section 6 the phone is your best seller

 Follow up calls.

  

Now we are moving from prospecting to 'selling'.

Action step 7. Questions

As much as you possibly can, imagine yourself as one of your customers. What problems are you facing and what solutions do you want? 

What solutions do your products or services provide to your potential customers.

Now, completely forget about your product or service and write down as many open questions as you can about your customers circumstances and problems.

Find some kind of voice recorder such as an MP3 player or mobile phone. Practise  asking open questions until they sound natural and you are happy with them - and can remember them when you do it live.

 

Use of grammar and politeness in conversation…

 

When were were at school we learned the rules of grammar. In English we are not supposed to start sentences with the word AND. In real life starting a question with the word ‘And’ can be very effective at softening the impact and challenge of a question.

 

Almost every sales course and book about selling will tell you to sound confident and to take the lead etc. This is not so in real life. Real life conversations are polite and we consider other people’s feelings. In real life conversations we hesitate, we probe, we act with sensitivity and we care about the other person. We try not to upset the other person by being too pushy or too personal.

 

Selling, when done really well is conversational and this means considerate. We can and should be hesitant, careful and probe rather than push. When we feel resistance we back off with an apology, just like we do with friends and family.

 

“And errm, when did you start to notice this?”

“And errm, how does this affect your xyz?”

“And errm, what sort of things are you, sort of, looking at/thinking about/discussing about it?”

 

A case study in confidence.

 

I was recently at a party in a big beautiful house owned by a successful business person who started out life in bombed out inner city London at the start of the Second World War. 

I noticed that when some people left the party the host would literally scoop them back in. Literally he put his arm round them as they tried to leave and scooped them back in and steered them to other people and got them into whatever conversation was going on at the time.

 

He didn’t do this to everyone, and I am flattered that when I tried to leave he put his arm round me before I got to the door and said, “You can’t leave yet.” And he scooped me round. I had to leave so I carried on round until I was facing the door again, apologised and told him I had to go.

 

The point I would like to make is that his confidence was not brash or forced or in any way aggressive. I think only a small number of people have this natural self confidence. Most of us have to try, but self confidence is not aggressive or forceful. It is relaxed and open; polite and easy.

The second call.

 

If the prospect doesn't respond fairly quickly, say within two weeks it would be fair to assume they are not ready at this stage. When potential customers are ready to buy they respond quickly. They also tell you that they are interested.

 

So in reality the second call is just to verify that they are not ready to discuss a purchase at this time.

 

Information will have been sent and the prospect will have had chance to assess it but if you ask about it they almost always give a negative response. The best way round this is to refer to the information in passing and then ask a question about something else.

 

A skill in prospecting is to leave the first conversation as open as possible. In this way the second call can begin where the first call left off. The most likely outcome will be that the prospect will tell you that s/he is not ready yet in one way or another.

 

It would be reasonable to ask for a time scale at this stage and if the prospect knows this and is interested in your products s/he will tell you. However it is more likely that they don't know the time scale and so they will say the first thing that comes into their mind. In effect they will tell you a lie as a way to fob you off. You can't do anything else but to accept this and at the same time realise that a barrier has been raised against future conversations.

 

The best policy when calling back is to accept that they are not interested and to verify this as quickly and as easily as possible so that when they are ready they you will be on their list of people to contact.

 

 

But… we still keep to the same low key, conversational approach and we work at the buyers speed and this is usually slower than we would prefer and is almost always slower than our sales manager wants. Contrary to everything you have read and heard about selling - we put the buyer in control.

 

If we do succeed in pushing a buyer into a decision before they are ready all we will get is a difficult customer who will be actively looking for faults, to get out of paying and for another supplier.

  

Questions are the keys that unlock sales

 

   

When to make a follow up call.

 

Don't be in too much of a hurry.

 

Try to get them to call you back with informative emails but don't over do it.

 

Let your intuition guide you.

 

The level of interest shown on the first call will be a guide. You might call back the next day or you might leave it a month or even longer.

   

Always have an objective in mind that the buyer will (or should) find acceptable. Keep this objective in mind as a picture if you can before you make the call.

 

Make a picture in your mind of the outcome of the call as if it has actually happened before you make the call.

  

 

The follow up call

 

This is the most important skill you can ever learn in selling.

 

All successful sales people; in fact all successful people have this skill. Some people seem to have it inbuilt or perhaps they learned it at posh schools or from successful parents. They probably didn't learn it at a university. It is an easy skill to learn and it is useful in many different situations.

 

Refer to the prospecting information you sent in passing only and then ask an open no risk question.

 

This is done in just one quick sentence and it needs to be low key and innocuous.

 

At meetings or in social situations make a quick reference to the last time you met and ask an easy question all in one sentence.

 

“Hi Bill its Graham from xyz I sent you some information the other day and I just wondered if you fit locks to all the cabinets you make?

 

Now, stop reading.

Get some blank paper.

On the top write,

 

"Hello (name of person) it's (your name) from (your company) I sent you some information the other day and…

 

Write a list of low key, easy to answer questions that are relevant to the conversation.

 

Only you can do this because each situation is different and it needs to be natural.

 

When you have a list of as many questions that you can think of practise them. Use a recording device and record yourself mentioning the last meeting and asking a low key question.

 

The secret of success in this most important aspect of selling is to be low key, relaxed and completely non-threatening. This is very much a 'soft sell', in fact a better word is a caring approach.

 

Both you and the buyer have a hurdle to jump. You don't know each other and before any sales activity can be completed you have to get to know each other and more importantly the buyer has to trust you. This can't happen unless you start a conversation and this is how to do it so practise it now.

 

It can also be argued that you are going under the other person's defences, and perhaps you are, so you need a professional approach. This is the skill that forms the basis of 'being able to sell anything to anyone'. Some 'super salespeople' seem to be able to do this and it is the key to their success. So effective is this skill that it has to go with a warning to be professional at all times.

 

Develop this skill and you will become so effective as a salesperson that you will never have to worry about poor results. Selling will seem to come naturally but remember it is not professional to sell somebody something they don't want and particularly it is not professional to sell somebody something they can't afford.

 

The next step is to maintain a conversation.

 

The more talking the other person does the better. People feel they know us better when we know a lot about them. It's a paradox but it is true.

 

Develop a questionnaire that starts from open and easy to answer questions and moves towards more specific questions. Write a list of any question that you think is relevant and then edit the list to give you a smaller list of key questions that are relevant to the person you are talking to.

 

Remember that what is relevant to another person may not be relevant to you although in business conversations there is a lot of mutual ground. When you are thinking about questions to ask a potential customer the whole frame of reference should be from their perspective.

  

Building rapport.

 

Getting past the first date

 

Have you ever been on a first date with someone and at the end of it the other person has politely told you they don't want to see you again? It happens more than people realise and is probably due to nerves, anxiety and an enthusiasm to impress. All this makes us talk about ourselves most of the time constantly blurting out the best about us and boring the other person senseless.

 

If we took a course of training in how to succeed on first dates we would learn the following guidelines.

 

·       Ask open questions and encourage the other person to talk.

·       Listen to what they say with interest.

·       Act a little bit like them and mimic them a little bit.

·       Dress and act appropriately to the situation.

 

The measure of a good date is how little you speak in relation to how much the other person speaks.

 

The same applies to selling.

 

Conversation is the way sales are made

 

Conversation is vital in social settings and equally as important in selling.

 

Without sales you don't have:

Managing directors in their Mercs

Administrators tapping keyboards

Fitters tapping hammers

Order forms, delivery notes and most of all invoices.

 

Without selling there are no invoices and no jobs and no social life. Conversation is just as important in selling as it is in social life and the process is exactly the same.

 

The first aspect of studying selling is to understand how to start and develop conversations because as you start and develop a conversation with a prospect you start and develop agreement.

 

Selling to someone is just like getting to know them. In fact you have to get to know someone in order to sell to them.

 

We get to know other people by asking questions about their life, their history and their interests.

 

Exactly the same applies when we are selling. This applies equally to a business to business context as it does when selling to the consumer.

 

We get to know people by

 

Asking Questions.

 

  

If questions open doors, listening opens the gates…

 

It is important to listen to the answers and follow the prospect’s conversation.

 

Old schoolers try to stay in control. 

Do the opposite and hand control over to the buyer. Follow the buyers conversation and train of thought.

 

Ask questions about what s/he has just said so that you follow and develop a train of thought that the buyer is interested in.

 

A good way of doing this is called Reflecting Back

 

Repeat or paraphrase what the buyer has said to you in the form of a question.

 

"Quality locks are OK but they're only as good as the wood they are fitted into."

 

"Only as good as the wood?"

 

Speak a little bit like the other person. Pick up on their speed of speech and any inflection or mannerisms and mimic them a little bit.

Action step 8. Make a call and ask a question.

Find a potential customer you have sent information to. 

Make the call, refer to the information you sent in passing and without pausing ask a question.

Second Call Guide Sheet

 

Deciding if and when to make a second call.

 

If you are in any way unsure about making a second call - don't make it. Overcome your feeling of guilt making some prospecting calls.

 

When prospecting in a planned way all the people on the list will be called in rotation every two or three months or so. So everyone on the list will get a follow up call anyway.

 

The decision about a second call is a value judgement.

 

After making the first call and sending out information it is worth trying to stimulate a response by sending additional information.

 

It is important not to put the prospect 'on the back foot', that is try not to make them feel defensive as they will put up barriers to further discussions.

 

Whether or not to make a second call and the timing of this call is variable depending on the level of interest shown on the first call. This is a matter for the skill and judgement of the sales person.

 

If the potential customer actually requested information in a positive manner a second call can be made quite soon after the first. If the potential customer accepted an offer of more information the value of a second call is reduced and so the time scale should be longer.

 

1.   Have an objective in mind.

This could be an agreement to see a field sales rep, more specific information, an opportunity to quote, to be put on the list of companies from whom the prospects gets quotes. If the first call has gone well, if the first call has 'run on' into significant discussions or if the prospect has called you back of their own accord they might place an order.

 

2.   Introduction and bypass question.

If we ask the prospect about the information we have sent them they will almost always say they haven't looked at it or haven't received it. Bearing in mind the fact that they won't read the information in any depth anyway. The way to proceed is to refer to the information in passing and then ask a question about something else.

Eg "Hi Jack it's Jill from acme threads we had a quick chat a couple of weeks ago and I was just wondering if you ever sell spare parts for your equipment in France?"……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

The bypass question is almost always about the prospects company and not about what you are offering them.

 

3.   A brief questionnaire

Prepare in advance a series of questions starting from general questions and becoming more specific.

1…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

2…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

3…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

 

Ask for the objective.

"It sounds like it might be an idea if one of our reps came to see you, would this be OK?

 

 

Twenty useful questions in business conversations.

 

Adapt these general questions to your business and your own style.

 

1.    What are you trying to achieve?

2.    What problems have you got?

3.    What are your plans?

4.    Who else is involved?             

5.    What are you using now?

6.    What would you like to change?

7.    What would make you change?

8.    What do you prefer?

9.    How do you know this?

10.   Is there anything else?

11.   What is the budget?

12.   What alternatives are there?

13.    How do people benefit?

14.    How can I help?

15.    Is there anything else I can do?

16.    What's the next step?

17.    What is the timescale?

18.    When do you want to start?

19.     When do you want delivery?

20.     When should we meet up again?    

Make a list of open questions that apply to you and your customers

Jot down notes and ideas

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Questions I use when prospecting that I call the T5Q (top 5 questions)

 

1.     Could we have a short business discussion?

 

2.     Is there possibility that you might need .... (use your products or services)

 

3.     What issues are you facing?

 

4.     What alternatives have you got in mind?

 

5.     How should we make an approach as potential suppliers to you?