Sales Call Success - Turbo Charge Your Sales Calls

Do you want to be a sales champion? There are a few small secrets that will help you achieve these goals.

Commit to your goals. Write down your sales goals for this week, this month, this quarter and this year. I urge you to use specific numbers that challenge you, but are attainable. Post these goals in your office, commit yourself to meeting or exceeding those numbers. Commitment is the foundation that enables you to proceed with the remaining steps.

Ask involvement questions. Your No. 1 goal is to find the prospects' need and then fill it. Sales champions use their time to find out what potential clients really need. This encompasses two purposes: one that you are interested in helping the prospect; two that you keep them interested in your presentation.

Maximize your time. Many amateurs spend a large percentage of their time prospecting. Sales champions develop systems that maximize their time and enable them to spend time doing what earns them money.

Ask your current clients for referrals as you close the deal, so you're striking while the iron is hot. Ask for referrals from prospects that do not buy from you. It is a simple idea, but it yields great rewards.

Prepare for objections. The most common rejections will be related to time, money, and fear. Fear of rejection is normal for human beings.

Here are a few simple steps for handling objections:

Receive the objection. Allow your prospect to complete his or her train of thought before offering a rebuttal. Never interrupt.

Acknowledge and clarify the objection. Endorse the fact that your prospect has offered a great idea and valid point. Ask some questions to make sure you understand the objection, which also allows the prospect to explain his or her idea completely.

Answer the objection. This is where you address the objection. Many salespeople lose the sale here. Amateurs dance around the issue and usually never get back to asking for the commitment. You need to not only answer the question, but focus on following up with a closing question.

Create a win-win close. Sales champions create value in their product or service to move forward with their proposition.

Here are a few strategies they use to close the deal:

Trial close: Give the client a few choices for moving forward to purchase your product or service.

Assumptive walk-through close: Let me walk you through this so you get a complete understanding of how this is going to work for you.

Then walk your potential client through the steps of your process, getting him or her to visualize a simple, effective means to move forward. Finish with: Most important, if you have any questions, I want you to call me so I can either help you answer them or put you in contact with the right people who can. I want to save you time and money. So please feel free to call me anytime.

Method of payment close: Are you going to use a credit card or check to purchase today?

Give unlimited follow-up: Implement strategies to communicate with your clients regularly so you can build trust, loyalty, and additional selling opportunities. Champions use thank-you cards, emails, voicemail messages, birthday cards, holiday cards, newsletters, and personal phone calls. They stay in touch at least once every three to four weeks. By Derrick Pizur

Get Instant Rapport On Sales Cold Calls

Immediately establish rapport on cold-calls by matching your prospect's voice qualities - tone, pace, and emotion. Matching the emotion, or mood, of your prospect is key. If you begin your call sounding excited when she is not, you will be immediately branded as a salesperson, and the prospect's guard will be way up.

By matching her emotion, you immediately get her thinking "this person is like me". And we all want to talk to people like us. Begin your call with a simple question to verify the prospect's name even though you know who you are calling. This is your first chance to establish rapport.

Let's say that the next name on your prospect list is Dave Jackson:

DJ - "Hello. This is Dave Jackson"

You - "Hello, is this Dave Jackson?"

DJ - "Yes it is."

Repeat his name while matching his voice qualities - tone, pace, and emotion. You ask the name verification question, even though he stated his name, to break his thought pattern.

Then make a judgment about just how busy he is. If the prospect feels receptive go ahead and deliver your attention grabbing intro.

Do not ask if this is a good time to talk. If you do, you will only give him a chance to get rid of you before you have a chance to gain his interest.

If he sounds busy, tell him so, and ask when would be a good time to call back. He will likely ask why you are calling, giving you the perfect opening to deliver your attention grabbing introduction.

By Shamus Brown

3 Simple Rules For Your Next Sales Call

The other day I received a call from a telemarketer selling a website "starter kit" for small businesses. If you are reading this right now, then you undoubtedly know that I have a website. Normally, I would quickly get the telemarketer off the line so I could get back to showing people how to make more money. But this call got my attention because I thought that this might be a potential service that I could recommend to my clients. So I decided to listen to this sales pitch to evaluate the offering and the approach that the telemarketer used.

Well the rep started by going straight into a sales pitch. She was using the age-old technique of trying to complete her benefits-loaded-sales-pitch before I knew what hit me. This technique is very similar to television, radio, or print advertising where if you show your ad to enough people with a pulse, then you will eventually find a few people who actually need the service.

Instead of getting annoyed with the sales rep, I decided to have fun with the call. Once she was done with her somewhat lengthy pitch, I asked her "Do you have any idea what I even want?" Well of course, she did not because she had not asked me a single question. I could tell during her pitch that she was tense by the sound of her voice. So I started to ask her questions about the service. She answered my questions very well. I noticed by her voice that she was getting more relaxed and comfortable by my asking questions of her. I guessed that she likely was thinking that she had a buyer or a hot-prospect on the line.

Once I had asked enough questions, I told the rep that this service was not for me as I already have my own website (through the conversation, she never asked this critical, obvious question). I told her that I would keep her service in mind for clients that might need a website starter kit. I could tell that she was distressed. She tried a final closing attempt on me by pleading "Well, don't you want to at least try it out?" I said "No way - do you have any idea what a pain the a%$ changing web hosting services is?"

Lest you think of me as cruel for wasting this poor sales rep's time, I remind you that as buyers we do this to salespeople everyday when we consider making a purchase. Have you ever asked many questions of a salesperson only to go home, think over the decision, and then never buy the product? Many salespeople and entrepreneurs put up with this behavior from prospects because they exhibit this behavior themselves when making purchases.

QUESTION: Who was in control of the sales call?

ANSWER: The prospect (me).



QUESTION: Why didn't I buy?

ANSWER: Because I had no pain that the service could fulfill.



If the seller had followed these 3 simple rules, she could have been on to the next suspect on her list, instead of wasting 20 minutes on a no-sale conversation:



Ask questions first to find a pain to solve. If no pain, then move one to the next suspect!

Don't give away free consulting. Keep your leverage until you know that the prospect is likely to buy your product or service.

When you find pain, leverage this to make the sale. People will pay a lot of money for the things that they really want.

Too many companies don't invest in the best for their sales-people. They expect you to be already trained in sales or a "natural". Well naturals aren't born, they are made. If your company isn't investing in you, then invest in yourself. People who truly make things happen, are willing to do whatever it takes to get what they want.

By Shamus Brown

7 Cold Calling Secrets Even The Sales Gurus Dont Know

More and more e-mails are arriving in my in-box from people who hate cold calling. Here's what they're saying:

? "Cold calling terrifies me."

? "The phone feels like a 10,000-pound weight."

? "Every time I have to make a cold call, I freeze up."

? "I feel like a fraud when I'm cold calling."

? "I can't take the rejection when I do cold calling. It just kills me."

? "I've gone from top producer to 'hermit' because of my mental brick wall when it comes to cold calling."

Cold calling the old way is a painful struggle.

But you can make it a productive and positive experience by changing your mindset and cold calling the new way.

To show you what I mean, here are 7 tested cold calling ideas that even the sales gurus don't know.

1. Change Your Mental Objective Before You Make the Call

If you're like most people who make cold calls, you're hoping to make a sale -- or at least an appointment -- before you even pick up the phone.

The problem is, the people you call somehow always pick up on your mindset immediately.

They sense that you're focused on your goals and interests, rather than on finding out what they might need or want.

This short-circuits the whole process of communication and trust-building.

Here's the benefit of changing your mental objective before you make the call: it takes away the frenzy of working yourself up mentally to pick up the phone.

All the feelings of rejection and fear come from us getting wrapped up in our expectations and hoping for an outcome when it's premature to even be thinking about an outcome.

So try this. Practice shifting your mental focus to thinking, "When I make this call, I'm going to build a conversation so that a level of trust can emerge allowing us to exchange information back and forth so we can both determine if there's a fit or not."

2. Understand the Mindset of the Person You're Calling

Let's say you're at your office and you're working away.

Your phone rings and someone says, "Hello, my name's Mark. I'm with Financial Solutions International. We offer a broad array of financial solutions. Do you have a few minutes?"

What would go through your mind?

Probably something like this: "Uh-oh, another salesperson. I'm about to be sold something. How fast can I get this person off the phone?"

In other words, it's basically over at "Hello," and you end up rejected.

The moment you use the old cold calling approach -- the traditional pitch about who you are and what you have to offer, which all the sales gurus have been teaching for years -- you trigger the negative "salesperson" stereotype in the mind of the person you've called, and that means immediate rejection.

I call it "The Wall."

The problem is with how you're selling, not what you're selling.

This is an area that's been ignored in the world of selling.

We've all been trained to try to push prospects into a "yes" response on the first call. But that creates sales pressure.

But, if you learn to really understand and put yourself in the mindset of the person you call, you'll find it easier to avoid triggering The Wall.

It's that fear of rejection that makes cold calling so frightening.

Instead, start thinking about language that will engage people and not language that will trigger rejection.

3. Identify a Core Problem That You Can Solve

We've all learned that when we begin a conversation with a prospect, we should talk about ourselves, our product, and our solution. Then we sort of hope that the person connects with what we've just told them. Right?

But when you offer your pitch or your solution without first involving your prospect by talking about a core problem that they might be having, you're talking about yourself, not them.

And that's a problem.

Prospects connect when they feel that you understand their issues before you start to talk about your solutions.

When people feel understood, they don't put up The Wall. They remain open to talking with you.

Here's an example based on my own experience. I offer Unlock The Game? as a new approach in selling. When I call a vice president of sales, I would never start out with, "Hi, my name is Ari, I'm with Unlock The Game, and I offer the newest technique in selling, and I wonder if you have a few minutes to talk now."

Instead, I wouldn't even pick up the phone without first identifying one or more problems that I know VPs often have with their sales teams. Problems that Unlock The Game? can solve.

For example, one common problem is when sales teams and salespeople spend time chasing prospects who have no intention of buying.

So I would start by asking, "Are you grappling with issues around your sales team chasing prospects who lead them on without any intention of buying?"

So, come up with two or three specific core problems that your product or service solves. (Avoid generic problem phrases like "cut costs" or "increase revenue." They're too vague.)

4. Start With a Dialogue, Not a Presentation

Let's return to the goal of a cold call, which is to create a two-way dialogue engaging prospects in a conversation.

We're not trying to set the person up for a yes or no. That's the old way of cold calling.

This new cold calling approach is designed to engage people in a natural conversation. The kind you might have with a friend. This lets you both of you decide whether it's worth your time to pursue the conversation further.

The key here is never to assume beforehand that your prospect should buy what you have to offer, even if they're a 100 percent fit with the profile of the "perfect customer."

If you go into the call with that assumption, prospects will pick up on it and The Wall will go up, no matter how sincere you are.

Avoid assuming anything about making a sale before you make a call.

For one thing, you have no idea whether prospects can buy what you have because you know nothing about their priorities, their decisionmaking process, their budget, etc.

If you assume that you're going to sell them something on that first call, you're setting yourself up for failure. That's the core problem with traditional old-style cold calling.

Stay focused on opening a dialogue and determining if it makes sense to continue the conversation.

5. Start With Your Core Problem Question

Once you know what problems you solve, you also know exactly what to say when you make a call. It's simple. You begin with, "Hi, my name is Ari. Maybe you can help me out for a moment."

How would you respond if someone said that to you?

Probably, "Sure, how can I help you?" or "Sure, what do you need?" That's how most people would respond to a relaxed opening phrase like that. It's a natural reaction.

The thing is, when you ask for help, you're also telling the truth because you don't have any idea whether you can help them or not.

That's why this new approach is based on honesty and truthfulness. That's why you're in a very good place to begin with.

When they reply, "Sure, how can I help you?," you don't respond by launching into a pitch about what you have to offer. Instead, you go right into talking about the core problem to find out whether it's a problem for the prospect.

So you say, "I'm just giving you a call to see if you folks are grappling (and the key word here is 'grappling') with any issues around your sales team chasing prospects who turn out to never have any intention of buying?"

No pitch, no introduction, nothing about me. I just step directly into their world.

The purpose of my question is to open the conversation and develop enough trust so they'll feel comfortable having a conversation.

The old way of cold calling advises asking lots of questions to learn about the prospect's business and to "connect." The problem is that people see right through that. They know that you have an ulterior motive, and then you're right back up against The Wall.

These ideas may be hard for you to apply to your own situation at first because trying to leverage calls based on what we know about our solution is so engrained in our thinking.

If you stay with it, though, you can learn to step out of your own solution and convert it into a problem that you can articulate using your prospects' language.

And that's the secret of building trust on calls. It's the missing link in the whole process of cold calling.

6. Recognize and Diffuse Hidden Pressures

Hidden sales pressures that makes The Wall go up can take a lot of forms.

For example, "enthusiasm " can send the message that you're assuming that what you have is the right fit for the prospect. That can send pressure over the phone to your prospect.

You must be able to engage people in a natural conversation. Think of it as calling a friend. Let your voice be natural, calm, relaxed?easy-going. If you show enthusiasm on your initial call, you'll probably trigger the hidden sales pressure that triggers your prospect to reject you.

Another element of hidden pressure is trying to control the call and move it to a "next step".

The moment you begin trying to direct your prospect into your "sales process ", there is a very high likelihood that you can "turn off" your prospect's willingness to share with you the details of their situation.

It's important to allow the conversation to evolve naturally and to have milestones or checkpoints throughout your call so you can assess if there is a fit between you and the person you are speaking with.

7. Determine a Fit

Now, suppose that you're on a call and it's going well, with good dialogue going back and forth. You're reaching a natural conclusion?and what happens?

In the old way of cold calling, we panic. We feel we're going to lose the opportunity, so we try to close the sale or at least to book an appointment. But this puts pressure on the prospect, and you run the risk of The Wall going up again.

Here's a step that most people miss when they cold call. As soon as they realize that prospects have a need for their solution, they start thinking, "Great, that means they're interested."

What they don't ask is, "Is this need a top priority for you or your organization to solve, or is it something that's on the back burner for a while?"

In other words, even if you both determine that there ia a problem you can solve, you have to ask whether solving it is a priority. Sometimes there's no budget, or it isn't the right time. It's important that you find this out, because months later you'll regret not knowing this earlier.

Putting the Pieces Together

Have you ever wondered where the "numbers game" concept came from?

It came from someone making a call, getting rejected, and the boss saying, "Call someone else."

But with the new way of cold calling, it's not about how many people you call. It's about what you say and how you come across.

Do you remember the definition of insanity-continuing to do the same thing but expecting different results?

If you go on using the same old cold calling methods, you'll go on experiencing the ever-increasing pain of selling.

But if you adopt a new approach and learn how to remove pressure from your initial cold calls, you'll experience so much success and satisfaction that it'll really change the way you do business, bring you sales success beyond your imagination-and eliminate "rejection" from your vocabulary for good.

With a Masters Degree in Instructional Design and over a decade of experience creating breakthrough sales strategies for global companies such as UPS and QUALCOMM, Ari Galper discovered the missing link that people who sell have been seeking for years.

His profound discovery of shifting one's mindset to a place of complete integrity, based on new words and phrases grounded in sincerity, has earned him distinction as the world's leading authority on how to build trust in the world of selling.

Telemarketers May Have Ruined Everything

I had to really look at things a little different when I started calling people. Now I am not a telemarketer. I call people only when they request it.

The problem is, they usually don't remember filling out the form or they don't remember why I am calling. Most of the time, I get polite people but on occasions, it's pure hell.

It's like these people should think that their phone is off limits to everyone. I even got some people filling out my form with the name "who Cares". What kind of a name is that. How am I suppose to reply to that?

Simply put, I just deny getting letters like that. To be in marketing, you sometimes have to have thick skin. I am not one with so thick of skin. I really get my feeling hurt. When my feelings get hurt, my anger shows.

People are looking for an opportunity and fill out your form asking you to call them and when you do, it's like they were waiting or better yet daring you to call. When you get them, it's always at the most inconvenient time. Did they forget that they told you the best time to call.

One lady told me that it's never a good time to call but call anyway. How do you approach this situation. You can bet, I didn't waste my time with her. I think you are getting the picture here.

Now, I really had to think about myself here. When my phone rings, what am I thinking about? I am sure telemarketers have gotten to the most of us. I really hate it. I get called 2 to 3 times a week for donations, sweepstakes, or some kind of gimmick and to be quite honest, since I am in marketing myself, my own phone number is on my web site.

Even though I belong to the no call list, people still call.

What can you do about it? Nothing. Why? Usually they don't have caller Id show up. That is the bad thing. You would think that caller ID would work in reverse of the way it does.

Caller ID should show up for the people you don't know so that you can decide whether to answer or not. Instead, you have to answer those calls to find out it isn't anything important.

Are you ready for the good news. Whether you hate calling people or not, you still get more people saying yes by this approach than simply emailing them.

I know it's tough to put all your feeling behind you and call that next SOB, but sometimes you really do meet some fantastic people.

If you get that SOB, that just happens to be drunk or suppose you just woke him up, then hey, hang up and go to the next client. Just do it.

Your going to hear all kinds of stories. I even felt sorry for people. Remember, this is your job. Turn things around. Suppose you were going to get fired if you did not make a certain amount of calls per day. I assure you, you would call. It is a matter of keeping food on your table for your children or living on the street.

I have an alternative for you if you just cannot find yourself calling people. Hire it done. Yep. Hire a student that needs to make extra money. Place an ad in the newspaper and have them call everyone you choose and pay them per call or by the hour. Tell them to learn the script and pay them. Simple huh.

Still can't find a way to call people. Don't give up. It's a lot harder but you can try having them call you. I doubt most of them will. However, some will. Instead of your ad asking them to fill out a form, ask them to call a number and you make sure you answer it.

"Just Straight Shooting"

By Randall Stafford

Closing That Big Sale With Conference Calling

So you're in business. Whether it is micro, small, medium, or enterprise; you know the one key element you need to succeed in your business ? sales.

Now, you have studied and learned many practices on succeeding in your arena, but there may be something still overlooked. You most undoubtedly have strained to learn every technique possible to gain the competitive advantage for ultimate return on your investment. What you may be missing out on is what you use to communicate during your sales process, more specifically; what communication products you currently use to implement your suave techniques of sale persuasion.

Recently a client in Florida phoned me requesting a way to consult with a large potential client and his peers overseas in Africa via telephone. He was a well traveled business man and was used to flying over to leads himself, but he thought he might try something new, something with less overhead; after all, it was still just a potential client. Well that request was a no brainer for me when I talked to him. I automatically suggested conference calling.

He was a little skeptical of using conference calling in place of face to face until I mentioned one of the conference calling services we offered. Being he had many international business leads and clients I mentioned CogniConference which offers toll-free conference calling from over 50 countries. He saw the opportunity the service presented and signed up right after we hung up with one another.

It was only two weeks later that he called our office to rave how wonderful the service was, and how if it wasn't for the international conference calling he would have never closed the Africa based client, a 4.5 million dollar deal! Expenses totaled under $200.00, a fraction of the cost of just one plane ticket alone.

How exactly did conference calling help save the day? Well, beyond increasing ROI and reducing CPL (Cost Per Lead) by saving on travel and lodging expenses, he leveraged a telecommunications product to warm up his potential client that ultimately closed the multi million dollar deal. He showed them that they were important enough to be given a free way to discuss business with his company across the entire globe. Needless to say, to this day he uses conference calling for his international leads.

Not in all cases, but in many, it is the options your leads and clients have to contact you that can make or break the initial beginning of a sales process. To convey you care about your client and not just their business may not always be as simple as using a communications service, but there are many services out there that can provide the additional morale boost and incentive your clients may need to get into their comfort buying zone.

An example where you might not want to offer toll free conferencing might be if your business is MLM or Network Marketing. Example: Perhaps your offer is good and was advertised well .You might not be interested in paying more money just for the curious. In other words you might want to only attract the "serious ready to go" individuals. The use of a non toll free conferencing solution might make the better option. You're saying to your leads, "I am giving you an opportunity to learn more about this offer in a group environment, but I need to see your level of dedication." That level of dedication being the willingness to pay a little out of their own pocket to learn more about your opportunity. It can be a great prescreening tool on who will be effective in the future for your marketing team.

All in all, information is key in virtually all sales processes. Conference calling gives you the ability to get all of your knowledgeable personnel in on the sales call to get questions answered at the most vital point of contact. You may only get one chance to prove your case to win over that client and the voice conversation is your biggest chance over most any other method to win that prized sale. The personal approach is a big winner, ask any successful salesperson and they will agree.

Conferencing is the one tool specified in this article, but of course, it isn't the one and only solution. You might just need an unlimited long distance calling plan to do cold calling. Maybe you need a catchy 800 number for advertising and taking in leads. Perhaps you need toll free forwarding to spare your potential client the hassle of leaving a message and playing phone tag. Whatever it is, you might just realize that telecommunications is very much apart of your selling process as is your breath to carry your voice. Be creative in meeting the needs of those who may become your customers as well as in reducing the costs to do so.

In closing, the lesson is very general here aside from conference calling benefits. How do you want your company viewed in the eyes of your future clients? Whether it's how you're dressed or what joke you use, be thoughtful of customers needs in advance and plan ahead to leverage your selling power, because as you already know ? selling is business.

This article was written by Aaron Siegel of TopSavings.Net which provides online consultive services for communications for home and business.

Control Your Sales Calls From The Start

Sales calls that you control are what all salespeople want. I am a big believer that questioning is the most important skill for sales professionals. In order to stay in control of your sales calls, whether by phone or in person, you need to be the one asking questions most of the time.

To be the one asking questions most of the time, you have to get to questioning right from the start of your sales calls. This issue's tip is about how to make this transition quickly with finesse, whether you are calling by phone or are in person.

To accomplish this, you will need to eliminate beginning your sales calls with long-winded "presentations" about your company. This may seem counter-intuitive. You may have reasoned that your prospect doesn't know who you are, and needs your introductory "presentation" as background for a sales discussion.

Although this is the mode many of us are used to, the reality is different. If you politely give your customer a valid business reason for you to ask questions from the start, you will find that virtually all of your customers will let you do this. You will then be able to spend most of your valuable time investigating what your customer wants and needs.

OK so here's how you do this. Once your sales calls have started and you have established rapport, you say something like the following:

"Mr. Jones, I am with XYZ Company, and we help companies to [insert your benefit here]. What I would like to do today is ask you a few questions to see if it makes sense for our companies to do business together. How does that sound to you?" You can modify the above to your own style, but let me first show you what makes this opening work. In reverse order, you are asking permission to ask questions, you are stating that your purpose is to see if it makes sense to do business together, and you are suggesting a common benefit of doing business with your company.

By asking permission to ask questions, you establish the format of your sales calls, and put yourself firmly in charge. In stating that you want to see if it makes sense to do business together, you are saying that this is a mutual decision, and that you aren't just out to sell them something that they may not need. By suggesting a common benefit of doing business with you, you are giving a prospect, who may not know much about you, a reason to continue with the sales call.

Until a prospect has decided that you understand their business problems, a simple benefit of doing business with you suffices to get your sales calls started. If your company is a known quantity in your market or to your prospect, you can skip the benefit completely as the prospect already has a reason and context for the discussion.

There's no need for long-winded openers on your sales calls.

By Shamus Brown