Introduction to Sales - Part 4: The Sales Call

A friend of mine is starting a commission only sales job and he asked me to help him with getting started. So I thought I would share my insights to him and ask for any feedback from the people out there. This series of posts will focus on an introduction to selling and how to get started from a zero base with no previous experience.

So it's time to make your first call. If it's literally the first sales call you've ever made you are going to be nervous. The two things you need to keep in mind are 1) Just do it, and 2) Keep up the momentum.

By "Just do it" I mean that without thinking you pick up the phone and you dial the number and just clear your mind till the person answers. It's a bit like throwing yourself in the deep end.

By "Keep up the momentum" I mean don't stop at 1 call, or 5 calls or 10 calls. Just keep calling one straight after the other until you have no one left on the list you were given or developed during your research. Depending on the size of your market your research phase should give you up to 100 companies to call.

If your market is particularly small and there's only a few dozen then you need to really make sure each call is effective and I would suggest tapping your network to get an introduction so that it's a 'warm' call rather than a 'cold' call.

So how do you start? The conversation should flow fairly naturally and you should try solicit help from the first person you speak to. Try "Hi [Repeat Their Name], I'm hoping you can help me with something, would you be able to tell me who looks after XYZ" or "Hi [Name], would you be able to tell me who the XYZ Manager is at ABC Company?".

Here is a simple flowchart for getting a hold of the right person:

Now it's time to start selling. I recently did a LinkedIn poll which prompted a discussion about the best way to start a sales call. The general consensus was not to waste time with platitudes such as asking how they are. This is a good time to consider your "elevator pitch" from previous sessions and it should include a direct value proposition - How will your product or service help the prospect a) Make Money, b) Save Money, c) Stay Competitive, d) Remain up-to-date with legislation or emerging technologies, e) increase efficiency, f) network with similar people, g) any other major benefit of the product.

Ultimately all other benefits link into a) Make Money or b) Save Money but will need to be tweaked depending on which decision maker you are speaking to (see Part 3 - Research).

Open the call by introducing yourself - "This is Joe Blogs from XYZ". The next thing you say will depend very much on your market and you may vary it depending on who you speak to and their tone but here are potential things to follow up with:

• "I Appreciate you are very busy, so I will only take a moment of your time."
• "Have I called at a good time?" (This can come AFTER your value proposition if you can explain it in less than 5 seconds)
• "We haven't spoken before" (this let's them know that they don't have to pretend to know you"

Immediately after this you have 3 options:

• "At XYZ we provide a Super Named Product that can save your company up to 30% on administration costs." (Then pause and wait for them to ask "What is it?", "How does it work?" or "tell me about it". Sometimes they'll just say "OK" and you'll have to go on selling.)
• "Would it be alright if I asked you 3 questions to determine if my product can help increase revenue by 5%?" (assuming they say yes ask your 3 qualifying questions)
• "Would you be interested in finding out about a product that can could reduce your maintenance costs by $1M over 5 years?"

From here you want to get into a brief conversation with the client about how it works. E.g. "Our lightbulbs use innovative technology to reduce your energy bill by half each month". This is where your elevator pitch comes in.

After you've told them about the product and briefly how it works you need to close. If you're a telesales person you need to close on sending them information they can look at while you explain the product in more detail (hoping to get them to fill out an order form while you're on the phone). If you're a BDM you want the person to agree to meet with you so that you can show them how your product will achieve the benefit their looking for.

Read Part 3 (Research)