4 rules for keeping prospects on the line: why ‘respecting their time’ will cost you sales
Posted by Geoff Alexander on Mon, Apr 11, 2011 @ 10:02 AM
I’m not a believer in asking permission when calling people. In our inside sales training classes, I train people to avoid beginning the call with “is this a good (or bad) time to talk.” It’s never a good time to talk if you have nothing to say. It’s a great time to talk if you do. That’s why you have to have a clear call objective (e.g. ‘I’m going to fully qualify --- or disqualify’ --- this prospect) before the call ends.
Many reps have been trained (but not by us) to begin calls by asking if it’s a good time to talk, and justify it by saying “I want to respect their time.” Much of the time, the prospect responds that he or she is busy, so a callback is scheduled, and of course, when the call is rescheduled for a later date, the prospect isn’t there. So let’s look at the concept of “respecting their time.”
When I’m called, I’m always interrupted. I’m a busy guy. What I want the rep to do is quickly tell me why he or she is calling, so I can find out if it’s something that interests me. So just go ahead and get it out, quickly. I’m in my office, I’ve been interrupted, so if you’ll just go ahead and get it out (in ten seconds or fewer), you’ll respect my time a whole lot more if you don’t ask permission or even worse, ask me how my day is going.
I believe in calling high. 100% of the executives to whom you speak will be just as busy as I am. One theory I teach is you’ve got 5 seconds to get to your point, then, if the exec is interested, you’ve got another 30 seconds or so to be compelling enough for the exec to want to continue the conversation. So here are 4 rules for keeping your conversation moving forward from the start of the call:
1) Don’t make it easy for the prospect to drop your call by inviting him or her out of it. It’s hard enough to find your prospect at the phone, and taking your call.
2) Have a firm call objective, and begin your call by telling the prospect who you are, why you’re calling, and what you want. All prospects are busy.
3) Don’t be overly defferential. If the prospect has to terminate the call or is having a rotten day, let the prospect take the lead, and don’t invite it.
4) If you do have to prematurely terminate the call, end it by asking if there’s some real interest there. If there isn’t, you probably don’t have a real good reason to call back, and the prospect won’t have a real reason to talk to you again.
I’ve coached inside sales reps on literally thousands of calls, and the best of them have solid objectives, and manage to fully qualify or disqualify a prospect on the first call. The reps that struggle the most are those that have fuzzy call objectives and leave a call prematurely without determining if the prospect has an interest in the solution the rep is representing.
So have a “take charge” attitude, act like a peer of your prospect, and ensure there’s some interest before you determine what your next step will be. And apply those 4 rules for keeping the call moving forward to your Best Practices Playbook.