by Marta Malyk | Oct 24, 2022 | Best Sales Practices, Closing Sales, Sales efficiency, Sales process, Sales productivity
As business owners, we all want to grow by winning new clients. But many of us find it difficult to “convert” new opportunities into paying clients. This leads to frustration.
In my 20+ years of experience as a sales professional, I’ve observed that many business owners meet prospects and then immediately move forward to “sell” without taking a pause and assessing what needs to happen next. They don’t actively manage the selling process. There are four actions you can take to help increase your sales efficiency.
Step 1—Talk to the Real Decision Maker
There is nothing more frustrating than discovering that you’ve walked through an entire sales process only to discover that your prospect needs to bring in another party who will ultimately make the decision. The step of confirming that your contact is the real decision maker is often overlooked. We get excited over the prospect of new business with a long-sought company and it’s easy to assume that our contact holds more power than they do.
Make sure you explore the company’s decision-making process with the person who is your contact. Be prepared to say you can only go so far in the process without having the ultimate decision makers involved. Your likelihood of getting to a commitment is greater when you speak directly to the decision maker(s).
Questions you can ask to move this along are:
- What is the decision-making process for services or products like mine?
- Who else will be part of the decision making?
- Are there other major stakeholders who would be involved in the decision?
Step 2—Ensure Your Solution is Relevant
It’s better to learn quickly if there is no current opportunity with a target company rather than to invest your time selling to someone who doesn’t need or value the solution you offer. Once you confirm that you have a relevant solution, take time to understand how the problem has impacted their business. This allows you to adjust your discussion to speak directly to their experiences. It may feel unnatural to not push to a close immediately upon confirming their need. But if you invest your time in this dialogue, your prospects may actually sell themselves. They are reminding themselves why they should be talking to you. And they realize that you are listening to them. This makes them more amenable to moving forward.
Ask the following questions:
- How has this problem affected your business? And for how long?
- What resources has this problem consumed? What did it cost you?
- What have you already done to address it?
Step 3—Seek Confirmation Along the Way
Throughout the discussion, make sure that you are getting mini buy-ins. Check for agreement at key points, ideally using open-ended questions. Don’t wait until the end of your presentation to ask their opinion. This way, you’ll be able to assess your prospect’s level of engagement, confirm their interest, and address potential objections as they occur. Moreover, this approach will ensure that this is a two-way conversation.
Use these prompting questions:
- How consistent is this with what you experienced?
- What are your thoughts on this?
- How does this sound to you?
Step 4—Let Your Personality Shine Through
Throughout the engagement, never forget that “people buy from other people.” Let your personality shine through! If you are staying true to steps 1 though 3, your empathy for their situation will be apparent and you’ll build credibility and trust. Ultimately, you want your prospects to feel good and look forward to working with you.
Getting to the Close
Using this approach, the natural outcome of a discussion between you and your prospect is to move to a proposal.
- You are talking to the right person.
- You know they have a problem that you can solve.
- They’ve validated for themselves that they have this need.
- They know that you have a deep understanding of their situation.
By the time you get to this point, your prospect should have reached the unavoidable conclusion that your solution is just what their business needs.
Here’s the final piece of “magic”—if you’ve taken these steps, once you are ready to close, you can simply ask, “What would you like to happen next?”
When you get your next opportunity, take a step back, consider this guidance, and see what happens.
If your business is facing sales-related challenges, please reach out to us at 908-879-2911. At One of a Kind Sales, we are experts in sales and we particularly love cold calling. We look forward to speaking with you!
This article, written by Nancy Calabrese of One of a Kind Sales, originally appeared in The Bottom Line, No. 3: 2022, the quarterly newsletter of NJAWBO, New Jersey Association of Women Business Owners.
by Marta Malyk | Jun 19, 2022 | Best Sales Practices, Cold Calling, Cold Calling Success, Cold Calling Tips, Sales Tips
This time of year, when I tell people I’m a cold calling expert, they often comment, ‘well this must be a tough season for you and your team because it’s summer.’ This belief that everyone is on vacation and decisions are not being made is a common misperception.
In fact, our experience is quite the opposite. Here are some tips to make sure that you can use to jumpstart your summer cold calling activity and increase the likelihood of success.
- Know your target: Understanding your target means that you’ll know what motivates them to be interested in your offering.
- Know who the decision makers are: The decision maker is the one person you need for the appointment when you are cold calling.
- Develop and use a good script. Having a script allows you to think about and internalize your approach to the call in advance and anticipate different paths of discussion that might occur.
- Understand how your solution solves their problem. You’ll need to be able to recognize when a prospect is telling you something that indicates they are a qualified lead.
- Use Active listening. Make sure you’re not doing most of the talking. Allow the prospect to tell you about themselves and their business. This is when we learn what the opportunity really is.
- Pivot for the appointment. Once you’ve confirmed that there is a need, go for the appointment. Remember that a typical cold call is generally no more than 4 to 9 minutes. Making the appointment with a qualified lead is your objective. Leave deeper probes will be made during the first 30-minute appointment
Yes, these steps look like the basics…. and in fact, they are the tried-and-true core of cold calling best practices. There’s a reason why they are best practices – it’s because they work no matter the time of year.
If you need help implementing best practices as an individual salesperson or with an inside sales team you manage, reach out to us. We LOVE cold calling. Contact us at 908-879-2911.
by Marta Malyk | Apr 11, 2022 | Best Sales Practices, Cold Calling, Cold Calling Success, Cold Calling Tips, Sales Prospecting, Sales Tips
I know the feeling. You’ve got the prospect on the phone, and you’ve confirmed that they likely have a problem you can solve. You’ve secured the appointment. And then you think to yourself: ‘why not just give them a little preview and see if you can get them even more primed for the first appointment? Who will it hurt anyway? Won’t it speed up the sales process?’
I have learned that taking this approach is both premature and risky. The further you move away from the established process for cold calling, the more likely you are to get poor results. While it might seem that moving some aspects of the first scheduled meeting into that initial phone call might speed things up, it’s better not to. In fact, when you get this feeling, that’s when you need to slow things down. Why?
Learn From the Prospect
Keep in mind that although you may feel that you know all you need to know about the prospect, at this point what you know is just the tip of the iceberg. There is so much more. During the first scheduled appointment, you’ll focus on establishing rapport and confirm their communication style. Also, you’ll encourage them to speak in greater detail about how the problem you solve impacts their business. It is unwise to proceed directly into “sell mode” without this information.
Focus on the Prospect, Not Yourself
When you enter “sales mode” in a cold call, you shift the focus from the prospect to yourself and your business. This is counter to the way that we can differentiate ourselves. To accomplish this differentiation, we need to keep the focus on the prospect. Keep these questions in mind:
- What are they experiencing?
- How do they feel about it?
- How is it impacting them?
During the call, your job is to listen and learn in order to capture and acknowledge what they are saying to you.
Establish and Maintain Your Differentiation
When you start selling during that initial phone call, you may not realize it but you will sound just like every other salesperson. Rather than listening to the prospect, and learning from them, you’re busy telling them why they need you. Rather than hearing and understanding how the problem you can solve impacts them, you’re discussing an impact that might not be important to them, and potentially losing an opportunity as a result. To the prospect this interaction feels more like a hard sell than relationship building.
In my experience, I’ve learned that its best to stay laser focused on the main objective of that initial cold call: confirming that there is a need that can be addressed and making the appointment. That’s all.
At One of a Kind Sales, our core expertise is Cold Calling! We’d love to work with you to create the most productive approach for you and your team. To explore the possibilities, give us a call at 908.879.2911.
Good Selling!
by Nancy Calabrese | Apr 5, 2022 | Podcast
About Dan King: He is the Co-founder and Growth Strategist of Fireside Strategic, helping creator CEOs direct their time, energy, and teams towards dramatic growth. There are two types of CEOs, first are Engineers who focus on optimizing the assembly line to perfection. In contrast, Creator CEOs want to create a significant and profitable business and for them business is an extension of self. Mission, ideas, and people drive them, they are the world changers but as Dan states, the thing about Creator CEOs is that they are full of ideas which means the creator and the business simultaneously try to move in many direction and this is a gift and a curse. On top of all of this, Dan is a recovering lawyer turned sales strategist and executive coach. He built and sold a coaching and recruiting company serving the legal industry, he’s coached hundreds of people including CEOs, members of the US and Canadian military and senior politicians, and he also serves as an advisor to one of the sharks in the TV show.
In this episode, Nancy and Dan discuss:
- The spectrum of CEO personalities
- Are you a Creator or an Engineer?
- The white space and what it means
- Projecting good and positive energy
Key Takeaways:
- Engineer and Creator are the two extremes of a spectrum of CEO personalities. Engineers tend to be more focused on the system and the optimization of it while Creators are artists and focus more on making the business meaningful and beautiful.
- One way to tell if a CEO is a Creator or an Engineer is by listening to the way they talk. An Engineer would talk in a more focused way, not straying much from topic while a Creator CEO would be more inclined to switch from subject to subject.
- Find that white space. If you want to make more sales, inspire people to be part of a movement because everyone wants to be a part of something greater than themselves.
- There is a dimension that goes beyond what you say and what you do whenever you sell. People can feel your energy whenever you interact with them. That’s why it’s important to project positive energy in every conversation.
“The secret – to selling is to get out of the space of analytically just talking about your widget, your features, and your benefits – you gotta inspire people. Whether your pitching to a new customer, a potential investor, to a potential employee, you got to inspire them to join a movement.” – Dan King
Connect with Dan King:
Website: https://www.firesidestrategic.com/
Try Our Proven, 3-Step System, Guaranteeing Accountability and Transparency that Drives RESULTS by clicking on this link: https://oneofakindsales.com/call-center-in-a-box/
Connect with Nancy Calabrese:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/oneofakindsales
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/One-Of-A-Kind-Sales-304978633264832/
Website: https://oneofakindsales.com
Phone: 908-879-2911
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ncalabrese/
Email: leads@oneofakindsales.com
by Nancy Calabrese | Mar 8, 2022 | Podcast
About Steve Werner: He is the founder of Monetize Your Tribe. He works with business coaches, entrepreneurs, and small business owners by turning their passion into a full time lifestyle through webinars, presentations, and events that change lives. He’s created and held more than 63 sold out events, both live and virtual, for himself and clients, generating more than $2.8 million in sales. As he states, most presentations are snooze-fests and have people checking out in the first 5 minutes, he shows his clients how to stop this and double sales on webinars by teaching 5 core areas that make webinars rein sales. Steve has spoken at Harvard on marketing and presentations and has trained in NLP for one too many presentations.
In this episode, Nancy and Steve discuss:
- How to convert people in person or in webinars
- Building rapport through listening
- Bringing people to your side
- The most effective tool for sales
Key Takeaways:
- It doesn’t matter whether you’re in person, on stage, or in a webinar – if you talk to people and do it well, it will convert to sales.
- By listening to the way somebody talks and echoing that back to them, you can get in rapport with them faster.
- People will more likely go along with you, even if you had a different idea from them if you have rapport.
- Conversation is the most effective tool for sales. Tell stories that will help people see the main pieces, overcome objections, and understand what your product or service does all without overtly selling them anything.
“Your favorite teacher probably taught less but they were more engaging, they were funny, to this day I bet you still remember something that they told you” – Steve Werner
Get Access To Steve’s FREE Webinar Blueprint by clicking here: https://www.deathtobadwebinars.com/
Connect with Steve Werner:
Website: https://www.steven.coffee/coffee
Email: stevenpwerner@gmail.com
Try Our Proven, 3-Step System, Guaranteeing Accountability and Transparency that Drives RESULTS by clicking on this link: https://oneofakindsales.com/call-center-in-a-box/
Connect with Nancy Calabrese:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/oneofakindsales
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/One-Of-A-Kind-Sales-304978633264832/
Website: https://oneofakindsales.com
Phone: 908-879-2911
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ncalabrese/
Email: leads@oneofakindsales.com
