn’t our lives be so much more enjoyable if all prospects were this qualified? Not really! Our bosses wouldn’t need our services if order-taking was this easy and uncomplicated. This skill and our ability to use it repeatedly and successfully is really what sets the super successful sales achievers apart from the wannabes in the selling game. It’s the ultimate sales test where the rubber meets the road!
PAIN…..gets and holds a prospect’s attention. In 1999, an errant disc in my lower back got my undivided attention when it suddenly separated from my spinal vertabrae. From the moment it happened early on the morning of Oct 27, 1999 until 72 hours later when I slipped into unconsciousness on a surgical gurney my one-and-only focus was doing absolutely nothing to aggravate my severe pain.
Another, more timely example is the PAIN we are feeling at the pump, today! Since February 1974, the time of the first gas crisis, I have been repeating in print and on the presentation platform “the way we do business will change forever when gas increases to $4.00 per gallon”. Suddenly, I am getting media attention and being hailed as a visionary. Baloney! I have been parroting this for years. People just weren’t listening when gas was $2.00 or even $3.00 per gallon. They weren’t listening because they weren’t feeling THE PAIN.
Enough about pain! See below, between the ===== lines an example of Cue Card [2].
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[2] “[Mr. Prospect], SUPPOSE I Could Show You How To“ [top line in red ink]
[hand-print this body copy, in blue ink]
“DRAMATICALLY CUT YOUR COST of Getting NEW BUSINESS?” [This is an example of my BIG BENEfit Statement taken from one of my best Testimonial letters where the delivered 'quantified' value of my services was a single $52,000 order for 11 desktop computer systems booked 26 days after 1 of 83 Inacomp Computer Centers' store managers attended my December 1985 Power Prospecting seminar in Troy, MI.
[pause and continue]
“ I’m talking about REAL SAVINGS HERE….For One CLIENT a 52,000 DOLLAR RETURN on a 5,000 DOLLAR INVESTMENT in just 26 Days”. [I re-worded my BIG Benefit Statement Testimonial Story so it fits into my scripted, conversational delivery style]. ”I’m sure you would agree Results, such as these would be worth 20 minutes of your time, wouldn’t it?” [pause and wait for a reply]
Prospect replies:
YES-> Go to Cue Card [7] -> [ask your 5 key Qualifying Questions] -> Re-confirm your Appointment day, date, time and appointment address] -> End the Call and Decide to keep the appointment or cancel it based on the prospect’s answers to my 5 key Qualifying Questions.
NO -> Go to Cue Cards [3], [4], [5], or [6] -> End the Call and Begin the next Qualifying Call.
====================================================================
That’s all Cue Card [2] has to say. See the final, edited version of Cue Card [2] below.
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[2] “[Mr. Prospect], SUPPOSE I Could Show You How To“
“DRAMATICALLY CUT YOUR COST of Getting NEW BUSINESS?” [pause and continue]
“ I’m talking about REAL SAVINGS HERE….For One CLIENT a 52,000 DOLLAR RETURN on a 5,000 DOLLAR INVESTMENT in JUST 26 Days…. ”I KNOW you would agree…. Results, such as these would be worth 20 minutes of your time, wouldn’t it?” [pause and wait for a reply]
YES-> Go to Cue Card [7] -> [ask your 5 key Qualifying Questions] -> Re-confirm Appointment day, date, time and appointment address] -> End Call -> Decide?
NO -> Go to Cue Cards [3], [4], [5], or [6] -> End the Call and Begin next Qualifying Call.
====================================================================
5 ’Key’ Cue Card [2] Composition and Use Points to Remember:
If you would like to see Cue Card [2] and the entire Scripted 8 Cue Card set with actual wording and the complete explanation and justification for use, CLICK on Purchase the E-Book Now in the right sidebar. My Power Prospecting eBook costs $40 and includes 4 FREE Bonus items. Plus, my NO NONSENSE Money-Back Guarantee gives you an entire year to try my program and then, if it doesn’t work for you; e-mail me your 5 completed Homework Assignments as proof, and I’ll refund your $40 credit card payment. Why does my guarantee require proof you have completed the 5 Homework Assignments? To discourage impulse buyers!
Part 3 of The Phone as a Sales Prospecting Tool will address your 4 typical Objection-Response Cards.
logically begins with an appropriate introduction. Picking up where I left off from my June 18th blog post, the purpose of this posting is to compose Cue Card # 1, your Introduction. If this is your first visit to this blog, I suggest you read my June 18th entry so you will grasp the full value of this posting.
Let’s review some important ground rules. First, this scripting system is not intended for use as a cold calling tool. Heavens No! Always, always pre-mail (snail-mail, NOT e-mail) 3 tangible mailing pieces to this prospect BEFORE dialing to ‘qualify’ this person. The intent of your mailing is to set the stage for this qualifying call. An effective mailing campaign of 3 pieces, mailed in succession over a 15 day period to one prospect, so the addressee receives a personalized mailing on their desk every 5 days, is to whet their appetite. Never tell your whole story. But, only just enough to set them up for your timely and expected ‘qualifying’ phone call conducted within 5 days of their receipt of your mailing piece # 3.
No, your eyes didn’t deceive you when I said ‘your expected phone call’ in my last sentence. I expect some of you are saying, “this guy is nuts! I’m not going to mail 3 personalized mailings to one prospect over 15 days just to ‘qualify’ their need, authority or understanding of what I sell.” The whole point of my Power Prospecting Formula is to conduct your entire prospect qualification process by skillfully using personalized direct mail and the phone from the convenience of your office before getting into your gas guzzler so you only gain ethical access to thoroughly well-qualified decision-makers who have an urgent need, authority to buy and a concise understanding of what you sell. Before you discard my recommendations, consider this:
I have been a direct mail practioner (some, who paid me call me a ‘direct mail expert’ because my recommended results greatly exceeded their expectations) since 1978 when I opened the doors to Mr. Mailer, Inc., Central Florida’s first personalized direct mail processing center and list brokerage boutique. Over the course of 7 years and 1 month, we mailed 18,000,000 personalized mailings on behalf of 192 B2B corporate clients. While I sold Mr. Mailer, Inc. in 1983 to form my present sales prospecting consultancy, Leads-Plus, Inc., I have never left the mailing business. Frankly, I love the creative opportunities of personalized direct mail. It still works marvelously well to set the stage for timely, professional follow up ‘qualifying’ phone calls.
There is another more important reason for 3 pre-mailings. You are completely eliminating the coldness from your follow up ‘qualifying’ phone call. You are making a ‘warm call’ even though you haven’t ever spoken to this prospect. This will give you enormous self-confidence, so essential to project in your phone voice, when you call and speak with this decision-maker.
A well-orchestrated pre-mailing campaign that demonstrates tasteful originality but not at the expense of a relevant, benefit-driven message can make your reception during your initial ‘qualifying’ follow up call a memorable success - one you will want to repeat!
One last justification for a 3-piece pre-mailing. My most successful ever mailing was conducted in 2006 when I tested a new concept, which has since become my one-and-ONLY personalized direct mailing tool. The response from mailing 4 greeting cards to one prospect so that individual received a different personalized greeting card every 4 days; and then, a follow up ‘qualifying’ phone call from my telemarketer or me was 83%. That’s right, 332 of the 400 target prospects, who each received 4 distinctly unique greeting cards, over a 20 day period spoke either to me or my telemarketer. E-mail me at eurekaman43@hotmail.com if you want more info about the vendor who conducted the B2B mailing and the total mailing campaign cost.
Lets return to Scripting Cue Card # 1, your Introduction.
In my June 18th blog posting, you were asked to purchase a pack of white 5″ x 8″ index cards and a red and blue felt-tipped pen. You will only use one side of 8 of these cards to compose your entire qualifying script.
You will hand-print the single italicized line below at the very top of 1-side only of Cue Card # 1:
[1] “[Mr. Prospect], This is [Your Full Name] with [Company Name]“ [in red ink]
[in blue ink, hand-print this body copy]
“Recently, I mailed you 3 Greeting Cards about [Your BIG BENEfit Statement or a Testimonial where the delivered 'Quantified' value of your products or services was experienced by a very satisfied client]
“Suppose I could show you how to achieve [re-word your BIG Benefit Statement or your Testimonial Story so it fits into this scripted delivery] ? I’m sure you would agree Results, such as these would be worth 20 minutes of your time, wouldn’t it?” [pause and wait for a reply]
Prospect replies: YES-> Go to Cue Card [7] -> [ask your 5 key Qualifying Questions] -> Re-confirm your Appointment day, date, time and appointment address] -> End the Call and Decide whether to keep it or reschedule it.
Prospect replies: NO -> Go to Cue Cards [3], [4], [5], or [6] -> End the Call and Begin next Qualifying Call, [Cue Cards [3 - 6] are your 4 most frequently heard Objections, with your carefully-worded responses to each] If, after, voicing each of your 4 responses to these Objections, your prospect, still persists with a NO reply, then you are probably speaking to a non-prospect. End the call and cross this non-prospect off your calling list and proceed to your next call. Don’t personalize this rejection. Get over it! Be thankful you didn’t waste a valuable in-person sales call and the gas to discover this reality.
Prospect replies: Yes or No are Branching Statements which send you to either the Appointment-Setting Cue Card [7]; or to your 4 most frequently heard Objections, with your carefully-worded response to each.
Bold-faced words should be spoken louder to grab and keep the prospect’s attention.
Note, above, ‘5 key Qualifying Questions’. Their answers to your documented questions will tell you IF this prospect deserves your appointment time. Be selfish with your time! If you fail to obtain answers to these essential qualifying questions and you show up for the appointment, you are making a social call, NOT a sales call.
At $4.50 per gallon, none of us can continue to conduct social calls and remain in the sales game for very long. Asking your 5 Qualifying Questions, at this stage of your scripted sequence, works well because your prospect has already agreed to an appointment.
To learn how to get your ideal testimonial from a satisfied client which you can reword to use in Cue Card [1], please read my blog post titled, Best Ever Sales Prospecting Door-Opening Sales Tool.
If you would like to see the entire Scripted 8 Cue Card set with actual wording and the complete explanation and justification for use, CLICK on Purchase the E-Book Now in the right sidebar. My Power Prospecting eBook costs $40 and includes 4 FREE Bonus items. Plus, my NO NONSENSE Money-Back Guarantee gives you an entire year to try my program and then, if it doesn’t work for you; e-mail me your 5 completed Homework Assignments as proof, and I’ll refund your $40 credit card payment. Why does my guarantee require proof you have completed the 5 Homework Assignments? To discourage impulse buyers!
Remember, if you want more info about my personalized direct mailing vendor, just e-mail me at eurekaman43@hotmail.com and I’ll send you complete details. In my next blog posting, we will discuss how to effectively word Cue Card [2].
One other closing suggestion I mentioned in a prior entry is I have had great success acquiring new prospects at www.linkedin.com, an international professional online business networking community. You can sign on for FREE; learn how to apply it’s many user-friendly features; and build relationships among it’s 22 million members.
becoming a master communicator when using the telephone to access sales prospects. Never, never has mastering phone use skills been more important than right now. Today, at $4.50 per gallon, I’m going to make it easier for you to quickly and effectively make your point when using the phone to communicate with new sales prospects.
In December 1985, I conducted a seminar titled, “User-Friendly Telephone Use Skills” in Troy, MI. The audience was comprised of 83 retail computer store managers and members of their sales teams. Variations of the content of this seminar have since been repeated thousands of times to sales professionals and small business owner audiences throughout North America.
The 3 key concepts of this first seminar in 1985, and every one I have delivered since, are these:
It sounds like a no-brainer, doesn’t it? You would think every selling professional would conduct some form of advanced preparation before dialing. Yet, fewer than 3% of the surveyed selling professionals, who have attended my seminars since 1983, admitted to completing 1 of these 3 key concepts. In round numbers, that’s 2,800 people out of 93, 500.
Is it because 97% of the selling professionals who responded to my pre-seminar survey form just didn’t care about their phone-use skills? No, I believe the answer is because the telephone is such a common everyday household and office appliance that people presume to know how to use it. They do: know how to operate it.
There is a very wide chasm between use VERSUS skilled-use. The telephone is one of our most universal intuitive appliances. When I stepped off the plane in Stockholm, Sweden in 1966, my first action was to call my parents in Miami to advise them of my safe arrival. No one had to explain to me how to operate one of the banks of telephones in the baggage claim area. It was second-nature, even though the operating instructions were in Swedish.
Call Purpose is basic. Is this your first contact? Follow up on a recent mailing? Follow up on a recent meeting? Very specifically, what outcome do you anticipate as a result of initiating this call?
Decide, in advance of dialing, your specific goal or expected call outcome. I’ll presume most of you who are reading this blog will use the phone to follow up on a timely snail mailing. In this case, I urge you to prepare a complete script of what you plan to say during this 8-10 minute call. Even though you probably know everything about your products and services, it’s wise to script every word, for 7 reasons, namely:
A scripted presentation gives you the confidence of being completely prepared and thus achieving your call purpose, which is thoroughly qualifying each prospect as to decision-making authority; an urgent need for what you sell; and, a concise understanding of your services.
Lets face it, when you are thoroughly prepared, you project more confidence in your voice which is crucial when using the phone to greet and meet a new prospect. You sound more professional because you are more professional.
Using the phone, in this manner, will dramatically eliminate wasted in-person, face-time appointments and thus reduce your number of trips to the one-armed bandit at your gas station. Imagine, conducting all of your prospect qualification calls from the convenience of your office! You will be equipped to qualify many more prospects since this method is exponentially more time-efficient than just showing up, unannounced, like a peddler.
Script every word of your telephone presentation. Go to an office supply store and purchase a pack of white, lined 5″ x 8″ index cards and a red and blue felt-tipped pen. You will only need 8 of these white index cards. Think of these 8 cards as your ‘Cue Cards’. Each has a specific purpose:
In succeeding blog posts, I’ll provide you script composing techniques that will turn you into a master telephone communicator. I will take each Cue Card, in succession, and explain how you can master this simple but proven effective 30 year old tool to achieve your call purpose - everytime you dial.
Practice your scripted presentation until it’s second nature. After composing each of your Cue Cards, I will introduce you to a script practicing methodology that will fine-tune your Cue Card use skills.
If you are in a hurry to learn this Cue Carding Process, the entire snail mailing and telephone follow up Formula is documented in my PowerProspecting eBook which is for sale. Click on Purchase eBook Now in the right margin. Click on View Sample Chapters. The Introduction and Chapter 3 are FREE for your viewing. If you purchase my $40 ebook, you have 1 year to keep it or get a refund. Enough said!
Next week, I’ll begin the Cue Carding Process with Scripting Cue Card # 1.
One of the most memorable and inspiring book treasures in my home office library is Man’s Search for Meaning, by Victor Frankl. It chronicles, Dr. Frankl’s WW2 imprisonment and his near-death experiences at the hands of Hitler’s henchmen in several infamous Holocaust Death Camps. While there are many lessons to be learned from this extraordinary little book, one that repeatedly rises to the surface of my conscious thinking is that we all ultimately can choose to personalize and accept criticism or reject it and remain self-assured and confident. It is always our choice.
As someone who specializes in sales prospecting skill-building, I have plenty of opportunities to make this choice. In the old days, calling strangers often lead to frequent rejection. ”They didn’t have time to talk with me, now” or they responded with a gruff, knee-jerk comment such as “I’m not interested!”.
Notice, I said, In the old days. Instead of tolerating frequent rejection I chose to find a better way. As a Rule, I won’t and don’t cold call potential prospects. After 19 years of trial and error testing of different direct mailing plarforms, I discovered a better and simpler way to consistently and painlessly gain ethical access to decision-makers. My ‘qualifying’ calls are always preceded with several snail-mailings which are a series of 4 personalized greeting cards. Cards work best because:
Sounds expensive, doesn’t it? Once upon a time, but not now with gas at $4.25 per gallon!
Here is the BIG PAYOFF. When I follow up with a phone call, 70-83% of the time, card recipients are looking forward to speaking with me. I didn’t pull 83% out of thin air to impress you. In 2006, it was the actual percentile of card recipients who spoke with my appointment-setter or me, when we called, following their receipt of greeting card # 4!
Since then, we have conducted several mailings for high-tech clients who are consistently gaining timely, ethical phone follow up access an average of 70% of the time when a 4 greeting card series precedes their prospect ‘qualification’ phone calls.
My mailings and those conducted on behalf of B2B clients have a distinct purpose which to ALWAYS set the stage for a timely phone call. Painless Sales Prospecting is a reality, now! It can work for you too if you precede your initial contact calls with a timely, carefully targetted series of 4 greeting card direct mailings. Because pre-mailed prospects are expecting your calls, you are eliminating the stress and often anticipated rejection factor that historically accompanies calling strangers for the first time. The ‘right’ mailing campaign is the key variable that prepares you for a positive expected outcome when you conduct your timely, expected followup qualifying phone calls.
Chapter 4 of my Power Prospecting eBook and 1 of the 4 FREE Bonus items you receive when you purchase my $40.00 eBook is the 4 greeting card mailing series with the cards and matching copy which achieved the remarkable 83% response in August 2006.
That’s it, for now. Have a traffic-free and relaxing Memorial Day Weekend. I’ll see you back here next week. As always, I relish Comments from B2B Selling Professionals, so let the discussion begin.
were some casual comments made by a client to me during a long distance phone conversation in January 1986. It was one month to the day after I had conducted a sales prospecting training seminar for 83 retail computer center store managers for Inacomp Computer Centers headquartered in Troy, MI.
The client who made these casual comments was then VP of Support Services. I say then, because 11 months later he left Inacomp to launch his own consulting practice. His comments would forever change the way I approached prospective new clients about hiring me to conduct sales prospecting training seminars.
FACT: His words, spoken 22 years ago, have been responsible for generating over $3,000,000 in seminar and consulting revenue for my company since 1986. Here is what he said:
“Gordie, one of my retail store managers credits your training seminar with 11 desktop computer systems sales for over $52,000 in sales revenues.”
Then, he fleshed out the rest of the story about the client and their needs plus how this ’star pupil’ adapted techniques learned at my half-day training seminar to win this sales opportunity.
At the time, I didn’t remember much more than: “one of my retail store managers credits your training seminar with 11 desktop computer systems sales for over $52,000 in sales revenues.”
I was in shock! First, that a seminar attendee would actually give me credit for such a memorable sale. Second, this ’star pupil’ made it happen less than 4 weeks after attending my December 1985 seminar.
I do remember what I did next. I demonstrated the presence of mind to take action and preserve these comments and this moment for future posterity. I said something to this effect:
“Buzz, may I word process these comments into a testimonial letter and fax the letter to Helen (his secretary) so she can photocopy the letter onto one of your corporate letterheads?”
“Then, would you sign the original testimonial letter and have Helen mail it to me?”
He agreed. It took me 40 minutes to get the ultimate credibility tool - a third-party testimonial on a client’s corporate letterhead that quantified the value of my services.
Quantified is the key word. Also, the dollar amount is numerical with $52,000.
Which of these 2 statements has a more memorable impact?
“One of my retail store managers credits your training seminar with a substantial increase in sales revenues.”
or
“One of my retail store managers credits your training seminar with 11 desktop computer systems sales for over $52,000 in sales revenues.”
Of course, the second statement because it is specific and it established the dollar value of my services.
This letter was photocopied and faxed, with attached Post-It-Notes, to potential clients many times since 1986. Most often, the Post-It Note comments were:
“Mr. Prospect, as this letter attests, I did it for ICC. Maybe, I can do the same for your sales team. Let’s discuss the possibilities when I call you on [day], [date] and [time]. Until then, Gordie Allen, Leads-Plus, Inc. (800.548.4571) Since 1983, Training Sales Professionals to Gain Ethical Access to Decision-Makers.
It didn’t hurt that ICC (Inacomp Computer Centers) was recognized as THE fastest growing IBM PC Division’s computer reseller in 1987; or, that Rick Inatone, CEO, of ICC went on to become INC Magazine’s 1989, Entrepreneur of the Year.
I lost no sleep hanging onto the coattails of this successful client who became THE rising star in their very competitive industry. So successful, that 4 years later ICC was gobbled up by another industry giant and ceased to exist as ICC. It was a wonderful memory for many college-age ICC employees who saw their stock options turn into huge retirement bonuses. For me, it was proof and substantiation my sales prospecting training services worked magic in the hands of savvy B2B sales professionals. I took every opportunity to skillfully use this letter to ethically open decision-maker doors. I’m elated to report it worked every time.
Like the Energizer Bunny, every B2B client who hired me and raved about my tactical sales prospecting training agreed to and gave me a nearly identical hardcopy letter. In cellular sales, extrusion plastics, business forms, advertising specialty and promotional item sales…………………in 55 total B2B industries.
Third-party testimonials are still the single most powerful sales prospecting door-opening tool for getting a decision-maker’s rapt attention. They are so easy to get plus you can use them to ice the competition. If you would like to learn the complete process for free, CLICK on Purchase the E-Book Now in the right side bar. CLICK on View Sample Chapters. CLICK on <next>> at the top of the PowerProspecting eBook screen and Go to Chapter 3. Also, you can read the complete original ICC testimonial letter.
That’s it for this blog post. As always, I’d like to read your Comments. Whether you agree or disagree, they will be published except if they include profanity.
NUMBER 1: Resolve NOT to become a victim of hard times! No, this isn’t a motivational post, well, maybe a little. If you are going to thrive and not just survive, you need to get your head screwed on straight. Develop and maintain the right mindset. Accept this from the start: gas isn’t going to get any cheaper and we all going to have to lump it and accept the increased cost of doing business.
Remember, we are all in the same boat. Even the big guys are feeling the pinch. In fact, small businesses, like mine, are really at a considerable advantage since we can quickly cut back on waste and we can manage our cost of selling and closing new business. Look around your business community and identify business networking opportunity groups such as BNI (Business Network International) Chapters. Go to www.bni.com to locate one of the 3,000 chapters in North America. Read my last post: Let the Arabs Drink Their Oil to learn more about this wonderful organization. Plus, make more efficient use of your business day.
Yesterday, I attended for the first time, The Coffee Club, an excellent local, weekly networking meeting in Orlando, organized and managed by Insight Marketing Group. Visit www.InsightMG.com for more information. I met 80 other business professionals who like me, were there to expand their networking reach in the growing Central Florida Business Community. The bottom line: plan to identify and attend one networking group meeting, weekly.
NUMBER 2: Change the way you prospect for new business. Resolve to become a more skilled practioner of technology tools and identify your core group of best prospects. Develop a Profile of the characteristics of your most profitable best customers. Begin by reviewing and analyzing your existing customers. For example, what makes them your best customers? They order frequently; they pay on time; they praise your services, products and your sales staff.
Most importantly, when conducting this review and analysis, identify the job title, not the name, of the decision-maker who decides whether to buy from you or your competition. ID their industries. For example, wholesalers, retailers, manufacturers, B2B or B2C professional business types such as LLC and PA.
Then, call each of your best customers and ask what trade and professional associations they are members of? Next, go to your public library and request from the Reference Desk librarian a copy of the N.T.P.A. Directory (National Trade and Professional Associations Directory). Why? Because you want to find a local chapter of these trade and professional associations. Why? So, you can attend one of their monthly meetings to meet other best prospect decision-makers, just like your best customers you identified in your Profiling process. The NTPA Directory is an alphabetical directory of over 8,000 trade and professional associations. It includes complete information about each association including their website URLs. Here’s an example of how I used this invaluable FREE directory and this process to acquire 43 new clients in 1990.
One of my best clients at that time was a leading cellular services provider. My decision-making local contact was the Sales and Marketing VP. Larry was a member of SMEI (Sales & Marketing Executives International) headquartered, at that time in Cleveland, OH. Since I’m a sales prospecting trainer and consultant, attending a local chapter meeting of SMEI where 40-50 other local Marketing VP’s and Sales Managers were in attendance would be a golden opportunity to prospect for new clients.
One of the indices in the back of the NTPA Directory is a Subject Listing. It lists all the associations by subject category. Since Sales & Marketing are keywords, necessary for me to identify decision-makers for my services, I turned to the Sales & Marketing Subject Index. SMEI was one of 62 associations listed under this subject heading. I photocopied this list and returned to the A-Z listing in the front of the directory where I looked up each association with Sales and/or Marketing in their association name.
In 1990, website URLs weren’t included so I called SMEI’s HQ in Cleveland to obtain the local chapter contact and meeting information. Much to my surprise, Larry was at my first meeting. He introduced me to his local SMEI Chapter members - other sales and marketing decision-makers - at that meeting and while doing so, raved about my sales prospecting services and the results he was now achieving as a result of hiring me to train his authorized dealer sales network to become more efficient Power Prospectors.
Shortly after, I joined the local SMEI chapter. I even attended other monthly SMEI Chapter meetings in Jacksonville, Tampa and Ft. Lauderdale in 1990 and as a result, acquired 43 new clients. In fact, my SMEI membership proved to be my most prolific trade association membership.
NUMBER 3: Develop a systematic method for contacting and qualifying your target prospects. Weekly, I snail mail and conduct phone followup to thoroughly ‘pre-qualify’ 20 best prospects: those with an urgent, near-term need for my training services and the ability to pay. My method is explained in great detail and provided with sample mailers, qualifying phone scripts and all working forms in my newly released Power Prospecting eBook. CLICK on Purchase The eBook Now in the sidebar to learn more.
OK, there you have it: 3 FREE Tips to Ease Your Pressure at the Gas Pump. It works for me. What works for you?
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