Cold Calling | Penoyer Communications - Telephone Sales Training

Why Are They Bashing Elevator Pitches?

Prospecting, unique sales proposition 4 Responses »

Jan 232011

This post is the by product of a discussion on LinkedIn. I give the reference latter in the post for those wishing to read this interesting conversation.

I have to say I totally disagree with all this bashing of “elevator pitches.” Please keep in mind this is my two cents and personal opinion. I respect all that has been stated on this subject though I may not agree.

The basis for bashing is not based in fact, but in a mystic that has been created by hype about how terrible these pitches are.

A true elevator pitch is simply a statement used in prospecting of what someone does. It could be as simple as “I help shoe companies increase their distribution.”

Now I ask you how is that in any way “phony” or “pitching?” Are you telling me that you are not going to reveal what it is you do to the person you’re talking with? Of course you are.

Great elevator pitches are not so simple but use what is known as a “unique selling proposition. (USP)” I feel obligated to define this term as few really know what it means.

A USP is a unique statement of the benefit one can provide. It is a statement with the purpose of engaging the prospect by making them feel they’d be crazy to buy from anyone else regardless of price. It must be free of platitudes and statements of things that the prospect would expect (We fix it right the first time), and it cannot be something your competitor could say. Otherwise it’s not a USP. (For those interested

I highly recommend Richard Hershaw’s book Monopolize Your Marketplace as a reference on this subject and how to create a powerful and compelling description of your business.

Example

I help shoe companies improve their distribution and our benchmarks show that companies that use our program get an average of 15-19 percent increase in distribution over the first two quarters — 8% above any other program tested.

This is a USP and a powerful elevator pitch. What shoe company executive is going to ignore the fact that the average result is 15+% increase and 8% better than the competition? Few! They are going to engage you.

There is nothing pitchy about this statement which is likely to do more for opening a dialog than the so called “meaningful conversations” — which in all discussions such as this are NEVER defined.

I would also disagree that what you say before or after the elevator pitch is more important. If you are giving such a pitch, your are in fact trying to engage the prospect. The best and most powerful way to engage a prospect is to show that you can provide value — NOT say you can provide it — show it. If you are unsuccessful you won’t get to say anymore! What do you think is more important than engaging the prospect?

The statistics above do exactly that. I think the example you gave (See the LnkedIn Question: “Let’s be honest about elevator speeches! for the example I refer to. It is in the clarification to the question in paragraph 3) fails to provide evidence of a benefit beyond your say so. Except for the trademarked name of the product every one of your competitors could use the same statement. I don’t think that statement differentiates you from anyone else. The statement above certainly does.

Besides your name and hello this would be the first thing out of your mouth and the basis for any continued conversation or a return call if left as a message.

We don’t need to move from pitching people, we need to move from doing it badly!!

I would obviously agree that having a referral is an advantage. But only if the referral has talked to the prospect about me. Otherwise it won’t carry much weight until you establish value. And even in that case all that I have suggested is still valid.

I would add as a footnote this is one of the biggest problems in selling. People are not skilled. Most sales people have never pursued the definition and study of USPs, or studied communication skills, or even read the major works on selling.

It is not the selling or sales theory that is bad — its the lack of real skills by the users.

Inbound Calls Are MORE difficult than Outbound Calls.

Cold Calling, Telephone selling 2 Responses »

Sep 032009

I know many salespeople are going to read that title and think I am absolutely crazy, and maybe I am. However it’s been my experience in two plus decades of consulting to inside sales groups that inbound calls are more frequently botched than cold calls generally perceived to be more difficult.

The primary reason inbound calls tend to be more difficult is that the prospect starts with control of the call and typically salespeople don’t know how to gain control of the call.

I submit to you that you must control the call if you are to have an “effective” sales presentation and process. Otherwise, you simply don’t get to tell your story and frequently don’t obtain the critical information you need about the prospect.

When a prospect calls in they usually have a bunch of questions which be begin to rapid fire at the salesperson. Once the salesperson begins to answer it becomes a freight train he or she cannot stop. Prospects fire question after question and then say they need to think about all of this information and will call back when ready.

The second thing that happens is that many salespeople are not competent questioners. If you listen to the tapes of telephone sales calls you will find that salespeople ask very few questions. This weakness tends to compound the difficulty of gaining control of the sales process on an inbound call.

Summary: The correct way to think about any sales call.

Remember that it makes no difference who dials the phone. On and inbound call you are still talking to someone you know nothing about. You don’t know if they are the decision maker, or have a clue about their environment and how your product or service might fit in.

On every call you need to take the process from the beginning. Thus on the inbound call you must tactfully gain control of the call and the direction it takes. Doing so on an inbound call will give far better results.

A Little Secret for Avoiding Phone Tag

Cold Calling, Telephone selling, Time management 1 Response »

Aug 312009

One of the worst parts about telephone sales is that because it’s not a physical appointment you are much more likely to get stood up. If you were showing up in the prospect’s office they would be forced to keep the appointment solid where in telephone selling you have much less control.

Let me share with you a simple little technique that I have found that makes a difference in how often you get stood up or end up in a phone tag.

Make an appointment.

Most telephone sales people do set up a time to call back. What they don’t do is start that conversation by asking the prospect to get out their calendar and put the appointment down for a specific time and allocation of time for the meeting.

When you make the appointment make the case that you don’t want to be playing phone tag with them wasting both your time and theirs. Ask if they would get their appointment book out and log the meeting allowing for X number of minutes so that you have time to complete the task at hand.

It doesn’t hurt to send an email on the morning of the appointment as a reminder as well.

I think it’s the part about making a deal out of it that helps. It’s doesn’t seem like a big deal, but it seems to save some missed meetings. Give it a try.

The Keys to Leaving Voice Mail Messages

closing, Prospecting, Telephone selling 1 Response »

Aug 162009

The first and most important part of a voice mail message is the unique selling proposition (USP). If you don’t have a very powerful USP you won’t get people to call you back. Click Here for the post discussing USPs.

There are two approaches to leaving messages. I will discuss the standard method, for a powerful alternative method see Daniel Parinello’s book “Selling to VITO.” Thought this is written and aimed at CEOs you can successfully adapt his method for just about any call.

The Standard Method

From the research and testing I’ve done on this subject, short concise messages do the best. Give your name, your company and your phone number followed by your USP, and conclude by giving the phone number a second time. You may also add at the end a reference to when you’ll try back. Remember to say the phone number slowly each time so that it can be easily understood and the person has plenty of time to write it down. Making it difficult for the person to call you back is not going to help you.

There are some who say it’s better not to leave a message. Not leaving messages can be dangerous if you are calling repeatedly to try to catch the person.

The problem is that your number and name come up in the caller ID and the decision-maker knows who you are. Decision-makers are very busy and don’t like to take calls unless they know who’s calling and what it’s about. If you call many times and don’t leave a message you become potentially a pest as you haven’t given the decision-maker the information he or she needs to make a decision on answering or returning your call. This will annoy many people so you want to avoid doing it.

Timing is everything. If you hit the decision maker at the right time with a good USP you will get a returned call. Sometimes if your message is strong enough you will get on the plate even thought your solution wasn’t currently top priority.

I recommend leaving a second message with a different USP a couple of calls later. After 3-5 tries in the course of a couple of weeks I would stretch out the next call to a couple of weeks and then reschedule for the future. You don’t want to be a pest, but you do want to be persistent – sometimes people are just busy.

From Flyn

If you haven’t seen my free inside sales management call coming 8/21, click the events page at the upper right corner of the page.

Cold Calling Quantity Versus Quality

Cold Calling, Telephone sales training, Time management 6 Responses »

Aug 142009

There has been a rather heated discussion in one of the groups re this very subject that was generated by the question “How many calls can you do per day?” So I thought I would write something on the subject.

First and foremost you must understand that these things are not mutually exclusive. You can significantly increase both quality and quantity of calls at the same time.

The motivation for this article is that it has been my experience in working with inside groups or even field sales people that make calls. I have found that they’re usually quite inefficient and thus don’t make near as many calls as they could in the same period of time and without degrading the quality of their effort.

Call Quantity

It is stupid obvious that if you make more calls (assuming you don’t change the quality) you will reach more people and make more sales. Most people don’t even do 60% of what they could do because they haven’t worked out how to be really efficient and effective. Here are some ways to do that.

When you make calls, just make calls. What I mean here is that switching tasks takes tremendous amounts of time. If you are going to make calls have all the researched ready to call names in front of you and JUST make calls.

Control the calls. It is your job to control the flow and direction of the sales call and process. Don’t let prospects wander or waste your time. Make sure you efficiently gather the information and forward the sales process. If you take the time to record your calls you will probably find they run from 10-30 percent longer than necessary just do to inefficiencies in handling the call.

If you work from a CRM product fill out the record as you wait and as if you didn’t reach the person. If you plan to leave a message indicated that, or put that you didn’t reach the person. You can have all of this done before the call completes and thus move much more quickly to the next call. If they do answer you can simply edit your notes as you chat to reflect the actual results.

If you aren’t going to leave a message for the person, hang up after the third ring. Most people will answer long before the third ring if they are going to – this will save you tons of time.

Dial one number after the next – don’t allow yourself to be distracted until it is time to break or you have completed all your calls. The average distraction will steal anywhere form 11-22 minutes from your calling time – that’s one conversation or multiple dials.

These are just a few things you can do without affecting the quality of your calls that will make a big difference in your call numbers. I hope you find them useful.

I will now move on to call quality.

Call Quality

Call quality is very important. Rushing through calls with prospect’s, especially in today’s world where it is so hard to get them on the phone in the first place, is a very bad idea.

Here are some key things you can do that will improve call quality.

Have a documented sales process or presentation.

NO, I am not telling you to read a script even though this is workable if you know what you’re doing and have the delivery skills.

What I am saying is that you need a very clearly and well thought out sales process. It is my contention that not having such a document is the equivalent of saying this process has not be well thought out. It’s like goal setting – if you don’t write them down, they aren’t goals but wishes.

Develop a powerful unique selling proposition (USP)

For insight on just what a USP is all about read this post (opens in a new window)

The point is that call quality is improved when you have a strong USP – you engage more people and the people you engage will be more interested in what you have to say.

Make sure you’re doing the basics well.

I spent 23 years consulting to the high tech industry in telephone sales and management and it is frightening how many simple errors people make. Here are some of the most common.

Starting to sell before rapport is developed

Starting to sell before the person you’re speaking with has be qualified

Speaking in a casual voice

Not answering specifically the question or comment made by the prospect (changing subjects) without addressing the fact you are doing so

These are just a couple of the most obvious things you can do.

One final note, regular training is the absolute key to producing high quality calls. For those of you responsible for or managing insides sales organizations I am putting on a free conference call next week on driving high performance in inside groups – Click Here (Opens in a new widow) for details.