See exactly what causes cold callers to fail before
they even have a chance of success, AND what you should
do instead. 
This Will Get You Rejected
By admin on Jul 25, 2008 in Opening Statements, Prospecting, Unique Value Proposition
Many sales reps look at ads, direct mailing pieces, catalogs, the Internet, or anywhere there’s advertising as sources of prospects.
This is wise. But I find so many of these people ill-prepared for what they inevitably hear on calls.
Here’s an example of what I received.
Caller: “Hello, this is Bill Jones with Video Recorders. I saw the promotion for your Telesales Success DVD videos and we do DVD duplication.”
“Uh-huh.”
He became flustered at this point, probably because I didn’t say, “Oh, you do DVD duplication? Where should I send my master copy; you can do mine.”
“Uh, I ‘d like to talk to you about doing yours.”
“Look I’ll save you some time. I selected my existing company after evaluating quite a few. They have a very good price, quality is fine, and service is great. I have no reason to even consider looking around.”
“Oh, OK. Keep us in mind.”
Yeah, sure.
Analysis and Recommendations
So you might be thinking that I gave this guy an iron-clad objection that was impenetrable. And you’re right for the most part—when it comes to getting a sale on that call. However, he undoubtedly runs into that same objection quite a bit, so I’m surprised he hasn’t learned to use something that won’t totally slam the door so suddenly in his face. Here’s what I would do in his situation:
-Call Strategy and Preparation: If I were placing this call, my Primary Objective would be to get commitment that the prospect would use my service the next time they had a DVD project. Although that wouldn’t be achieved on a majority of the calls, it’s always best to aim high. After realizing on the call this wouldn’t
be reached, objectives in descending order would be: to get commitment that I could at least bid on their next job, and if that wasn’t met, to get agreement that they would at least keep us on file as a back-up supplier in case their existing duplicator for some reason no longer met their needs, or if they had other future projects coming up.
- Preliminary Information: He knew nothing about me when he called. He could have asked the person who answered the phone here about who we now use, how many we typically order, what we pay, and any other
qualifying information which would have better-equipped him for the call.
- Opening Statement: He gave no reason for me to even listen. He may as well just said. “Well, I’ve finally called you, so I guess you can start using us now.”
Simply dialing the phone does not give a person the right to take someone’s time. Promising or hinting at some value they could get does.
I would have listened to this: “I’m Bill Jones with Video Recorders. We specialize in top quality DVD duplication, and now work with quite a few training organizations. Depending on the price you’re now paying and your level
of satisfaction with the quality and service you’re getting, it might be worth it for you to take a look at a bid we could do for you. I’d like to ask a few questions to see if it would be worth your while to talk about it.”
I would have been more likely to answer questions at this point. However, even if I did retort with the same objection mentioned earlier, he could have picked up on it and used it to ask more questions.
For example, “I see. What price are you paying?”
If that resulted in a dead-end, a last resort question to at least try and accomplish the last chance objective would be, “What plans do you have in place for a back-up supplier, if for example, you needed a large quantity in a hurry and your supplier wasn’t able to accommodate you for some reason?”
Determine if parts of your call process are similar to this one. Analyze every step of the process, determine your own strengths and enhance them, and shore up the weak areas.
Let me help you. Download my step-by-step process, along with tons of word-for-word examples that you can use to avoid rejection and get more Yes answers. Check it out at
http://www.businessbyphone.com/HowToPlace.htm
1 Comment(s)
By Bert McKeehen on Sep 7, 2011 | Reply
Art,
Great column today, as usual.
You are so good at expressing ideas maybe you can help sellers like me in a future column?
Here’s what I mean:
I resell computer hardware and software. Our company is like a very small version of Insight or CDW.
An ideal customer is a long-term, repeat buyer who has a special need.
This special need is to have a rep who they rely on heavily like an extension of their IT department. They lean on us to basically make their researching, quoting and ordering seamless, easy and reliably consistent. To earn that we have to be ultra responsive and professional in every sense of the word. And because it is a common denominator with our best clients, we have to have a good emotional connection with them. Almost like doing business with a friend.
We’ve all had the unfortunate experience of dealing with people that seem very detached, bored and uninspired in their interaction with customers. That’s not us. We are fun, friendly and yet very professional in our interaction with our customers.
The problem I have in account entry campaigns is to discover what kind of questions do I ask to uncover if they are the kind of customer that needs that kind of service level and friendly/professional style of service?
Perhaps others share this issue and if you can, please address it in an upcoming column.
Thanks,
Bert McKeehen
Safari Micro