Have you ever made a huge commitment
to say I'm going to bang out the phones,
I'm going to make tons of dials and then you do it
and then it leads to absolutely nothing.
So, you end up just quitting and you stop doing it
and you say geez, I got to find a better way
to generate meetings.
This is a really common scenario
that I see over and over again
where as a result of using the phone incorrectly
it leads to literally zero outcomes.
So, in this video, I'm going to show you 13 phone sales tips
to land the meeting, check it out.
(upbeat music)
Number One- Warm up your calls.
There are so many people out there who are saying
geez, I'm making cold calls and it's not working,
whoa, stop making 'em cold,
(laughing)
you have so many tools now that can make your calls warm,
then you might as well make them warm.
So, that means leveraging LinkedIn connection requests
to warm up the interaction,
to send them a couple of cold emails,
to start to warm up that connection and then using the phone
as a way to follow up on your outreaches.
Even sending a letter by the US mail
is going to allow you to be much more effective
when you actually get them on the phone
because if they actually got that letter
they're going to be like, oh yeah, I saw your letter.
The fact that you're warming up your calls
is going to make them so much more effective.
Number Two- Personalize every call.
Now, this is something that I think very few reps
actually do well, I think the idea of a script
often means that we're using the same exact script
on every single prospect, but with some very basic research
and leveraging let's say LinkedIn navigator
you can personalize your calls in a way
that's going to get the prospect to say
wow, this person really knows who I am.
If you're making a call to a chief sales officer
of a fortune 500 company, it's really easy to find out
how many salespeople are in that organization
and maybe what their sales were last quarter
or what their revenues were last quarter
and if you can incorporate just those two data points
into your call, suddenly the prospect is like
wow, this person really knows more about my organization
than most salespeople who call on me.
Literally meaning that the 347 sales reps
that have led to your last quarterly sales of 5 million,
$800, just that little bit is going to allow them to say
wow, this person really knows their stuff.
So, really personalize every call as much as you can,
without going too over the top.
Number Three- Drop the sales voice.
This is a really, really big distinction,
that's so important for sales reps to do,
chances are when you're making calls
and the way you can tell this is by recording your calls,
record your calls, you can even just use your iPhone
or your phone to not record the prospect's voice
which can be illegal in some states
but just recording your own voice on your phone,
which you're going to find is chances are
you're using the sales voice, which sounds like this.
This is my normal voice, this is my sales voice,
hey George, how are you today?
So, good to hear from you,
oh, I'm so glad to connect with you.
It's that higher octave and what that means is that
sending a signal to the prospect that this is a sales call
and they're immediately going to want to run away from you
because you're using the sales voice
and you're tilting your hat immediately
that you're a sales person.
Number Four- Have your script.
You know, people always come up to me and say
"you know, I don't like to use a script
because it makes me feel scripted."
The reason that you feel scripted from your script
is because your crappier using your script
every good sale salesperson should have a script,
when they're making a prospecting call period.
You must have a script even if it's just a basic structure
but ideally you have that script.
What you have to do though
is practice your script enough times,
so, that way you can basically just do do it
with your eyes shut, that's where it starts to sound good.
You know, if you said to actors,
we're not going to have any kind of scripts
because we don't want to sound scripted,
you say that to a great actor they're like,
whoa, well then what am I going to say?
The reason am a great actor is because I can use a script
and make it sound good,
that's the whole point of having a script.
What we don't want to do is not have a script
and then meander all over the place
and kind of say whatever comes to our head,
because that's going to sound terrible.
Number Five- Know your contingencies.
Now, a contingency is basically a little way to overcome
many objections that you get in prospecting calls,
most objections that you're going to get
in your prospecting calls are very predictable
and so a contingency is just a way to overcome that,
that is basically responding to a likely response
from that prospect.
So, a contingency might be needed when
you know, you first get on the phone and they're like,
Oh, you know, I don't have any time, can you try me later?
Now, most of those people say, oh, okay,
well, when would be a good time to call you?
That's lame, that's basically just going
and just acquiescing with whatever the prospect says.
A great contingency might sound something like,
well, you know what George, sounds totally fair,
would it be okay if I took 30 seconds
told you why I called there faster?
It doesn't make sense, we could hang up fair
and they're like, okay fine.
That's a contingency because what it's done
is it's kept the call going
and it's allowed that conversation
to just go a little bit further
than what might've happened in other scenarios.
Number Six- Expect resistance.
You're making dials to people who don't know you,
so, chances are they're going to be pretty resistant
in a lot of situations, that's okay, don't be afraid of it,
don't be terrified of resistance instead just expect it.
It's not a big deal, great salespeople, great dialers
expect that resistance,
they have the contingency scripted out, so that way
you know, there's basically nothing that can happen
that's going to throw them off so much,
even if your prospect gets a little bit cranky, that's okay,
if you expect some resistance
you're going to be prepared for it.
Now, don't be fearful of the resistance,
sometimes prospects are really easy and friendly`
when you get them on the phone, but most of the time
they're going to push back and they're going to resist
because you're getting them to do something that
they don't necessarily want to do, right?
They have other things to do than talk to a salesperson,
so if you expect that resistance you're going to be
much more effective in your prospecting calls.
Number Seven- Bring some value.
I hear so many sales calls, that sounds something like
I'd love to learn more about your business
or I'd love to show you some ways
that we can help your organization be more effective
but they don't really demonstrate any value upfront
and so what we want to do in our prospecting calls
is bring some value, bring some insight,
show that you know what the hell you're talking about,
show that, you know what's going on in the industry,
show that you have some insight
into what the competitors are facing
or what they might be facing,
that's how we bring value in these prospecting calls
simply by just saying, oh, you know,
I'd love to set up a meeting to
learn more about your business or whatever,
it's like they don't want to do that,
you need to show value immediately.
Number Eight- Have a Kick-Ass CTA
and a Kick-Ass CTA is a Kick-Ass Call To Action,
you want to have a Call To Action that is better
than just let's schedule a meeting
because if your Call To Action is just to schedule a meeting
chances are your prospect
is going to be pretty resistant to the idea of that
because you haven't generated much value,
so, having a Call To Action
that isn't just scheduling a meeting,
but is think of it almost as like a carrot right?
You want to have a carrot that's is going to lure,
the prospect towards you and so a great Call To Action
might be doing something that is offering real value
like offering some kind of an audit or a report
or an assessment for them, or maybe some case studies
or something that is really going to be better
than just, hey, can we hop on a call
and let me pick your brain.
Even just demonstrating something like,
you know, I'd love to share some best practices
of what we're seeing in the industry,
even that is going to get the prospect to say
if they have those challenges, they're going to be like,
ooh okay, yeah sure,
I'd like to actually here's some best practices."
That's what a Kick-Ass Call To Action is all about.
Number Nine- Make a recommendation.
You want to make recommendations,
assuming you have had a successful call so far
this is toward the end of the call
when you're going to be trying to schedule a meeting
you want to put yourself in that situation
where now you are the consultant, you are the expert
and so you are starting to make recommendations
about next steps and so it sounds something like this,
George, can I make recommendation and they'll say,
sure, you say, why don't I have my team put together
an assessment as we discussed
of what your sales team is doing right now.
And in the meantime, we can schedule a call
for the near future where I can share
what we've discovered in that assessment
does that make makes sense?
And they'll be like, okay, sure,
and so now, because you've put it in the framing
of a recommendation and they've agreed to it now
they're much more likely to actually
show up for that meeting and commit to that meeting
and so we always want to be in a place
when our prospecting calls, we are making a recommendation
for a next step. Number 10- Get the calendar invite.
So, this is just the next part of that conversation
which is that we always want to have a calendar invite
go out on any scheduled appointment.
For some of us, we're already doing this great,
but if you're not doing this you must use calendar invites
to make sure that your prospect
is going to actually show up to that meeting
and that you get in their calendar.
So, what you want to do is on the call,
once they've agreed to the meeting,
you say, "okay, great" and you figure out a time
and you say, "okay, so what I'm going to do is,
"right now I'm going to send you a calendar invite
"for that meeting just while I have you on the phone."
I just want to make sure that that goes through
and actually get them to accept the calendar invite
while you're on the call, if possible
and so now you have a much more solid next step.
It's a super powerful way to do it and you know,
it's usually really easy to do,
plus you're going to need their email, it's very simple,
have it ready to go get the calendar invite out,
get in their calendar and that next step
is going to be much stronger.
Number 11- Be very assertive.
In most phases of selling,
being too assertive can be problematic,
but when it comes to prospecting calls
you do actually need to be more assertive
than in most phases of selling
because you really are dealing with a bucking bronco
in a lot of cases where the prospect
they're just trying to weasel out of this conversation
and so you need to be super assertive
in your prospect and calls
in order to keep that call on track.
Does that mean that every call is going to go well?
No, of course not, but a lot more calls will go well,
if you are assertive and you stick to your process.
Number 12- You are a peer.
This is a critical mindset that every top performing,
prospecting caller has to have.
You are a peer to your prospect, you're not a doormat,
you're not someone who was below your prospects
but you're at the same level,
you're looking eye to eye with them,
even though you're talking through a phone or on zoom
or whatever it is, you are a peer,
don't put your prospects up on a pedestal,
like there's some amazing, magnificent, special human being.
They're a peer talk to them like, you know them,
that doesn't mean that you're going to use things like dude
and buddy they hate that stuff,
but just talk to them like a normal human being,
talk to them like just someone else
who also puts on their pants one leg at a time,
you are a peer, think of them as an equal.
Number 13- This is the last tip and it's so important,
SW3N
and that's stands for
Some will, Some won't, So what, Next, let me repeat that,
Some will, Some won't, So what, Next.
Prospecting calls are ultimately a numbers game,
you're going to use strategies
that are going to make you more effective on those calls,
but ultimately it is a numbers game,
you have to make a lot of dials,
you have to do a lot of activity
in order to generate appointments
in order to generate those meetings
and so if a call doesn't go as you wanted it to,
if you get a prospect who's cranky and kind of mean
you've got to shake that stuff off.
You've got to laugh off those big blow ups
because at the end of the day, you can't control everything.
So, always remember SW3N,
Some will,
Some won't,
So what,
Next.
That is what we must always think about,
so there are the 13 (gentle music)
phone sales tips to land the meeting
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