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Salespeople Failing to Get Prospects to the Phone

Guest post by: Dave Kurlan

Article Overview: Why are your sales people having trouble getting to their prospects live in person to the phone?

Salespeople Failing to Get Prospects to the Phone

Dave Kurlan is a top-rated speaker, best-selling author, sales thought leader and highly regarded sales development expert.

Yesterday's article discussed the problems that occur when you leave things up to your salespeople. We also discussed some of the problems that salespeople have simply getting prospects to the phone. It isn't as simple as it should be. Here is a real example from this morning:

A salesperson from a client company wrote in with this request:

Dave,

What would your recommendation be on handling objections or stalls like this?

So I need to be incredibly rude again and cancel today. I have meetings scheduled on top of ours today that I can't miss. At this time I do not want to continue to disrespect your schedules. While I do want to learn more about [your company] I need to place this on a lower priority right now as many unexpected issues have crept up.

Let's touch base in a couple of months and see if the timing is better.

Apparently, this was the second time this prospect cancelled. The dialog between the salesperson and me follows:

ME: Why was Chris going to chat with you in the first place?

There isn’t any mention of the issue that needs to be resolved, only an opportunity to learn more about what [company] does. From [prospect’s] perspective, that’s not a priority….

Assuming that you did learn of an issue in an earlier conversation, you would simply reply, “[prospect], this isn’t about me, it’s about you. In an earlier call, you shared that you are having an issue with _______________ and we were going to discuss that problem and figure out whether we can help. Has that problem gone away?”

SALESPERSON:Ok – Advice well received. Have identified the issue and will use the coaching to respond.

ME:And the issue is?

SALESPERSON:Current system for the creation and distribution of [their competency] content is a time suck on key [competency] staff. 2 areas:

1. fielding calls from sales reps to locate most up to date version of [their competency] materials. This also results in loss of sales rep productivity

2. dealer sales channel request ability to [their competency]. Current system requires manual creation of “custom” [their competency] materials

ME: Thanks – like we talked about yesterday, these are only issues and you’ll need to uncover compelling reasons when/if you get [prospect] on the phone. That would be the impact – on the business as well as personally and professionally – of the time suck on key [competency] staff.

SALESPERSON: Ok. In this situation, the compelling reason would be this…. I think:

Without freeing up the time that her [competency] is spending on administrative tasks, she will fail to reach her two primary goals for 2011: [Goals 1 & 2 omitted]. The cost of not fixing the problem is that she does not meet those goals & revenues for new sales are impacted. Is this where I need to be or still deeper? The plan for the call was to validate that compelling reason & quantify it. Then move into demo…

ME:Still deeper…but the first step is to regain her interest and to do that you must go back to the issues she is facing and whether those issues have disappeared.

SALESPERSON:Ok… Thank you.

.......End of email thread........

This is a great example of why so many salespeople waste so much time chasing down their prospects and why prospects do such a fantastic job of avoiding these calls and emails. They don't have time to hear product pitches and demos (their perception of what will happen next), but they will make time to learn if your salespeople can solve their problems.

How are your salespeople doing with that?

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Article Tags: prospecting, sales, sales people



Related Forum Posts
How do i answer the phone? - I learned this technique from a successful businessman who earns over a million dollars a year. He just uses his name like this... Phone rings... " This is Dwayne..." It kind of throws people off who have a preplanned script and gets right into it. Phone rings... " This is Dwayne..." No Hello, no good morning/afternoon/evening Phone rings... "This is Dwayne..."
Re: Can you read body language and convert it into a sale? - I can definitely read their mood by how they speak on the phone. You can usually also tell by the way they respond to the things you are saying. Phone sales aren't as easy as when you see them in person, but I still believe their tone can tell a lot.
Re: Email Etiquette - [quote="jvprosperity":24jznj58] The P.S. suggestion is good but it depends on the type of communication (e.g. Autoresponder series verses one off emails to Clients or Prospects)[/quote:24jznj58] Andy, You are right. I was mainly referring to Auto Responder emails. To end a normal email, I attach signatures. Takuya
Simple way to avoid Cold Calling - Gary, A chiropractor I work with hates cold calling (me too!) and he uses a technique to warm people up to using his services - it's so simple! In Sales your dealing with 3 pools of people: 1. Strangers 2. Prospects 3. Returning Customers You need to move people from one pool to the next. We'll concentrate on #1 and #2 as it's most relevant to your question. My Clients does the following (you just have to tailor it to your situation - be creative). My Client (we'll call him Bob) Bob leverages his time and resources to only get people that need his offer (pain relief) to put their hand up. Dealing with Strangers can get expensive and they don't like to be told what to do as they have no trust or relationship built with him. So to get Strangers to put their hands up he writes up an offer with a free report on a particular pain relief - let's say lower back pain (note: he can simply just change lower back pain to neck pain and have a new report). and uses multiple marketing vehicles to promote the Free report - magazines, newspaper, forums, postcards, private clinics etc. The only people picking up this information are the very people Bob would like as customers as they have Lower back pain. Bob's Free report ends with him stating his services and includes a Free in-house Consultation with no obligation. You'd be surprised at how easily Bob converts Strangers into Prospects. Note: They become prospects when they ask for the Free Guide and in exchange provide their contact details. This gives Bob unlimited opportunity to contact them for the Free in-house consultation with no obligation to continue using him. At this stage Bob's ability to close the sale lies in his office providing good customer service, Bob's ability to help the prospect and provide value at the free in-house consultation. Notice, he hasn't had to pick up the phone to COLD-CALL his Stranger pool or his Prospect pool. Hope that example helps to increase your prospecting!
Re: Can you read body language and convert it into a sale? - [quote="mbrand2222":3738chdj]I can definitely read their mood by how they speak on the phone. You can usually also tell by the way they respond to the things you are saying. Phone sales aren't as easy as when you see them in person, but I still believe their tone can tell a lot.[/quote:3738chdj] Hi Mary, Would you have a specific example you could share with us on how you cab turn an unfriendly tone (from a client) into a positive one or even a sale?


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