“Hello. Am I looking for Sharon Morgen?”
“Sharon DREW Morgen”.
“What? Sharon Morgen?”
“No. Sharon DREW”
“Um. Hi. Are you Mrs. Drew?”
“Miss Morgen.” That’s me. Is it a sales call?
“Um. Hi. No. I’m with XYZ bank and I’m giving you a service call.”
“About what? I don’t do business with you. And you’re not supposed to telemarketing me. So what kind of service are you offering for free?”
“Well, it’s not free. But we think you would like to see our new banking services.”
“Ah. So it’s a sales call.”
“We are not allowed to say that.”
This call really happened.
Years ago I lost a large chunk of business because I advocated telling potential customers, “This is a sales call.” For some reason, the sales manager was appalled that I announced that it was a sales call. Who would the prospects you are talking to think of? His wife? His mother? A relative? A friend? I am a stranger, obviously. And why would I call them? Could it be me from your child’s school, announcing a problem? Or the neighborhood, with a report of a house on fire? How about a person at the dry cleaners telling you that he had lost his new suit?
What’s wrong with telling potential customers that you are making a sales call? They will guess anyway when they don’t recognize your voice. It will also be obvious because your opening remarks will likely sound awkward, like a stranger calling another stranger.
But it does not have to be like that.
NO NAME, NO TIME
Let’s start with the name game. Dale Carnegie used to recommend that salespeople repeat the potential customer’s name because he thought people loved hearing their own name. Either because the 1937 phone systems weren’t that great, or because that was a commonly accepted belief, that is no longer the case. When we really know someone, we rarely use their name. Privacy means never having to say someone’s name; there is only this eye contact that people have or a special way of saying ‘Hello’. It’s me. “
Of course you use people’s names, I’m being a bit of a joker here, but not repeatedly during the same conversation, and not often, when you know someone well.
When you overuse a potential customer’s name, it becomes a ploy to manipulate them into liking you so that you can fantasize that you are their friend and convince that person that you love or have a RELATIONSHIP.
But it is not true. Hearing your name repeatedly from a stranger makes prospects feel even more distant.
And what about the assumption that they’re sitting there, waiting for this call, with nothing else to do but take the call, even if it’s a bank they do business with or a charity they donate to?
What does a sales call have that focuses on the salesperson anyway? What does it do about the product? Why is it even a sale?
Why not make a sales call, even a prospect call, an aspect of your brand? A way to show your prospects that you are supporting them and your product, through a collaboration (rather than a sale)?
FEAR OF COLD CALLS
Let me go back a moment. I have trained thousands of salespeople; I can name on the one hand the number of people who have eagerly sought out cold calling (and I am one of them. I LOVE IT, what fun! What a classy way to meet people!). Why? Because sellers don’t want to impose themselves on strangers. Because you think prospects don’t have the time or the attention. Because they reject you. Because your ego says prospects should call you.
But none of that has to be true. Let’s take a look at the pieces and then proceed to understand how each can be mitigated with purchasing facilitation.
Impose yourself on strangers
When you make a call to a stranger (be it prospects or customers who have been delivered to you by a previous salesperson), they naturally don’t know who you are and you have no relationship with them. By definition you are imposing. Also, you are making a call to get something for yourself and you are actually trying to take something away from them. Either to “make them” listen to you, or to buy something from you, or to do something for you. It’s not like you’re calling to give them a million dollars – you want them to do something, like listen to you, buy from you, or make a change for you in some way. So you want something from this person.
But this person is a stranger. Why should this person give you something, unless they are already predisposed to want what you have anyway? Remember that before someone does something (different or not) they must make the decision to do it. And all decisions are based on specific and unique criteria, not information. So all the information in the world that you may have to share is irrelevant if the person doesn’t know how to decide what to do with it.
Weather
It is obvious that your potential customer is not sitting by the phone waiting for a call from you. He is doing something. Whatever it is, it’s doing something. To earn the right to use some of this person’s time, you must request it and announce why you should use their time. Asking if this is a good time to talk (not the same as saying ‘Do you have a few moments?’, The implication here is, ‘Do you have a few moments FOR ME’). It will help here.
Rejection
Why do they reject you? Because you are trying to get something from this person that YOU want to get. And they say no.
What does the ‘no’ do? Causes a stop action. There is no possibility of forward movement when you say “no”; the person who objects has the power in any relationship.
As long as you keep trying to satisfy your needs with a cold call, try to get someone to listen to what you want to say, try to get someone to buy something, even an idea, it will continue to be rejected by everyone. one of those people who don’t consciously recognize the need for what you’re pushing.
When you are lucky and receive a positive response, it will be from those who have already determined a need and then you will become a commodity. You better have a ‘good price’ for those people who take your call, because they won’t know how else to choose you once you join the ranks of similar providers.
USE PURCHASE FACILITATION TO SUPPORT MUTUAL AGREEMENT
Using Buying Facilitation as the basis for the call will not be to take anything, sell anything, push anything, or even find out something. Your job is:
Help the other person to recognize if something is missing in the category that your product can support, and if so, how to start the process of designing a solution that will fix your problem (yes, even on a cold call, you can help the prospect begin the process of a complex sale);
2. Help them discover their criteria for considering whether it is time to fill a void by doing something they haven’t done before.
It is not about you, or your product, or what you are offering. Until or unless a buyer acknowledges that what they are doing is not working, and until they are ready to do something different to fix / change the status quo, nothing they say will be heard. Remember: people do not make decisions based on information.
With purchasing facilitation, your job is to help people make the necessary decisions that will support the change they would need to go through to do something different than what they are already doing.
Use your cold calling to help people decide. And start the call by getting in touch and inviting people to collaborate with you:
Caller: “Hello. My name is Sharon Drew Morgen. This is a sales call and I am selling sales training. Is this a good time to talk?”
By using this opening, you are telling people who you are and why you are calling, telling them that you respect their time, letting them know that you are an honest person, saying exactly what you are asking for, and not mistreating their name (in some way, the name in front of you is never the correct person or is never the correct name). And, something I’ve found to be true: Unless you call from a company with a well-known brand, say your company name is unnecessary, they won’t recognize or remember you.
If the person says it is not a good time, ask if there is a better time to call back. Don’t try to throw a fast pitch, just ask if there’s a better time. If the person says they have a few minutes, say:
“I appreciate the time. And if the call takes longer than you have time to complete, we can end when it’s convenient for you and resume it at a later time.”
In this way, you are giving the person permission to have control over the call. After all, they are in control anyway. By using this opening, it is actually the first step in the Purchase Facilitation Method®, you will have already solved the time and imposition issues, and the rejection will not be about you.
And remember: make your call to help them make discoveries and make decisions. Don’t use your time to push anything. Otherwise, you are wasting a great opportunity to find a new customer and present your brand of integrity.