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Keys to Telephone Success
An excerpt from "Getting the Second Appointment" How to Close any Sale in Two Calls." By: Anthony Parinello Let's take a critical look at how we use the telephone - and at how you can increase the power and effectiveness of your calls when it comes to scheduling more second appointments with your prospects. As a general rule the higher up in any organization's hierarchy you go, the less time you have to make your point. I always plan the pace of my initial monologue to suit each of the players. Let me mention here that the world-class sales trainers I've met over the years are in profound disagreement when it comes to agreeing upon how much time salespeople have before the person on the other end of the phone loses interest and disengages from the call (either mentally or physically). My estimate is that you and I have a meager eight seconds, whether speaking on the phone or in person, to get to the point and get a reaction. That may seem like a very short time, but try this experiment: The next time you're driving and you stop at a red light, wait until the traffic builds up behind you. Then, when the light turns green, wait eight seconds before you hit the accelerator. You'll soon be convinced that eight seconds is a very long time indeed! On the Phone with the Approver of your sale: The reason I'm starting with the Approver is that it's my firm belief if you want to get a second appointment and/or make the sale in two calls, you'll want start at the top of the organization and work downward. (I bet you knew that.) Here are the principles I've learned from experience to follow during phone exchanges with the Approver. * Never commit anything, especially your opening statement of the call, to memory. A conversation (or even the prospect of a conversation) with an Approver can be stressful. If the call turns into a "what does my script say" exercise, you'll lock up, stress out, and sound awful. The Approver will disengage instantly. * Internalize your message. Don't concentrate on what your prospect Approver's response will be. Just speak from your gut, not your head. * Be authentic. Don't try to be someone else. Be yourself. The attitude should be, "Yes, I'm a salesperson, and a darned good one." * Establish/reinforce your Equal Business Stature by presenting a balanced gain equation. Balanced gain equations, express the entire picture. They show the up side and any downside of your ideas. What you say could sound something like this: "Sixty five of the Fortune 100 are increasing existing customer loyalty and add-on business by as much as 120% - while cutting direct sales expense by as much as 50% in just six months." * Never ask, "Did you get my letter?" or any variation thereof. Approvers hate this. Others in the organization aren't likely to appreciate the implication that they're delinquent in opening, reading, or paying attention to their mail, either. If you sent a letter, simply repeat one of the points you raised in it, and let the Approver connect the dots. * Relate your expert industry knowledge: Your products, services and solutions can change this Approvers enterprise wide performance. Identify the highlights of your company's best experiences with customers. * Provide a choice of several ideas. The Approver, more than any other individual in the enterprise, requires choices. Approvers will often give commands such as: "Find me the top three producers of compressed air injection molds for our project X - and do it fast!" So you're going to get used to saying something like this: "The ideas we have for your consideration consist of three performance areas. They are: increasing the size of every entry point order from new customers, cutting sales process time in half, and getting more high margin add-on business from existing customers. Which of these is important to you between now and let's say the end of this fiscal quarter?" * Near the end of your first conversation, suggest action items. This applies to everyone you talk to on the phone; it's particularly important when talking to Approvers. What you say might sound something like this: "What would you like to see me and my team accomplish between now and the end of this business [week]?" Or: "Who on your team do you think I should be speaking with?" Once you've asked this question, listen up and take your marching orders! On the Phone with the Decision Maker When placing calls to these folks, always bear in mind that Decision Makers want to be treated as if they were the Approver. By treating the Decision Maker with the same business respect you would treat the Approver you'll be able to establish/reinforce your Equal Business Stature. Here are some other guidelines I can offer you on dealing with these all-important potential sponsors over the phone. 1. Avoid stupid questions. Don't say things like "Tell me a little about your business" or "What problems are you facing?" or "Are you interested in (cutting costs)?" You'll only insult the Decision Maker's intelligence. 2. Connect this conversation (if possible) with something you learned over the phone from the Recommendor. For instance: "I've discovered from your [tool crib supervisor] that you're un- intentionally replicating five steps during your [polishing] process. Three of my other process manufacturing customers are eliminating this excess by." 3. Don't make any direct recommendations during the initial stages of the relationship. That's sales malpractice, remember? 4. End the conversation by suggesting an action item. See the advice for calls with the Approver, above. On the Phone with the Influencer This is the player who likes salespeople least, and who will object most if you call on anyone else in the organization. My first piece of advice, then, is not to call these folks unless you absolutely have to. Assuming that you do have to call this person, bear the following rules in mind. 1. Emphasize your product knowledge. This will help you establish or reinforce Equal Business Stature: You had best know your stuff when working with this player. So: No hedging, no fudging - just 100% correct facts and figures. If you don't know something, say so. 2. Go easy on the success stories. Influencers are not impressed with what you've done for others. They mostly care about what you can do for them. 3. Connect this first conversation with whatever you did earlier. if you took the time to prepare and send to the Influencer a detailed piece of correspondence, ask specific, quantifiable "opinion questions" about its technical content and validity. ("what was your opinion of the design criteria that our [test and development] engineers used to design our [Omega +5] synthesizer?") 4. Don't press for a decision. As we've discussed, you should stay away from terminology like "Are you prepared to." 5. Uncover an existing need that you can help satisfy. The goal here is to uncover the need but don't let the Influncer know that you've uncovered it. It's best to let the Influencer take all of the credit for any uncovering of anything that remotely resembles a need, problem, or challenge. Whenever anyone asks (such as the Decision Maker or, Approver) whose idea addressed a problem, always give your Influencer the credit. (Hey, you're out to get a second appointment, and a commission check - not a pat on the back.) On the Phone with the Recommendor: If you start out your sales cycle as I've suggested (by contacting the Approver first), it's likely that he or she will point you toward a specific Recommender who can talk to you about the real- world implications of what you may eventually end up fixing for this company. Hare are some guidelines on effective phone contact with this player. 1. Connect this call to whatever happened earlier. The easiest way to do this is by saying, "I'm calling because Jim Bigshot [the Approver] thought that you'd be the best person for me to talk with." You now have the undivided attention of this person. (The same approach works well with Influencers and Decision Makers, but it has a way of making the Recommender feel like an instant celebrity, which is why I'm addressing it here.) 2. Focus on improvements. Find out what the Recommender wants to better, finish faster, make easier, or make more rewarding. But remember - it's a fool's game to try to sell to this person. He or she has no authority and no approval to buy anything. Explore by asking questions like, "Would it be useful.", "Would you find it helpful.", and "What would happen if." 3. Ask for "inside information." No, not the kind that can get you in trouble with the Feds - just the stuff that the Recommendor has access to and you don't. During or after the call, the Recommender can get you important background on who's who in the company. He or she can also help you track down non-confidential enterprise information such as bills, estimates, and procedure manuals, as well as copies of product literature, catalogs, annual reports and the like. Again - if you've got the endorsement of the Approver, the Recommender will be highly motivated to get you whatever you need. Anthony Parinello is a Wall Street Journal best-selling author, nationally known sales trainer and Talk-show host. His books have sold hundreds of thousands of copies and he has personally trained more than one-million salespeople. To find out more visit his web site at www.sellingtovito.com or tune-in to his weekly Internet talk- show at www.sellingacrossamerica.com. You can order his newest book "Getting the Second Appointment" How to Close any Sale in Two Call on http://www.amazon.com and www.Barnes&Noble.com This article was checked by SpamAssassin and is spam-safe. Copyright © Parinello, Inc.
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