Tag Archives: Prospecting

Can Salespeople Be Replaced by AI?

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“Can salespeople be replaced by AI in five years?”  That was the topic of the poll on LinkedIn.  My instinctive reaction was probably the same as yours – “Of course not.”  Then, I did a little thinking before I answered.  And I realized that, yes, a lot of salespeople could be replaced by AI – not in five years, but RIGHT NOW.  That’s because their skills aren’t really any better than your basic chatbot – and therein lies a problem for those of us who care deeply about the role of the professional salesperson.

In 2011, Selling Power Magazine interviewed me as part of a cover story on the future of selling.  I’ve always thought of myself as a very forward-looking person when it comes to our profession – but boy, was my crystal ball broken when I gave my responses to their questions, and I realized this when I looked back at the article.  If you click, you’re going to read a pretty long article, but if you care at all about the sales profession and your role in it, you’d better click.  I’ve written over 600 articles on selling and this might be the most important.

Here’s what I said.  In response to a question about what the future of the sales profession looked like, I said, “Midline salespeople of tomorrow will be displaying the same level of expertise ten to fifteen years from now that the superstars display today, and the superstars will be on a whole new level.  Staying on top will require a higher level of mental commitment.”

I was wrong, but I should have been right.  I’ve written about this before, but if anything, the aggregate level of sales ability has declined somewhat in the twelve years since I made those comments.  That’s because most salespeople of today spend less time and energy developing their skills.  They find a level and stick to it.  Midline salespeople are, at best, no better than they were in 2011.  Some of the responsibility for this rests on the salespeople themselves, and much of it rests on CEOS and sales managers who don’t foster a culture of continual sales skill development. Are there exceptions?  Yes.  Absolutely – I’ve encountered some remarkable salespeople (although I don’t think that “whole new level” has happened).  But they are exceptions.  By and large, the aggregate sales skills at each level have remained constant.

When I was asked how the Internet is changing the game, I said, “The Internet can take orders and distribute content [thus taking up functions once designated to salespeople], but what it can’t do it discover customer needs.  It can’t build relationships, and it can’t prospect on its own.”  Well, I was wrong about that one, too.  AI bots can do a rudimentary job of discovering customer needs at present, and that will only get better as time and technology marches on.

What about the other two components of what I said – relationship building and prospecting?  Obviously, AI cannot build a true, interpersonal, face to face relationship.  However, AI can do an excellent job of REMEMBERING what was said and has transpired (because it can feed directly into CRM systems) and from a business perspective, it can make excellent use of a customer’s time.  That’s a threat to, but not a replacement for, traditional sales relationship building.

Can AI prospect?  That’s a tantalizing thought, isn’t it?  Most salespeople dislike prospecting (full disclosure – I’ve never been in love with it myself).  I can envision a time when an AI bot is able to prospect through email, LinkedIn, and even the telephone.  In fact, the technology for email and social media is already here, and I’m willing to bet that if the phone prospecting tech doesn’t exist yet, it will shortly.  Imagine an AI bot that dials a prospect, engages in a voice to voice conversation using prospecting and sales best practices, and even sets appointments.  Heck, take it a step further and imagine it doing so in the same voice as the real salesperson who would handle the live appointment.  Or how about an AI bot that sets Zoom sales appointments and then carries them out in a hologram?  This kind of thing would have been science fiction five years ago – now it’s a coming reality.

Don’t misunderstand me – I still think that a well-trained, skilled, passionate, and engaged salespeople can do all of those things BETTER – but too many salespeople are not well-trained, skilled, passionate, and engaged.

Now that I’ve told you two areas where I was wrong, allow me to tell you one area where I was right – or will be soon.  When asked, “How do salespeople keep social media from being the tail that wags the dog?” I responded, “Social networking is a strategy for marketing promotions and relationship management.  It is not a prospecting tool [OK, I was a little wrong about that]. A lot of those functions are going to slide down to the lowest-paid person who is competent to do them.”  Given the level to which AI apps like ChatGPT write social media posts, I was right on target – ChatGPT is definitely cheaper than even an administrative person.

Where I went wrong, I went wrong for two reasons.  First, I anticipated a higher level of sales skill development on the part of the average salesperson.  Second, I didn’t see AI coming.  Shame on me.  Apps like ChatGPT have the capability of being game-changers, and they also have the capability of being harnessed (by skilled salespeople and managers) to increase the effectiveness of a company’s sales force.

How to avoid being replaced by AI

So if the answer to “Can salespeople be replaced by AI?” is “yes, it’s very possible,” then the question for we human salespeople is, “How can we avoid being replaced by AI?”  Here’s where the wicket gets sticky, because this requires some serious engagement and effort on our part.  Here’s a three-point plan.

  1. Get better at your job. The key for salespeople in this environment is to constantly learn, develop, add new skills, and shed old techniques that aren’t working anymore.  Unfortunately, few salespeople do this.  When I interview salespeople on behalf of my clients, I always ask, “What’s the most recent sales book you’ve read?”  Ten years ago, I got a good answer more than half the time.  Today, it’s rare that I get one at all – in fact, about half of the salespeople I interview have never read a book on selling.  When I ask a follow up question about how they develop their skills, they answer that they really don’t.  Sales is a profession of constant change and constant development, and if you don’t care enough about your profession to get better at it, you are replaceable.  Don’t be that guy or gal.  Invest in yourself.  Read books.  Read articles.  Watch YouTube videos.  Attend training programs.  And then practice, practice, practice.  Next week we’ll talk about what it really means to practice and learn sales techniques. Get better and do better.
  2. Embrace technology. Yes, this article is partially telling you how to combat a new technology, but those who do not embrace it will find themselves steamrolled by it.  I’m constantly amazed when I see salespeople (and worse, sales trainers) fighting the use of tech like CRM.  I have actually seen a “sales trainer” recommending that salespeople ditch the CRM and instead use paper note cards.  The 1990s called, and they would like their mentality back!  Today, salespeople must embrace and use tech of all types.  CRM, social media, video conferencing, and IM’s are all tech that salespeople should not only be conversant with, but competent in.  Not only that, you should be ready and anticipating the next trend.  There’s a reason that I refer to “AI” in this article for the most part, and not “ChatGPT.”  ChatGPT is but one AI app, and who knows whether it will be the most prominent in five years?  Remember MySpace?
  3. Flip the script. We always like to think about the “Sales process,” and what we want from the process and what activities we will be performing to get there. I want to challenge you, and I’m taking this challenge myself.  Stop thinking about “Sales processes” and instead think of the “buyer’s journey.”  Think about the act of selling from the perspective of the person buying, evaluate the steps from the buyer’s point of view, and work to help them achieve what they want.  It’s a change in thought and terminology, and as 2023 progresses, I’ll be helping you get there with articles, videos, and even training.

Make no mistake about my outlook.  A great salesperson will always be better than AI.  A good salesperson will always be at least as good as great AI.  I’m a 100% passionate advocate for personal selling by human beings to human customers.  If I sound pessimistic in this article, it’s because I’m concerned.  But as I said, I’m here to help, and I’ll be doing so through the Navigator and through my YouTube channel.  If you’re a salesperson, start reading, watching, and practicing.  In the coming weeks, we’ll talk about how to practice and about how to view sales from the perspective of the buyer.

And if you’re a business owner or sales manager, I can help you, too.  In addition to the free resources above, I can train your salespeople to be irreplaceable.  I can help you hire great salespeople.  And I can coach you to manage the very best sales team in your market.

The future might look spooky, but it doesn’t have to be.  This is another challenge to our profession, and we can and will overcome it and be better and more valuable to our customers than ever before.

The Four Decisions Every Buyer Makes

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Sometimes I think we make selling entirely too complicated – and by “we,” I mean my profession of sales authors and trainers.  Sure, selling can be difficult.  That’s why they pay us the big bucks.  We’re dealing with people and trying to persuade them, and that’s always a challenge.  Still, why make the sale more complicated and cumbersome than it has to be?

The truth is that, boiled down to its elements, every sale consists of a prospective or current customer making four decisions.  The trick is that there’s no gray area – every decision must be in your favor, or you won’t win the sale.  Here they are:

Decision One:  The decision to engage with you.  Yep, the first decision that your customer makes is the decision to talk to you – or to engage with you, if you prefer that terminology (and I do; “engagement” implies a two-way street).  If you can’t get an audience with your customer, you can’t sell them.  Yes, you can receive an order from someone who doesn’t talk to you (technology these days is wonderful), but you won’t have an opportunity to persuade or affect the outcome of that decision.  This means that your approach to them MUST communicate the value of a conversation with you.  In fact, in most cases, that’s all you should be shooting for; by trying to sell more than the simple value of the conversation, you can get neither.

Decision Two:  The decision that you can solve their need(s).  Every customer has needs.  Your ability to discover their needs, and then solve them, is the key to getting a “yes” at this stage of the sales process.  That means that, first and foremost, you must ask copious amounts of questions.  Even if you THINK you know what the buyer needs, you don’t KNOW until you ask them.  Ultimately, you must know how the BUYER will define a successful purchase.  Not how you define it, not how most of your other customers define it, not how your boss says it’s defined, but how the buyer defines it.  Without knowing how the buyer will define a successful work, everything else is just guesswork – and guesswork rarely wins sales.

Once you know their needs and how they define success, two burdens are placed upon you.  The first burden is this – if your offerings do not and cannot solve the buyer’s needs, and meet their definition of success, you must bow out.  This is the only way to retain your (and your company’s) professional credibility.  Yes, I know, there’s nothing more painful than walking away from potential dollars – but would you rather collect the dollars by hammering someone into a bad purchase, and then live with the failure?  Walking away early means that you live to sell another day when your solution fits; making a bad sale means that you are forever disqualified.   Even pushing a solution when your buyer knows it’s not a solution can forever disqualify you.

The second burden is that, if your solution does meet the buyer’s needs and definition of success, your presentation must be specifically and intimately tailored to those exact needs and definition.  This is harder than it sounds, as sometimes (many times) you have to develop a presentation on the spot.  Salespeople can get into the “sell sheet” or “slide deck” mentality that says, “I have all this great information, and I have to get it all out,” even when the customer doesn’t care about all the information.  If I go to the doctor for a sore shoulder and he gives me a pill that will fix it (I know that’s not a real thing, but work with me here), I don’t care that it will also solve a sore throat because I don’t HAVE a sore throat.  When presenting, present specifically to the customer’s needs.  Hit the points hard and often that are meaningful and leave out information that is meaningless.  If you execute these steps correctly, your buyer will make the second critical decision – that you can solve needs – and move you to the next step of the process.

Decision Three:  The decision that your solution represents good value.  If your buyer is interested, he/she is probably going to say, “Okay, how much?”  At this point (or as soon after as you can), you offer a proposal with price and terms.  Your buyer is then going to evaluate your offering and basically ask themselves whether it’s a good spend of money, time, and resources, or not, and make their third decision.  If you’ve asked enough questions about priorities, needs, and the impact of solving those needs, you should already be 80% toward the answer to this question. Still, we sell to human beings, and those human beings can be somewhat unpredictable.

Decision Four:  The decision to buy from you.  “But wait, Troy, isn’t the decision that you represent good value also a decision to buy?” Nope.  Not in the slightest.  This is where variables outside of your control come into play.  Sometimes your solution is a good spend for the department you’re selling to – but corporate priorities dictate that resources go in a different direction.  Or, the timing just isn’t right (maybe they have other projects going on that require the attention and resources that would otherwise be devoted to yours).  In any case, you can have the greatest solution to a big problem, priced right, and still not win the sale because some externality is blocking you.  Your best strategy here is, back when you’re doing the questioning, to ask questions about overall company priorities, ongoing projects, etc.  Sometimes you can sell against those priorities if you know about them – but final decision time is too late to ask or sell against it.

Here’s what you need to know.  All of these decisions MUST go in your favor, and each one qualifies you to move to the next step.  Fail any one and you will not win the sale, even if your buyer “allows” you to keep selling (by offering a price that won’t result in a sale, for instance).

What Does It Mean to ‘Invest In Yourself?’

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I’ve talked a lot in this space about salespeople and their tendency to not invest in themselves and their own productivity.  I’m constantly amazed at the fact that, despite sales being one of the highest-paid professions, most salespeople won’t spend $20 on a book to build their skills.  Let’s get beyond that, though, and let’s discuss real and genuine investment.  Let me tell you about Dave.

Dave is a salesperson for an office supply company in the Midwest.  In fact, Dave is, and was, the company’s top salesperson.  Six years ago, Dave had a problem.  He was topped out.  His territory was strong and he was making decent money, and he had a strong and stable customer base.  Most salespeople, at this point, would have gone into “coast and collect” mode.  Those salespeople would have watched that huge base of business decline over a period of years, too, but that’s beside the point of this story.

One of Dave’s attributes is that he is very good at self-analysis.  When Dave analyzed himself as a salesperson, he new very clearly that he had one primary strength.  Dave is that rarest of salespeople.  He’s a pure “hunter.”  Dave is at his best when he’s chasing, presenting and winning, new business. Dave is like a seasoned thoroughbred racehorse.  On the other hand Dave recognized his primary weakness: He not a Farmer. Account management is neither his favorite part of selling, nor his top skill set.  Dave still wanted to grow his territory.  But all those hard-won accounts were now monopolizing his time, so how would he do it? He was at a greater risk of losing many of those hard earned accounts because he couldn’t keep up with the daily administration.

Dave did what a lot of salespeople would do first.  He went to management and asked about getting a skilled inside account manager to augment his efforts.  Management, looking at dollars and cents, and felt it wasn’t in the budget. So, this is where Dave got creative.  A couple of offices down sat another salesperson named Karen.  Karen had been with the company for just a few years, and Dave had noticed that Karen was a very gifted administrator, and that cold calling and knocking on doors was not her primary strength.

Dave approached Karen to see if she might be interested in making a shift in her responsibilities and becoming the inside account manager for the new Dave/Karen account management team. Dave would be the knock-on-door-cold-calling machine and Karen would take over the admin side. As Dave would say “I will Kill ‘em, Karen will Grill ‘em”. (NOTE – no actual customers were harmed in the making of this sales success story.) Dave figured that he and Karen, both using their specific skill sets and talents, would be a dynamic sales machine.

To make this work, Dave and Karen would merge their businesses into one territory. Dave then gave up part of his own compensation to increase Karen’s earnings. From that point on as the business grew, both Dave and Karen would benefit financially with continual account growth.  The company’s ownership, to their credit, allowed this innovation.  Thus, Dave and Karen determined that focusing their own individual strengths could catapult them to greater success and higher earnings.

If you’re waiting for me to tell you how the story went wrong, you’re going to be waiting a long time.  It’s been a rousing success.  Six years later, Dave’s territory (remember, already the company’s largest), now the Dave/Karen team’s, has grown over 260%.  This unique team approach has been wildly successful.  By far and away they are the top producers for the company in terms of sales revenue, gross profit, new account acquisition, customer retention and customer satisfaction.

Dave acknowledges that there is no doubt that Karen, with her inside account management gifts, is a heroine in her own right.  Not only does she retain accounts, but she also helps to grow those existing accounts.  The team of Dave and Karen could be a prototype for sales success.  What makes it work?  Let’s ask Dave.

“For us,” he says, “It was really about capturing and combining both of our unique talents, giftings and personality traits. It was also about completely honest in recognizing areas of ‘less than’ qualities. I’m good at certain parts of selling, and so is Karen. Between the two of us, we add up to a great sales team.” Dave says that it’s New Sales Math… One plus One equals Six. “Since both of us are working in our personal talent zone, we are motivated and happy. Yes, did I say happy. Ultimately it translates to having happy satisfied customers that notice a significant difference in their perception of our company, the services we offer, and most importantly how they are treated by Karen and myself. I’m sure you have heard the saying about marriage; Happy Wife, Happy Life. Well, Happy Customer, Happy Commission Check.”

This, Dave thinks, can be or should be a model for other salespeople and companies.  He’s probably right.

I believe that many company managers and sales people won’t take the risk or make the personal financial investment to see if they can multiply their output. If you have a territory that’s reached its practical limit in terms of productivity, maybe it’s time to think out-of-the-box like Dave and Karen.  Dave reminded me that Henry Ford’s greatest invention wasn’t the Model T automobile, it was the assembly line. Instead of building cars one at a time, as before, Ford subdivided the responsibilities with people using their greatest gifts and proficiencies and produce a thousand automobiles a day.

Here are the issues as I see them.

In any company, the sales role essentially consists of three elements:

  1. New account selling – prospecting, needs analysis, presenting, proposing, closing. This all falls under the umbrella of “Acquisition” selling.
  2. Driving growth in existing accounts through upselling, cross-selling, etc. I refer to this as “Development” selling.
  3. Retaining existing accounts through relationship development. This is “Retention” selling.

Let’s be honest.  Few salespeople – even superstars – are superstars at all of those elements.  I would bet that at least 80% of all salespeople would welcome the opportunity to sub out parts of the sales process that are not their favorites.  For instance, I’d guess that somewhere around half of salespeople would gladly get rid of prospecting if they could.

Many of those salespeople will, in fact, request to offload parts of the sales responsibility.  Even in companies where there’s only one salesperson, I’ll hear comments that ‘if the company would just get someone to set my appointments for me, I’d be so much more successful,’ etc.

What separates Dave from nearly all of those salespeople is his willingness to put his own skin in the game.  Dave didn’t just ask for an account manager – he volunteered part of his own compensation to make it happen.  In doing so, he was betting on himself.  Dave’s bet was that the money he gave up to pay Karen would more than be repaid back to him through growth in his sales territory.   Seeing the results, it’s hard to argue with him.

Should you go down the Dave road?  That depends.  First of all, you have to make a good self analysis.  What are you good at, and what are you not good at?  That’s the easy part.

Second, you have to gain an understanding of what it will really take, compensation-wise, to provide the parts of the sales process that you wish to offload.

Third – and this is the painful part – you must then be willing to invest in yourself, as Dave did, to make it happen.  Don’t get me wrong, if you can get management to provide the resource at no cost to you, more power to you!  But for most of us, that money has to come from somewhere – is it going to be you?

Fourth and finally – this is not a fix for failure.  I wouldn’t advise any business owner, sales manager, or salesperson to try to ‘save’ a failing salesperson with this model.  This model worked precisely because both parties were successful – Dave at winning new business, and Karen at retaining and developing.

Dave believes that this could be, and should be, a new model for selling.  I think he could be right – IF salespeople are willing to put their own skin in the game.  Whether that’s you is up to each of you to answer.

Four Prospecting Approaches That Work

The Navigator News

Have you ever had one of those moments where you just couldn’t stop yourself? I did this week. A salesperson called me and said in a bored voice, “Hello, Mr. Harrison, I’m xxxxxx and I would like to talk to you about your Web presence.” I couldn’t help it. I said, “Is that really the best you’ve got?” Suddenly I had his attention. “Wha…..what do you mean?” I said, “I mean, is that the best prospecting approach you can come up with? You’ve bored me and it sounds like you’ve even bored yourself.” He hung up on me.

Too bad, because it was a real question. I’d love to know if he has a lot of success with that approach. I’m guessing that he doesn’t, that he hates prospecting, and that he constantly rails about how “prospecting doesn’t work.” I hear it all the time. The truth is that most salespeople don’t have success at prospecting – because they half-ass the calls, and a lack of succes becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. It doesn’t have to be that way. Building a quality prospecting approach line doesn’t take that much time, and there are four good ways to construct one:

The “Everyone Else Around You Does It” approach: This one works really well when you have a commanding (or at least decent) market share in a given market sector or geographic region. It’s based on one of the Principles of Persuasion: people like to be in crowds. It works something like this: “Hi, Mr. Customer. I’m xxxxx. We’ve been helping your neighbors like Company X and Company Y grow their Web hits, and I bet we could help you, too. Would you be open to that conversation?”

Notice the difference between the “I want to talk about” and this.   By naming a couple of names (with their permission, of course, preferably backed by a testimonial if someone should ask), you establish credibility and commonality – which are two big barriers to a quality sales conversation.

The “We’ve Got Something New” approach: People love new things. They may not want to BUY new things, unless they’re early adopters – but they love to KNOW about new things. Remember, in prospecting, all you’re trying to do is to get a conversation, and this approach can be a great hinge to getting a conversation going. “Hi, Mr. Customer, this is xxxxxx. We’ve just introduced a great new technology for reducing your operating costs while at the same time improving product output by 15%. I’d like to have the opportunity to show it to you. Could we schedule a time?”

This is completely different from the “Everyone does it” approach. In fact, you didn’t make a claim that anyone was using it, yet, and it’s possible that your customer could be the very first (and if they are early adopters, this in and of itself could be the means to the sale). In this approach, it’s important to remember that it’s not enough just to have something NEW. You have to be able to quote benefits of adopting the new item, process, or technology (reducing operating costs and improving product output). If you can quote numbers, do, but again, make sure that they are backed up with case studies.

The “I Know Something You Don’t” approach: This one can be a bit related to the first. Businesspeople – especially top managers – like to think that they know everything. They don’t, of course, but they want to know everything in their domain. This approach opens the door to the idea that there’s something very important that they don’t know, and that the only way to get that knowledge is to talk to you. It works like this:

“Hi, Mr. Customer, this is xxxxxx. In the past couple of years of working with companies in your industry (or area, etc.), we’ve made an important discovery that can mean double-digit profit growth. I’d like to share it with you, but I can only do that face to face. Could we meet?” This one can be a bit tricky, because customers will always ask what it is. You have to be willing to stick to your guns and not tell them over the phone, or perhaps only give a tidbit. Here’s the key – when you meet, you MUST bring the goods. Whatever you are communicating must not be commonly known, important, and really generate the results.

The “I Might Be Able To Help” approach: “Help” is one of the most powerful words in the English language. Asking for help – or offering it – taps into something very deep in the human psyche, and it makes us more disposed to focusing on what the person is asking or offering. “Help” can also position you with a certain amount of expertise. In all honesty, this approach works best when you’re flying a bit blind into the call. Let’s take a look at our hapless Website salesperson earlier.

“Hi, Mr. Harrison, this is xxxxx. I might be able to help you improve your Web hits and greatly improve your lead conversion rates. How do you feel about the current performance of your website?” Notice the differences? First of all, the salesperson gave me two big potential benefits. He didn’t claim that he KNEW he could do these things (that would be a lie) but he opened the door. Second – and this is vital on the ‘might be able to help’ approach – he followed the statement with a good open ended question about how I felt about the performance of my site. This would stimulate a conversation that might expose a need, which can then serve as a hinge to get an appointment.

So, which one of these is best? All of them. Or none of them. It’s not about a one size fits all approach, and in sales, nothing works every time – it’s all about improving your percentages. Pick the one that best fits your situation, tailor it to you, and then deliver it with passion – and you will succeed in prospecting.

Another Way to Screw Up a Cold Call

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Cold calls have been on my mind again this week. There are several reasons for that. First of all, I received one a couple of days ago that had the classic “first three ways to kill a cold call.” Then, soon after, I received an email from a regular reader of the Navigator, and one of the things she said was this:

“At some time in a future weekly newsletter….would you mind talking about a sales person who won’t shut up?  This guy wouldn’t allow me to get out one full sentence of response without cutting me off.   Wouldn’t stop the sales pitch, even after I told him that for the most part, the services he was offering we didn’t need, but was very interested in one service.  Told him to get me info on that particular service and would sit down and talk with the owner about scheduling a meeting.  At that point, he went right back in to the overall sales pitch of all the services he had to offer again, and wouldn’t shut up even when I told him this wasn’t the most convenient time to talk and for a fact am on a deadline today.  He simply wouldn’t SHUT UP!  I finally had to abruptly end the call, of which he may have thought rude, but don’t care.”

Well, your wish is my command. Let’s go into the call I received, and then let’s talk about the call she received. We’ll figure out how to solve all of these issues together.

The call I received was a classic. I answered the phone, “Troy Harrison speaking.” If you call me, and I am able to pick up, that’s what you’ll hear. No “Dial 1 for,” or a receptionist – you’ll hear my voice ready to talk about sales. Sadly, I didn’t hear someone ready to talk about sales. Instead, I got a few seconds of silence – long enough to know that I had just been auto-dialed, and someone was about to pick up on the other end. I hate auto-dialers. If you use them, stop it.

Then, the woman on the other end said, “May I speak to Troy, please?” Good grief. Of course, since it was an auto-dialer, she didn’t hear that she was already talking to me. Now I know it’s a salesperson, and a bad one, but she was about to lock that description in. I replied, “You already are.”

“Hi, Troy. How are you today?” If you’re looking for the all-time dumb, moronic, time wasting, defense building, way to kill a cold call, this is it. There is only one type of person who says, “How are you today?” to someone they don’t know, and that’s a pesky, not well trained salesperson who can’t think of anything good to say, but thinks they are building some cheap rapport.

I sighed and said, “What can I help you with?” And she started into a spiel about some investment opportunity. I didn’t hear the end of it.

When you call someone, attempting to gain their interest in seeing you, talking to you, or buying from you, you have to give them a reason to talk to you without giving them reasons to put up their defenses. When people answer the phone, their defenses are typically down because they don’t know what the call is about. It could be a customer, a friend, a relative, or a salesperson. Your job is to give them a reason to talk to you while their defenses are down, because if you give them time and reason to put up their defenses, it’s much harder for your value message to get through. Look at the 20 seconds of the call I just described. She gave me three reasons to put up my defensese before she ever began a value message: The obvious auto-dialer, asking for me when I already said it was me (showing me that she wasn’t listening to whoever answered the phone), and then the obnoxious “How are you today?” Her call was DOA.

Now, let’s look at the different type of call that my friend wrote me to discuss. This call was not DOA. In fact, it was very much alive until the salesperson killed the call. Here are some of the things that my friend said:

“This guy wouldn’t allow me to get out one full sentence of response without cutting me off.” That’s a hallmark of a pre-scripted sales pitch. Worse, it’s the hallmark of just plain bad manners. When your customer or prospect is talking, words are coming out of their mouth – and those words could be important. Shut up and listen, even if it’s not taking you down your pre-scripted path. Sometimes customers don’t know their lines because they haven’t seen your script – but if they’re talking to you on a cold call, that’s a good thing.

“Wouldn’t stop the sales pitch, even after I told him that for the most part, the services he was offering we didn’t need, but was very interested in one service.  Told him to get me info on that particular service and would sit down and talk with the owner about scheduling a meeting.” Are you banging your head on your desk right now? Me too. The salesperson was winning the call, and wasn’t capable of seeing it. She didn’t just say “interested.” She said, “Very interested.” Granted, he wasn’t talking to the decision maker – but he’s the one who called. I’m betting that this was the classic “person who” call, i.e., the salesperson asked the receptionist to speak to the “person who” handled his particular service (this is another call-killer, by the way). The salesperson had her interest. He had her commitment to attempt to set a meeting with the owner of the company. This was a WIN. And he still turned it into a loss.

“At that point, he went right back in to the overall sales pitch of all the services he had to offer again, and wouldn’t shut up even when I told him this wasn’t the most convenient time to talk and for a fact am on a deadline today.  He simply wouldn’t SHUT UP!  I finally had to abruptly end the call, of which he may have thought rude, but don’t care.” Amazing. Defeat was snatched from the jaws of victory, and that’s what is frustrating to me as a salesperson. My friend might have genuinely benefited from the service he was offering, but we’ll never know because he burned the call.

What this salesperson didn’t realize is that a sales call is a dialogue, not a monologue. Worse, he failed to recognize an opportunity when he saw one – likely due to poor or nonexistent training.

Don’t be that guy. Instead, open the call right (avoid the call killers that I mentioned), and remember to make the cold call a dialogue. Cold calling is still a viable way to generate new business; I have a feeling that most salespeople who think otherwise aren’t doing it right.

Take the Second Shot!

The Navigator News,

I get a lot of inquiries and solicitations asking me what my “#1 tip” for increasing business is. This, of course, is a very complex subject that requires a lot of detail. But there is one quick tip I send along that can help people in any phase of business or even their lives. And that is:

Take the second shot.

We’ve all heard the phrase, “Persistence pays off.” Most people interpret this to mean that “persistence” means aggravating and annoying people to death until they buy to get rid of you. Many things, including fear, keep people from going down this road. However, there’s a nice medium ground, and that is what I call the “second shot.” The second shot means just that – it means trying twice to make good things happen.

The reason that I focus on a second shot, rather than a third or fourth, is that most salespeople are easily put off. While the public image of salespeople is that of the bulldog that never lets go, the truth is far from it; most salespeople are perfectly willing to take the first “no” rather than battle a bit for the win. That’s a shame, because a lot of business and opportunity lies beyond the first “no.” Let’s look at this in context.

The context will be the teleprospecting phone call, which as you know, I still believe is the core skill of B2B new business generation. Let’s imagine a call from a salesperson selling copiers:

Salesperson: “Hi, Mr. Prospect, this is Salesperson from Pretty Darn Awesome Copier Company. Our manufacturer has just released some new technology that can drastically reduce your per-page cost while actually increasing the quality of your paper documents. Could we meet next week, and see if there is a fit between your company’s needs and this new technology?” (NOTE – this is an imperfect call – there’s a step missing – but it’s typical of a decent teleprospecting call.)

Prospect: “Sorry, I’m not interested.” Now, about half the time that a customer says this, they’ll hang up on you. No second-shot opportunity exists on those calls. But, half the time, they’ll hang on and wait for the salesperson to say something weak like, “Uh, thanks anyway.” If you say that, you’re done. Instead, let’s take the second shot.

Salesperson: “I don’t blame you for not being interested. I’ve sold a number of these machines already, and I’ve found that the customers didn’t really have any interest until they understood what these machines could do, how they could reduce expenses and at the same time build your customer image through better documents. Would it be worth, say, 20 minutes of your time to at least know what those customers now know? If there’s a fit, I’ll tell you, and if there isn’t a fit, I’ll even tell you that. Fair enough?” Second shot taken. You’ve now given the prospect a better window into why he/she should take the appointment, and perhaps even aroused a bit of curiosity. Here’s the thing – whatever your chance is of getting the appointment on the second shot, it’s better than the zero you’d have if you bailed out at the first ‘no.’ A good rule of thumb is that whatever your ratio of contacts-to-appointments (let’s say you get 1 appointment in every 5 contacts normally), you’ll increase that 20 to 30% with a good second shot effort.

Of course, even though this sounds good, it doesn’t come for free. You have to have a game plan. You need to anticipate common objections, have responses ready, and be very focused on the conversation. That requires a lot of thought and preplanning, and it also requires a focus on generating an appointment, not a sale.

This technique doesn’t limit itself to cold calls, either. Final objections, job hunting, getting a raise, getting a date – all of these can be improved by focusing on the second shot. Just keep in mind these steps:

  1. Be prepared. Know the objections and the common responses.
  2. Create a “win” for the other party by accepting your second shot.
  3. Take extra shots with great care. Two makes you persistent, more can make you a pest, depending on the situation (the farther into the sales process you are, the more persistent you should be).
  4. Finally, remember that there are some objections that cannot, and should not, be overcome. Use good judgment, and don’t sell bad business.

Most non-salespeople reading this article would think that it’s completely unnecessary; salespeople always do this, right? Nonsense – most salespeople are easily put off, because they fear pushing farther. Don’t be that guy or gal, and you’ll be more successful.

Five Common Sales Call Killers That You Should Avoid

Sales Blog, The Navigator News, ,

Have you ever committed sales suicide by one of these five common sales call killers?  Chances are that you have, and you might not even know it.

Salespeople have a lot of tactics and techniques that turn out to be both time-wasters and contact-breakers.  Many times, when I ask them what they’re doing, they tell me that they’re “trying to make the prospect comfortable.”  That might be true, but usually, the truth is that they are trying to make THEMSELVES comfortable.  If you do some of these things, you might take the time to ask yourself why – and who it is you’re trying to comfort? Here are five common sales call killers that you should avoid – and many salespeople do them every day.

“Hi, Mr. Prospect.  How are you today?”  This is the all-time time waster, and is the death of more potentially great sales conversations than any other phrase.  It’s also the most common, and in my training, I warn against it.  When this is used in a cold-prospecting environment by a salesperson who doesn’t know the prospect, it’s a virtual announcement to the prospect that the caller is a pesky salesperson who is incapable of making the most of his or her time on the phone.  The reaction by the prospect is always the same:  “Uh, fine.  Who is this?” or some variation on the theme.  But what has happened with that simple little phrase is that the prospect, whom you really want to approach your call with an open mind, has now geared up his or her defenses and is prepared to resist.  That’s pretty much the opposite of what you want to happen.  The truth is that “how are you today” is a bridge to a conversation built by a salesperson who is uncomfortable with his or her message, and is stalling before delivering it.  Don’t be that guy (or gal).  Get comfortable with your message, and dump that question.

“Is this a good time for me to call?”  Here’s the truth – when you’re calling a decision maker, it’s hardly ever a great time to call.  Therefore, the best thing you can do is be as respectful as possible of their time by being impactful and communicating value.  But asking that question creates a great opportunity for the prospect to dump you off the phone, never to hear from you again.  Again, this is delivered by salespeople uncomfortable with their own message.  Instead, go ahead and make a GOOD approach statement.  If it’s REALLY a bad time, your prospect will tell you.

“Fish on the Wall” selling.  Everybody knows what this is, right?  That’s the salesperson who enters a prospect’s office, sees a fish mounted on the wall, says, “Did you catch that fish?  Hey, I fish too!” and then spends an inordinate amount of time talking about fishing – or whatever personal interest they observe.  It’s not a great practice when the salesperson really IS an enthusiast, but it becomes downright pathetic when the salesperson isn’t.  Example – my favorite sport happens to be auto racing, and it’s not a casual pursuit.  I’ve done everything in it, up to and including owning and driving my own race cars.  When a salesperson enters my office and tries to build fake rapport with an obviously solicitous discussion of racing, it works against his desire to make a sale.  Why?  Because it’s phony.  You didn’t enter that office to talk racing (or fishing, or whatever) – you entered to attempt to make a sale.  Whether you’re working on selling or not, the clock is ticking.

“Just.”  This is a word that salespeople use to take the edge off their communications.  For example, “I was ‘just’ calling to follow up…” etc.  The problem with this is that the word “just” diminishes the importance of whatever follows, by definition.  And if what you’re doing/saying isn’t important to you, why should it be important to the customer?  If selling is important to you, the truth is that you don’t “just” do anything.  You do it.  Eliminate the “just calling” stuff from your communications, and you’ll have more impact.

“I’m seeing if you have any questions.”  This is a great one, usually used after a salesperson has delivered a proposal.  “I’m calling to see if you have any questions about my proposal” really means “I’d like to have the business,” but the salesperson doesn’t have the guts to ask for it.  Guess what – if your prospect has questions, they’re probably smart enough to call you and ask.  So why are you trying to diminish the importance of the act of asking for business?  The truth is that you have fear, and you need to let it go.

All of these communications habits have something in common – a salesperson who is uncomfortable with the role and task of selling.  If you’re using them, take a deep look inside yourself and ask why.  You might be startled at what you find out.  There’s nothing unimportant about the act of selling, and you shouldn’t diminish the importance of your job with comments like the five common sales call killers above.